Recently a couple decided to raise their child non gender specific and let their baby decide for his or herself what toys, clothes and colors they preferred. This study shows how men and women differ on color preferences. So this begs the question, are our color preferences influenced by our gender?
From the day that babies are brought home and cradled in their pink or blue blankets, implications have been made about gender and color. While there are no concrete rules about what colors are exclusively feminine or masculine, there have been studies conducted over the past seven decades that draw some generalizations.
Link
Comments (6)
You are right, my mistake, color-blindness is a recessive allele on the X chromosome
@ Ryan S, women can also have colour blindness but it is quite uncommon. Colour blindness is carried on the X chromosome. If males inherit an X chromosome with the mutation it will be displayed in the phenotype. If women inherit 1, she will be a carrier, however if she inherits the mutation from both X chromosomes, it will be displayed in the phenotype.
Also, you have a point about gender differences in the vocabulary of colour:
"Stecklers' study in 1990 concluded that women's ability of naming colors is far more precise than men's and also they have a broader vocabulary for color names such as ecru, aquamarine, lavender, and mauve."
http://www.colormatters.com/news_spring_07/focus.html
On another note, women cannot be color-blind and men cannot have super-color vision like some women. Whereas men will be color blind because they lack a third cone responding to the red range, women can have a fourth cone that bisects the red range and gives a richer spectrum of colors. Then there is achromatopsia which is the inability to see color and a really bad name for a baby girl.
Perhaps some of the difference is in the color-opponency cells in the occipital cortex and perhaps the associating of different colors. A part of me suspects women are trained by the culture to recognize a greater range of color names and men are basically not expected to. Wine-tasters also have a wider range of names for flavors, using terms like "earthy" that non-wine-tasters by and large don't use. I doubt the wide range of color names employed by women are innate. But like the wine-tasters, they learn to discriminate.
Even given all that, which is done to be fair, I think there might actually be some innate predilection, but devising a conclusive experiment for that is problematic.
Unrelated to SnowyDeath 2010, I'd like to submit Neatonauts for the nickname. It has a better ring to it, imho.
Being a teacher I've been off the whole week, so getting to work was never a worry for me. While the shoveling has gotten pretty old, it's actually been kind of nice to be able to stay home and catch up on some things around the house. And we've finally met some of our neighbors, since we just moved into our house 5 months ago.
The snow has taken down 2 metal porch awnings so far in this block. 2 more are set to go any time.
My job keeps calling me to come in and clean snow off cars at the auto auction. I'm not dumb, I really don't want to be covered in snow all day and then come home with pneumonia. It's not like it's a full time job or anything.
I'm sick of snow, know anywhere warm I can move to?
I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow, it'll be relaxing.
I am not sure why this one gets all the media attention. Maybe because it hit DC as well when that it usually the southern limit of the big storms.
Anyway, good to see all the other Baltimoroneatonauts on her, Hey!
Did I say a foot of snow? In Texas?
Yes, here in Grand Prairie, TX (DFW) there is about 10 inches of snow on the ground and it's not supposed to stop falling (according to the clueless weathermen) for another five hours. I think it's wonderful and reminds me of my childhood winters, but everyone else down here is going nuts. And it's the great stuff that sticks together well for snowmen, too!
That's pretty sad.
I live in Oswego County, it you look at that satellite view, gander that lake fully in the frame, about center on the left, that's Lake Ontario, we live at the eastern (right) end of it. Oh, I should mention we get 180 inches a year. A. Year. 180. This is due to the lake effect snow machine, look that up if you don't know, but it can easily produce snow into the feet measured range in no time, a day, or less.
Everyone whining about snow don't know jack until you live in this area where your wimpy laughably nothing "blizzard" wouldn't even dent the daily grind. Heck, 6" wouldn't close school in these parts, neither would 12", you'll always find food on the store shelves, what you got is just another day up here.
Oh, and just north of me is Tug Hill, the snowiest place east of the Rockies, they get as much as 400" a year, and no, nobody panics, nobody freaks out, school, business, life goes on. Honestly all of us up here are laughing at the central east coast for being a bunch of pansies. Buck up people, you don't even know what snow is.