Color and Gender and xkcd and Awesomeness

by Jamie Doak

I WILL EAT YOUR HEART WITH A FUCKING SPOON IF YOU AKS ANY MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT COLORS
—Anonymous, Color Survey
 
Now that I have your attention, xkcd conducted a color survey recently, which I took and which I had to stop about 30 colors in because it hurt my brain.  Basically, colors flash on the screen and survey takers could type in what color they thought it was.  So, you had a MILLION greens that looked like they were ALMOST the same exact color but not quite. So, you’re left deciding, OMG is it grass green, forest green or puke green… no definitely baby diaper green….or maybe regurgitated spinach green?  I dunno, I DUNNO!   

xkcd posted the results and included a section on color and gender.  The stereotype is that women are more liberal in their flowery descriptions of color (i.e. “No baby, your shirt isn’t yellow, it’s lemon meringue!  Silly!”) but xkcd determined that while women may be slightly more specific in color names, across the genders it’s pretty equal.  I love when stereotypes are broken.

Then he decided to calculate the “most feminine” names vs. the “most masculine” names (‘that is, the names that the most women came up with compared to the fewest men (or vice versa’).  Hilarity ensues.
 
Most feminine:  
1. Dusty Teal
2. Blush Pink
3. Dusty Lavender
4. Butter Yellow
5. Dusky Rose
 
Most masculine:  
1. Penis
2. Gay
3. WTF
4. Dunno
5. Baige (not a typo, the misspelling was a commonality among male users…)

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