Colour and Gender.

[Kemaiku]

To me theres nothing really gender based about colours, I just go by how each item or person looks in a particular colour.

That said I've been obsessed with the colour blue for a very long time now, but over time accumulated a fair amount of purple and lavendar items.

But then again my iPod has a glittery pinkish case and I have a pink plushie on the desk next to me *shrugs*

 

[Thestral]

We've had whole years where everything in this damn country is orange. Give me pink any day. If you're going to overdue it seems designed to be overdone.

Orange is an awesome color. Truly awesome. Especially bright glowing orange!

I may be somewhat biased by my location.

Anyway, I don't really care for pink, especially the light fluffy variety - the brighter, more neony can be fun to see - but I've got nothing against people liking it.

 

[Spot's Meow]

What I find most interesting about this thread is not which gender people associate with specific colors, but that those who've posted seem to have assumed we were talking about clothing. When I was thinking about how I felt about the colors, I imagined paint on walls, or cars people choose, or just imagined the color filling a blank space in my mind. The only time I thought of clothing was when I almost chose red as being masculine, but then thought of a woman wearing a red dress with red lipstick, so I changed it to neutral.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Pink looks awful on me, it doesn't complement my skin tone at all. So it's a moot point for me.

Ona slightly related topics how colourful our our waredrobes? If I were to look at mine, I suspect it would be filled with Blacks, Whites, Reds and Blues.

I kinda like darker colours, but I own a lot of earth tone, too. Brown, green, tan.

I'm a sexy hobbit.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

mostly blues, greys and whites (office wear), but also a lot of greens, purples, reds, oranges and blacks. Still looking for something russet and a nice brown. Few yellow items (yellow makes you look pale) or pink (doesn't go that well with my hair's chestnut shimmer - but thanks to mother nature, that'll change soon and grey fits very nicely with pink ).

 

[Holdfast]

Ona slightly related topics how colourful our our waredrobes?

The thread's poll is far too long for me to vote in, but this is a question I'm happy to spend time answering.

My suits are generally in various shades of grey (from pale to charcoal) and navy blue, with a beige/cream one too. Most of them have patterns though, mostly fairly subtle but some stronger ones too. Coats and other outerwear are in greys, dark browns and navy, mostly. I do have some black evening wear too.

My odd jackets have much greater variety, from cream linen to aubergine corduroy with everything from brown plaids and seersucker in between. I recently ordered a couple of new jackets, one in a mid-grey with blue overcheck and another in a green with a mustard overcheck, too. Odd trousers are generally solids or near-solids, in a large range of colours: greys, off-white, tans, russets, blues, dark greens and so on.

Shirts are a mix of whites and blues with various patterns and shades, and a few pinks, lilacs and other more obscure shades. Socks & scarves are pretty conservative, but I do have some quite eccentrically coloured & patterned ties amongst the more sober stuff.

Leaving aside my own wardrobe, if you look through fabric books, you can find some extraordinary colours and patterns. My jazziest suit is a midnight navy with neon purple tramlines, but in fabric books I've seen bright pinks, purples, oranges and other colours you rarely see as part of menswear these days. In other eras, they were more common, and there are still plenty of cultures & venues where you can wear them.

So I don't think there's an absolute association of colour with gender, but I do think certain complexions suit certain colours and I do think there's a generally accepted colour vernacular in various contexts that it's wise to be aware of. Even if you ignore it, it's best to know what you're ignoring and for what effect/reason.

At its most basic, this includes conventions such as darker/richer colours in winter with paler/brighter ones in summer, or dark suits in formal business contexts, or vivid colours/patterns for holidays. For example, think of those brightly coloured floral Villebrequin swimming trunks that were all the rage a while ago. Definitely not traditionally male, but completely acceptable for male swimwear.

A conventional "masculine" tailored wardrobe designed for traditional business would include lots of dark grey and blue suits, with white & blue shirts and fairly dark ties. Sometimes women ape these colours when they're in conservative professions by way of blending in, but I've also seen women deliberately/consciously choosing more conventionally feminine colours (pinks, reds, brighter greens, lilacs/purples, french blues, whites/creams) in order to carve out a separate identity/role within their workplace. It's all about accepting the vernacular (as by definition, most people know it, at least unconsciously or through cultural osmosis) and then playing with it (or not), depending on what your personal needs are.

 

[Grey]

I can't stand pink. My favorite color tends to be, well, grey.

Some synesthetes do actually associate colors with genders, and when I sat down to think of it I kind of do, too (I'm a grapheme-color synesthete primarily).

I think of warm colors as being more masculine and cool colors as being more feminine, in general. Some are more neutral or androgynous. That doesn't mean to say I think men can't wear cool colors like green or women can't wear red. I'm thinking of gender more in the "yin/yang" attributes sense and less of the "modern American pop-culture" sense.

 

[MacLeod]

Pink looks awful on me, it doesn't complement my skin tone at all. So it's a moot point for me.

Ona slightly related topics how colourful our our waredrobes? If I were to look at mine, I suspect it would be filled with Blacks, Whites, Reds and Blues.

I kinda like darker colours, but I own a lot of earth tone, too. Brown, green, tan.

I'm a sexy hobbit.

I think thats the key thing when it comes to wearing colours do they suit your compelextion.

Yellow really doesn't suit me, and most of the colours I do wear tend to be darker shades.

Dark Purple apperantly looks good on me, or so I've been told.

 

[Miss Lemon]

Mr. Lemon looks ravishing in pink.

Me on the other hand, prefer to wear deep greens, browns and blues.

 

[auntiehill]

I despise pink-even as a kid. I like to wear blue (what a shock)--all kinds of blue--as well as dark green, burgundy and brown. I only have a few things in purple or magenta.

I know that most people I know think pink is only for girls, but I think that's ridiculous. My hubby looks very good in pink.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

In American soaps I often see little girls' rooms all done in pink. Is that just a stereotype or is it really done regularly?
While I like wearing pink, occasionally, I'd absolutely freak out in a pink room. I prefer my walls to be a warm shade of pastel blue.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

In the 80's it was trendy to have all pink rooms (here at least). It was like being trapped in a body part.

 

[kolibri]

I had neon pink carpet and walls and pastel pink curtains. Which was strange, since I hated pink, but I guess it happened before I was fully functional and able to complain.

 

[trekkiedane]

This room-colour talk reminds me: Did you ever have your room painted black?
As I see it it's a phase a lot of teenagers go through

Alas my parents wouldn't let me paint my room black but as it was in the seventies, they accepted brown! -I did have a very dark room




The 'brown compromise' came from our home being very modern for the time with rustic brownish Italian tiles for flooring, painted white brick walls (hessian on inner dividing walls) and nougat-coloured ceilings...

 

[iguana_tonante]

When I was a kid (early 80s), my parents' house had every room painted in a different colour (just the walls; all the ceilings were white). My room was olive green, my parents' room was royal blue, the living room was brick red, etc. It was pretty, but too intense for my tastes. When I grew up, I asked my room colour changed... to grey. It was much more relaxing.

Now in my house I have one wall in every room painted in a different colour, while the all the others are white. It's a good compromise between having some vivid colours around, but not so much that it becomes oppressing, and it looks fantastic.

 

[trekkiedane]

Now in my house I have one wall in every room painted in a different colour, while the all the others are white. It's a good compromise, and it looks fantastic.

I bet it does -I've seen this kind of thing before, much nicer than with all white walls

I'm currently living in, didn't I mention this earlier?, shades of grey; my living room has four of them and my door and window frames are black

 

[MacLeod]

Ah the accent wall.

 

[Roshi]

My guitar is purple. My guitar picks are purple, my underwear is purple. My classroom is purple.
That's badass!

 

[Mary Ann]

I grew up in houses with white or cream walls. The blandness drove me nuts. Nowadays every room in my house is painted a different colour, with some rooms also having accent walls. Conversely, my husband grew up in a house with clashing colours and patterns on every floor and wall, along with the curtains and furniture. My MIL's house can still induce headaches. Our current house is a happy medium between the two extremes of our childhoods.

I no longer see colours in terms of gender. I used to think of pink as purely feminine, but no longer do so. I never had an issue with thinking of darker, bolder colours being only for boys because I have three older brothers and spent my younger years wearing their hand-me-downs. Apart from the y-fronts, if it fit, I wore it, at least until puberty, much to the amusement of my brothers ("Mom, she's bending my old sweater out of shape!").

 

[Tora Ziyal]

"Mom, she's bending my old sweater out of shape!"