The paint chart debate: Men and women see and describe colours differently
This investigation is previously talked about in another one of my blogs. It is an investigation that focuses on five colours and asks a variety of different genders to describe them. I conducted all research myself, fairly and accurately.
Through this investigation, it has become apparent that men and women do in fact see and describe colours distinctively differently. However, it is not only the difference between the way in which men and women see colours but also about the prejudices and age differences which also come into question. From questioning thirteen people all in different social positions and ages, despite a few anomaly’s, the research concluded how women describe in vigorous detail how the colour makes them feel whereas men describe what it reminds them of.
Despite my initial thoughts that men and women speak and describe colours the same, it quickly became clear that this is not true. Whilst investigating in school, I found that a male Maths teacher took twenty seconds to describe the five colours but a female English teacher took one minute and twenty-six seconds to describe them. The depth in which they analysed them was extremely contrasting. Whilst the man used single words to describe his reaction, the lady used descriptive imagery to paint a picture in the audience’s eye. The green was described by the man, to our surprise, as, “walking”, but the woman said, “green, the colour of lush grass, healthy fertile grass, rather than dying wizened grass.' This shows us that females have a clearer image of something that is related with the specific colour, which allows them to depict a clear image of what it is they’re describing. However, males are more likely to use single words or short phrases with little to no adjectives, making their thoughts about the colour less in depth than that of the woman’s. Furthermore, this can also show that a person’s profession may sway their choice of language. It is important to take this into account as a person, like an English Teacher, who analytically uses a whole range of descriptive and enticing language in their profession would be more likely to describe things in more depth than someone accustomed to using numbers and symbols.
However, both genders also have a noticeable similarity. Women and men use certain ideas when describing colours. An example of this would be the third colour, which was a shade of blue. People saw this as the colour of the “Caribbean sea”. The difference is what happened after; the women built upon the idea describing a warm place or the ocean. Whereas the male gender seemingly disregarded it after this point and moved on.
Another thing that became apparent in the investigation is that some colours hold certain stereotypes. The last colour, which was a shade of pink, provoked a very interesting response from the interviewees as they described it as “feminine and girly”. However some were quick to understand their stereotyping, one male said “ Pink- er- yeah, again the words girl would come to mind which I- er- know is a bit stereotypical but- er- yeah that’s what first came into my mind”. The use of these discourse markers in his sentence was perhaps because it made him feel uncomfortable being so stereotypical. Another male described it as “rather in a sexist way, the colour that girls might want to use”. Despite people acknowledging the stereotyping which they are doing, first reactions were uncontrollably related to the female sex when they were asked to describe the colour of pink. It is also interesting that the people that picked up on the sexism of relating it to girls were in fact male; none of the females who described the colour as “feminine” or “girly” acknowledged that they were stereotyping. One person described it as “irritating them”. Could this subconsciously mean that the girls that are associated with this irritate him?
Moreover, another important point is the factor of age in the situation. The younger participants looked to me for confirmation that what they were saying was correct. This is shown through their language of saying “Okay?” and “is it?”. This possibly has much to do with the school environment which they’re in as there are constant rules, school and socially, which they feel compelled to conform to. This differentiates to the people between the ages of 30-50 whom were interviewed as they have grown out of the social rules to a large extent and have more authority than me, the interviewer, as they are older than me and my teachers. Whilst it sounds crudely put, this is the way in which the system currently works. It can also be noted that those who fall into the category of 10-15 years of age use many more discourse markers than the adults. The most commonly used ones were “er”, “like” and “kinda”. This shows numerous things such as their vocabulary is not as complex leading them to need more time to think about their response and also that they are very cautious not to say anything wrong. Furthermore, adults use less emotive and personal language in comparison to children. The younger people said if they liked the colour and often used “I” when talking.
To conclude this investigation, it seems very clear that men and women in fact see colours very differently. Men used short and simple terms to describe the five chosen colours whereas the women used more imagery and adjectives in their speech. However, it was not all different as both used specific ideas to link to. The factor of age and profession also showed noticeable differences in the way in which the language was described.
