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The other day I had a couple of extra minutes, and I spent them loitering in the toy aisles at Target, indulging one of my favorite weaknesses -- toy browsing.

Across from the toy section is the outdoor section, and I overhead a woman saying, in a jokey-dramatic way, "Ooooooooh, what I think YOOOOOOOOOU want is a baaaaasketball."

Then I heard a few people laughing.  I couldn't understand what could be so funny.  What's funny about wanting a basketball?

Being the nosy thing I am, I peeked around the corner and saw a family, a mom, a dad and two sons.  They were standing next to an end cap that was well-stocked with all different kinds of pink balls.  Tennis balls, soccer balls, volleyballs and yes, basketballs.

The dad picked up the pink tennis balls and shook them clownishly in front of his older son's face.

"Nooooooo.  What I think he REALLY wants are some teeeeeeennis balls."

Again, the hilarity.

I still didn't get it, and suddenly, I understood.  Pink.  Right.  Boys aren't supposed to like pink.

I don't have a problem with that.  If people think that pink is not masculine and they don't want to get their boys pink things, fine.  There are larger battles to wage in this life.

But what I don't like is the mockery, because, essentially, it seemed to me, the mockery wasn't of the color pink, but of femininity (a stereotypical version, but still, everybody knows that pink means girls).

I tried to imagine the reverse, where a family with daughters mocks them for wanting blue sporting equipment.  It seemed less likely, somehow.

And I also tried to imagine those boys I saw when they're all grown up, probably feeling like it's really bad to have any kind of feminine side.  Too bad.  They'll miss out on a best-kept secret: lots of chicks I know think it's rad when guys wear pink.