All my life I have known that blue is a boy's color and pink is a girl's color. Boys can't like pink, though girls can like blue. To parade around in something pink or to even own something pink was to somehow reduce your manhood. I never determined why this was the case. I just knew it was.
I know that little has changed since I was a kid because when I discussed this at work I found that few guys would be willing to wear a large amount of pink clothing in public. Obviously, some people still associate the color with something other than masculinity.
Truth be told, while I don't have any special fondness for the color pink, I don't understand why the color is so quickly identified as feminine. I think the only real problem I have with pink is that I psychologically associate the color with Pepto-Bismol, so it reminds me of all the times I have had nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, or diarrhea. That has nothing to do with pink being a girly color, though. The only reason I would think that men should avoid the color is that I have been told that all my life. I wouldn't come to that conclusion on my own.
It is possible that my colorblindness dulls my perception of pink, and thus changes my opinion of it. For example, Here is a before and after picture of a pink heart run through a protanopia (the type of colorblindness I have) simulator. Notice how the after picture is much more masculine than the before picture.
Before Colorblindness Simulator:
After Colorblindness Simulator:
Okay, so I'm kidding. Below are the real before and after pictures.
Before Colorblindness Simulator:
After Colorblindness Simulator:
I am left with the impression that either my colorblindness causes me to not see the inherent femininity in the color pink, or that the main reason people see pink as feminine is because they have been taught to see it that way. There is no way I'll be able to figure which is the case by myself, though, since I really can't even see the color.
3 comments:
It's too bad you can't see the color pink, especially if you have a baby girl. Little girls look so cute in pink.
But seriously, I think pink looks good on the guys who wear it. There is a twenty something guy here who wears this bright pink shirt frequently, but his personality is very off-the-wall and in-your-face. He looks good in it. My 18 year old brother in Iowa wears pink and he looks good too. He's about 6 ft something and really fit.
I think pink looks good on guys depending on their coloring, just like some people look good in black or red. I don't think my husband would look good in pink. I don't look good in it either. But nibbles looks really cute in it.
sorry about the pink socks. I think some guys can pull it off.
I have to agree with Wah-Wah. I don't think I would look good in pink. I get such a laugh when I think about my "red neck" brother-in-law driving Wah-Wah's old pink car to the prison he works in. He says that it takes a real man to drive a pink car. Of course, he wouldn't have said that before we gave him the pink car.
Post a Comment