Pink to purple

 From Angelina: 

For this project two main prompts were in mind; “the tomboy phase” and the experience
of being nonbinary. I had an experience with my AFAB friends (Assigned female at birth), and it
was about how some of us had experienced a “tomboy” phase when growing up. In the center
of the photo, is an example of my style daily along with what I carried on my person from 5th to
9th grade. Noticeably, there was a noticeably big decrease in(typical)femininity. At that time, I
wanted to be referred to as “one of the dudes” because at that time, I rejected my femininity.
The Smurfette Principle talks about how there's–typically–a group of guys with a female
background character to provide; support to the cast, the voice of reason or to be a damsel.
With a female character only being the side character or damsel its consequences to young
girls, one impact is that some would start embracing their femininity; wear less pink, no skirts or
think makeup is too girly etc. The rejection of (my) femininity is symbolized with the visual
expression I added to the middle pile; I decorated it with what is stereotyped with femininity; a
frilly skirt, necklace, and a friendship bracelet. This is my own experience and my own way of
viewing my gender identity and expression for the past few years. It can be vastly different for
someone else and sometimes that “tomboy” phase is not really a phase. The drawn skirt is the
focus, when going through the tomboy phase, I still wanted to express my femininity and that is
what the doodles are, just an illustration of what I wanted at the time but what I thought (or what
the Smurfette Principle) taught: femininity is weak.

The last aspect was inspired by the story of “X: A Fabulous Child's Story,” the story–to
put it shortly– Is about how X the child is raised in a gender-neutral environment. This was not
provided for most kids of my generation so of course: the boy was blue, and the pink was a girl.
I mention this mainly because of the color choice of the illustration and outfits in the photo. The
clothes go from pink, (dark)blue to purple and to show the gender shift that I was experiencing.
The Purple from the dress is representing me as of now, it's how I would describe being non-
binary(to me),yes purple is just a mix of blue and pink but it's still its own color; being non-binary
is not what's “in the middle” or “between” the gender binary: It Is its own thing.

X: A Fabulous Child’s Story, Gould Louis, Daughters Publishing Company (1978)
I.S.B.N.
Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, The New York
Times, 7 Apr. 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html.