When I worked computer support, I was the only female technician in either the helpdesk or desktop support group, roughly about 20 people. Sometimes one of the guys would borrow a tool of mine and forget to return it. I was constantly missing tools when I needed them. So I bought a set of pink tools. This did 2 things- prevented guys less secure in their masculinity from borrowing my things, and made it easy for me to locate my forgotten tools… surprisingly, I was the only person on the team to have pink tools.

I have a very ironic love of pink. I own a pink mouse, a pink mousepad, and a pink webcam that I got in the little kid section of a store… computer things made for little girls. Because girls will have no interest in computer things if they’re not covered in pink.

For ME?!?!?!?

And it’s not just for little girls. A European company has developed a computer just for women, with the very unfortunate name ePad Femme. Usually when I go to the store for Feminine pads, I’m not thinking computers.

The ePad comes with several feminine applications (again, other associations) such as yoga, grocery lists, and a clothing conversion app. Because math is hard and lets go shopping!

And yes, it comes in pink. And yes, I want one. Ironically.

This whole feminine pink thing is a surprisingly recent development. Before WWI, blue was actually the feminine color of choice, after the Virgin Mary. And men favored red, putting boys in the “child’s version” of the color- pink. But the WWI uniforms were blue, and so blue became the new masculine color, and women defaulted to pink by the 1940’s.

A while back, I purchased an old 1980’s embroidery sewing machine from my rugged yet dapper brother-in-law. He mentioned he was getting rid of this one, and I had always wanted something to do simple embroidery stitches. But it wasn’t that which sold me on the machine.

No, the machine was marketed as “the ladies computer.” Finally- a computer just for me! It even has a sewing app!

At least it wasn’t covered in pink.