This thought occurred to me when I was at the gym last Sunday (yeah, I'm the kind of person who would sacrifice a Sunday for health, but hey, it's only an hour!):
Why is that when it comes to colors, blue usually represents boys and pink represents girls? And I'm not talking about....you know, regular blue and pink but that disgusting light, fuzzy blue and pink that make most people, who absolutely ADORE babies, go "awwwwwww shooooo kyuuuuute!!!"
I'm sure that some of you have wondered about that too. So I did a little research online and came upon this article.
Apparently two neuroscientists were wondering about the same thing, so they did an experiment where men and women between the ages 20-26 sat in front of a computer while two rectangles of different colors flashed on the screen. The neuroscientists divided the color spectrum into two halves, red-green and blue-yellow. The rectangles were sorted into these two categories. Then they asked the person tested to choose the rectangle they most preferred and after that, the computer would move on to another set of rectangles.
It turns out for this set of experiment that both men and women preferred blue out of the 4 basic, original colors. But then when they had to choose from mixed colors, the men really liked the idea of color blends, while the women were more leaning towards the various shades of red, like pink and lilac.
It was an interesting article but I noticed one flaw though: Those test subjects were people at the age of 20-26. Why didn't they test it on babies or little kids? According to the article, the neuroscientists suggest that the reason for the clear distinction between genders regarding color preferences are found in humanity's distant past.
Damn, I really thought they would have an answer for this. it has been bugging me for quite some time. I still remember the time when my room was painted pink and as a kid that was hoping to become the first female Indiana Jones (sadly Lara Croft beat me to it.....), I HATED IT!! Pink wasn't my favorite color, it was both red and blue!
This happened also when I was watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother. Lily, Marshall, Robin's new boyfriend, Robin and Barney were preparing to paint L & M's baby's room yellow because they didn't want to know the sex of the baby. Only when they did find out, they rush out to buy blue paint (can ya guess what the sex of the baby was? -_-;; ).
I don't think I know any parents that painted their baby's room green or purple or just plain white, instead of blue or pink. And then I'm not just talking about the light colors...Really what's wrong with the regular base color? It's not like the baby is going to go blind from the strength of the color.
Here's an idea that I will utilize whenever I will have the urge to have a kid myself:
Paint the baby room white. Then when the baby will be old enough to know what it likes, let it choose the colors for the room for themselves. Then you can have a good parent-child time painting the room together. White does represent the symbol of purity and babies are supposed to be quite "pure"....It will also keep the tooth fairy monster from Darkness Falls to take away your child! Win-win situation!
The same applies for toys.
When I was a kid, I didn't get why I had to settle for Barbie dolls when my brothers were allowed to have He-man figurines, toy cars and water guns. Those toys looked WAY more fun than Barbie dolls!
Eventually my parents caved in to my constant whining (while also seeing that I preferred not to wear girly clothes at all), and gave me similar toys.
Again, why do girls have to have dolls while boys anything that has to do with destruction and stuff? Is it because it's considered manly for the boys? So that they can become strong, just like the figurines they were holding in their tiny hands? Why can't boys play with dolls too (well, some toys, like Action Man, do look A LOT like dolls in my opinion....)?
That brings me to an episode of Friends, when Ross's boy Ben came to stay with his father and he was holding a Barbie doll. Ben was allowed to pick any toy from the store and he picked Barbie. Of course that upsets his father Ross to the point that he tries to make his son prefer army figurines, like Dino Soldier or G.I. Joe instead. Apparently he feared that his son Ben might grow up and start liking the same sex as he is.
I really don't think that toys will change a kid's sexual orientation when they grow up. It just doesn't make any sense. Then what will happen to girls who used to play with toys that were more suited for boys?
Again, similar suggestion: Just like Carol & Susan (Ben's lesbian mothers), let your children pick their own toys. It's for their enjoyment and who knows, they might mix their selection and pick BOTH a Barbie and a skateboard.
Until next time,
Catch ya laters!
Questions of the day:
~ What was/still is your favorite color?
~ What used to be your favorite toy as a child?
Another irritating mystery attacked. I do find it weird how some parents see the world blow up when their baby does something that's not mentioned in the instruction manual.
ReplyDeleteLove your kid and be open-minded about them.
My favorite color(s): Black, silver and blue.
My favorite toy as a child: Lego avalanche!