TRAPPED
IN
COLORS
?
Blue is better for boys, pink is
absolutely for girls, agree? It’s
already 2016, open up your eyes! In this strict society that we lived in, there
is this color stereotypes based on one’s gender. We knew that the society
prefers dark colors (blue, green, etc) are for boys, while bright color
(especially pink) looks better for girls. Just visit the nearest newborn baby
from your relatives, and look what colors their parents chose for the infant’s
room and stuffs. Even when we grew up, this stereotyping is far from the word ended, like for
example this boring question-statement, “Why are you using pink? You’re a boy!” Why is
that? Since when colors become such a strict unwritten rule in our society, and
is it actually a big deal?
Firstly, from the eyes of science, let’s think about an article about “The Meaning Color For
Gender” by Natalia Khouw who states that, “Guilford
and Smith (1959) found men were
generally more tolerant toward achromatic colors than women. Thus, Guilford and Smith proposed that women might be more color-concious and their color tastes
more flexible and diverse. Likewise, McInnis and Shearer (1964) found
that blue green was more favored among women than men, and women preferred tints more than shades. They also found 56% of men and 76% of women preferred cool colors, and 51% men and 45% women chose bright colors. In a similar
study, Plater (1967) found men had
a tendency to prefer stronger chromas than women..” To sum it up, maybe it is
was just a natural choice that the society choose each colors assigned for each
gender, but again isn’t the society are shaped by something more complex?
Before we go into a further
confusion, let’s take a look from the history itself.
Surprisingly, before World War I happened, precisely in 1918, US Trade
publication Farnshaw’s Infants’ Department stated in an article that “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue
for the girls. The
reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable
for the boy, while
blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl..” After that, people were giving arguments and discussions
about that statement, because before that statement was published there was no
such thing about assigned gender. The statement and people’s argumentation gave
a big impact later on in 1940, when fashion and product manufacturers decided
to advertise the reverse colors for gender, blue
is for boys, and pink
is for girls.
The effect still exists in parents’ point of view until this
exact moment. Why do I say so? To be exact, that is what Aleksandae Makasev, a
New York based visual artist and graphic designer says in his article posted on munsell.com, in
which I strongly agree. He stated that, “It’s
all about the parents. The baby doesn’t care about the color, but it will be
raised to care a lot.” We live in a society, with strict written rules and even
more strict unwritten rules. Most people are shaped by what people want them to
be, their parents, friends, and others. Without realizing it or not, we are
finding our way to reach that finish point where we are accepted by our
surroundings. In this case, the newborn babies are feed by the society’s rules
of what’s good and not good.. Surely, there are some rules that are needed to
be doctrinized, but some parents exceed the society’s expectations, and that
could go wrong in many ways.
This
gender assigned colors’ text purpose is not to conclude what’s
correct and what’s wrong, because every problem in this life is different in
each individual’s perspective. But, I myself as the writer have been seeing
this as a big deal, since at least for me the word ‘stereotyping’ is already
not a respectable way of seeing something, especially that we have been
facing this stereotyping since we were innocent. Moreover if we think about the fact
that nowadays there are people who believe for more than just two genders, how are we going to divide all of
this? We can’t put everything in boxes, even though we still have many colors
left, and we can’t even force all people in the world to agree on this thing. I want you
to have your own argumentation after you finish this text, or if you have a big disapproval on my perspective, just type it on EPH’s
official LINE@, and we will finish the confusion.
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