Recently we’ve seen many big, tough athletes wearing pink as they show their support (either by choice or by league policy) for cancer research. The NFL, for example, has their athletes “getting their pink on.” I think the masculine athlete is expected to degrade himself a little bit — emasculate himself a little bit — by donning pink (a traditionally feminine color) for a good cause.
But long before pink was chosen as the color of breast cancer awareness, there was a heel Tag Team who always wore pink — Bret Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart — the “Hart Foundation.” Because they were the “Harts” (sounds like “Hearts”), pink was a reference to Valentine’s Day and therefore to romantic love. But neon pink can be considered a loud, garish color, especially if contrasted with black — so pink may be the ideal color for a Tag Team that wants to be noticed — that wants to come off as loud, proud, and in-your-face. The Harts certainly waved their pink in the faces of the British Bulldogs in this particular match, frequently placing the Dynamite Kid’s face squarely in front of their crotches so pink was all he could see!
Pink is often associated with feminine or homosexual tendencies. When people want to degrade a man by implying that he is gay, you may hear them wonder if he “runs around in pink tights.” So why did these big, tough manly-men select pink as their trademark color?
The WWE has a tendency to publicly humiliate their athletes, forcing them to wear silly costumes or adopt ridiculous personalities so we can laugh at them for our entertainment. (There are countless examples.) This also allows the bosses of the WWE to flex their muscles and feel dominant by forcing other men to act like buffoons. Did the Hart Foundation enjoy wearing their pink gear, or were they forced to don pink as a form of public degradation?
By blatantly and purposefully wearing pink tights all the time, and then brutally decimating their competition, the Hart Foundation actually (ironically) made themselves seem tougher and more masculine. Real Men wear pink — only Real Men have the confidence. We can wear pink — a sissy color — and still beat your ass! Stretching that pink spandex over their thick, hyper-masculine bodies not only canceled out the feminizing power of the color, it actually made the Harts seem more bad-ass.
When a wrestler is particularly muscular and buff — like both of the British Bulldogs — the intent of the match is usually to degrade, destroy, deflate, and defeat the spectacular male. The He-Man’s punishment is intensified if inflicted by a sissy — by men wearing pink for example. This is why the destruction of Dynamite Kid being portrayed in this match is so effective and so denigrating — because it’s performed by men in pink.
The viewer could picture having a post-match conversation with the Dynamite Kid and saying: “Dude, you just lost to sissies wearing pink!?!”
