I have this teddy bear. I named him Big Bear when I got him because I was an extremely creative child and have developed an arguably unhealthy attachment to him. He has a few different outfit choices and I’ve bought multiple bags with the intention of traveling easier with him. One of my first tattoos was a set of hearts to match the print on his feet! I have recently gotten better about sleeping without him, but for a majority of my life if I was going somewhere, so was this bear. It’s gotten to the point that I would consider him breaking or getting lost somewhere on par with a death in the family to be so honest. I estimate that he’s been to about ten states, three other countries and on SEPTA a few more times than I’d like. So, you can imagine he’s a little bit worn.
Right before winter break, me and my girlfriend were talking about what color Big Bear is. She says he’s gray, I say that he’s pink (because he is). We ended up asking people to vote, and most people said he is, in fact, a gray teddy bear. I’m refusing to accept this answer. Before I even start, even if his fur is gray, there is still a good amount of pink on him! His nose, the hearts on the bottoms of his feet and the inside of his ears are all Barbie pink, therefore he is, undeniably, pink. His fur also very clearly has at least a pink undertone, also making him undeniably pink!
I will admit, this bear is a bit grimey so his color is definitely not what it used to be. He’s a RiteAid Valentine’s Day teddy bear, so initially he was a vibrant pastel pink, wearing a bow tie and holding a pillow and absolutely not intended to last longer than a year. In his 13 years of life he has been to countless sleepovers, a load of road trips and plane rides, a couple cruises, on Preview to Scotland, a wake and not nearly enough to a bath. I get very, very anxious about putting him in the washer and/or dryer (quite literally RIP Big Bunny), so it’s a rare occurrence. But he’s living in my bed, so is that really anyone else’s business. No! It’s not anyone else’s business! He is my teddy bear! If I want him to be pink, then he’s pink! Votes on my Snapchat private story and discourse with my friends and family won’t change the fact that when I got him 13 years ago, he was pink. He’s from fucking RiteAid of course he looks different than when I first got him! I think he’s aging pretty damn well, thank you very much. He hasn’t lost any limbs and I’ve only had to give him surgery once and he is still pink with youth.
Now, there are two schools of thought I have discovered here. The first being that I’m very silly and wrong for saying that he’s pink, the second being that he is a fucking teddy bear so it doesn’t actually matter. As for the first school of thought, I don’t see why it matters what color he actually is. I understand the emotional relation to the whole blue dress vs. white dress argument, but he’s a teddy bear. A teddy bear with a lot of personal sentiment attached to him! I, personally, land in the second (as does my girlfriend as she indulges me in my delusions). I don’t care what color theory or eyedropper tools or swatches or color codes have to say this goddamn bear is pink and I’m dying on that hill.
