"A... heart? [inner monologue] I feel my masculinity going... going... gone."
The idea in fiction that a male character, when wearing pink, actively manages to lose a great deal of his more masculine qualities, or is accused of being gay. This results not just in other people making snarky and rude remarks to him, but may actually result in distinct changes in his character.
Tomboys may also object to this color because it's girlish. As can women who think it's childish.
The trope is the reason Real Men Wear Pink is named so. When women are seen as sissies for wearing pink, it also fits into Real Women Don't Wear Dresses. If a man is similarly embarrassed or emasculated because he's wearing something that resembles a dress, compare Embarrassingly Dresslike Outfit.
A Sub-Trope of Pink Means Feminine. See also Pink Girl, Blue Boy. A likely result of Red Sock Ruins the Laundry. Pink Is Erotic can play into this if the color pink is used to foreshadow the act of sex or reference it but it's usually a subversion since this trope is about the color pink being mocked. Psycho Pink is an aversion since this is when pink is associated with a violent character.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Is This A Zombie?, main character (and zombie) Ayumu Aikawa accidentally steals Magical Girl Haruna's powers, which allows him to use her powers... and gets turned into a Cross Dresser in the process. Made a lot more hilarious in Season 2, where he breaks the magical weapon and is unable to erase people's memories of himself while wearing the magical girl outfit, and then it turns out that that actually made him even more popular, much to his chagrin at trying to live a normal life.
Comic Books
- In one of the many revivals of Marvel's Amazing Fantasy, Miguel The Mage has this reaction when Anya Corazón shows up to work with a pink vespa.
Comic Strips
- In Foxtrot, Paige once accidentally spilled her sparkly pink pen's ink all over Peter's trademark gray hoodie. Peter is mortified by this and spends most of the next school day wearing another hoodie over his now-sparkly pink hoodie despite the hot weather. Near the end of the day, he finally takes off the cover-up hoodie when he can't stand the heat anymore and learns that the girls actually love that a guy like him has the courage to wear pink. He gets no time to enjoy his newfound popularity with the girls, however, as Andy cleans all the pink off his hoodie the day after.
Fan Works
- In Trip Of A Lifetime, Josh hates the entire world of Equestria because of how pleasant it is. The mane six are very confused by this.
- In Turnabout Storm, Phoenix receives from Twilight Sparkle the Equestrian Attorney Badge. It's a pink heart-shaped badge, and he's not the least bit amused by it. Even Pinkie Pie, a pink pony, cracks up at him for flashing that thing around.
"Even the citizens of this place can see this thing looks embarrassingly stupid..."
- Calvin believes this Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, as he's more concerned by a man's house being painted pink than the horrible paint job.
- Inverted in A Ghost Story. Diamond Tiara tries to invoke this trope in the main character, making him wear a pink suit during his apology for scaring the living daylights out of her with the Slender Man song to make him feel miserable, but Spooky actually likes his new attire, and even burst into song to prove that he really doesn't care about the color. Which leaves Diamond Tiara mouth agape, to say at least.
- Us and Them: In "Right Lesson, Wrong Time", Aeris and Sephiroth's son Sam is trying to get to the potty in the bathroom where his older brother is taking a bath. There's another in the upstairs bathroom, but he refuses to use it because it's ugly (pink).
Films — Animation
- Wreck-It Ralph: Played for laughs when Ralph first enters the palace in Sugar Rush:
Ralph: I see you're a fan of pink.
King Candy: Salmon! Salmon, that's obviously salm... What are you doing here?
Films — Live-Action
- In Operation Petticoat, the submarine is painted pink, because what could be obtained on short notice was red paint and white paint but not enough of either.
- Reservoir Dogs: One of the gangsters objects to his new code name.
Mr. Pink: Why am I Mr. Pink?
Joe: Because you're a faggot, alright? - In the Action Prologue of Kim Possible, Professor Dementor is initially pleased with the dissolving slime weapon a Kidnapped Scientist created for him... until the stuff turns pink and sparkly, at which point he starts ranting that using it would make him a laughingstock.
Literature
- Alcatraz Series: Alctatraz Smedry complains about having to travel in a flying vehicle shaped like a pink butterfly. He says it is not masculine enough.
- In Victoria Forester's The Girl Who Could Fly, Junie Jane is not a soft girl: she hates pink.
Live-Action TV
- One Friends episode centered on Ross trying to retrieve his "Faded salmon!" shirt from his ex's place.
- Mentioned on Modern Family, "Mother's Day":
Cameron: We hate when people treat us (gay men) like women, Okay? We don't want to go to your baby shower, we don't have that time of the month, and we don't love the color pink.
Mitchell: You love pink.
Cameron: No, pink loves me. - On Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Q-Pid" Q throws the bridge crew into his recreation of Robin Hood, giving Worf the role of Will Scarlet, with a matching pink and red-hued wardrobe. Worf is not content, protesting that he is not a merry man.
- Angel. Angel has to hop on a motorbike with Wesley so they can ride off and do a Big Damn Heroes, but the only helmet available is a pink ladies helmet. Wesley shouts him down, saying they don't have time to be stopped by the police, only to quip, "Hop on, gorgeous" after Angel puts it on. Later a vampire has a good laugh at Angel's helmet, only for Angel to smack him in the face with it.
- Soap: Jodie (who is gay) has a date with a girl and as he's getting ready to go his step-father Burt complains about his shirt.
Burt: You gotta change that shirt.
Jodie: What's wrong with my shirt?
Burt: It's pink.
Jodie: It's not pink. It's shrimp. Some might call it peach.
Burt: Don't you have anything in a plaid? Or a brown, huh? A nice strong brown.
Pro Wrestling
- Early in her WWE run, Natalya Neidhart said she adopted her new ring gear because there was nothing more humbling that getting beat by someone in pink. But then she really mellowed out, yet continued to wear pink, just seemingly out of tradition.
- Hailey Hatred has a love for pink she has actively tried to suppress after learning that boys hated pink.
Roleplay
- In SOTF-TV each character is sorted into a color-coded team. Everyone on the Pink team happens to be male. Naturally, they tend to get a lot of in-universe mocking, and this hasn't gone without a Lampshade Hanging. The best example would be their mentor reminding two members to put their shirts back on, since Pink Team was being called "the gay team".
Mike Patterson: Oh, uh hello again. I forgot to ask, but um, would one of you boys mind putting on a shirt? People are calling Pink the um, well... 'Gay Team' - err, I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, um, if you are. Uh yeah, that's all. Take care.
Tabletop Games
- Player-created joke unit "Pretty Marines" from Warhammer 40,000 have a lavender paintjob and rose motifs.
- The actual pink-wearing unit (the Emperor's Children Legion) zigzag this- on the one hand, they're millenia-old hedonists who wear black-and-pink armor because clashing colors are the only things that register on their overabused senses, are as evil and murderous as any other follower of Chaos ... and are viewed as limp-wristed pansies by the red-and-brass-favoring followers of Khorne.
Video Games
- In Escape from Monkey Island, Guybrush is greatly distressed to find out that his new ship is pink. Later on, he gets to try a lava rendition of water amusement ride intended to be part of wedding rituals at an ominous cathedral dedicated to LeChuck. All of the boats that are seen passing through the boarding zone are black. Guybrush ends up getting a pink one.
- A flashback case in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations has Phoenix wear a pink sweater with a big P on chest which according to Mia doesn't stand for "Phoenix".
Web Animation
- In Red vs. Blue, when Donut gets his own colored armor — and it turns out to be pink, however much he insists it's really lightish red — this becomes the impetus for his Flanderization as the series goes on.
Webcomics
- In Strays, Meela can pose as a servant -- or wear a pink dress!
- In Squid Row, Randie does not quite love a pink Vespa.
- in Bob and George, Megaman objects to being the Pink Ranger.
- Played for Drama in Joe vs. Elan School. The titular school forces any male inmates who are flight risks to wear hot pink short shorts as a form of emasculation and humiliation.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons episode "Stark Raving Dad" has Homer freaking out because his work shirts have all turned pink, due to Bart throwing his lucky red cap into the washer while Marge wasn't looking. Marge insists that it won't be a big deal. Cut to the morning grind, where Burns and Doctor Monroe have singled Homer out for "freakish tendencies" and begin plotting for his sanity evaluation.
- Bear in mind that most of the bad things that happen to Homer in this episode are clearly his own fault: Upon being given a take-home psychiatric evaluation, Homer loafs around, trying to get other people to fill it out for him. Eventually, Bart fills it out and Homer is predictably thrown into a mental institution when he turns it in without even looking at it.
- Also, Homer's objection wasn't so much to the fact that it was pink, as that it would make him stand out. He said something to the effect of "I'm not popular enough to be different!"
