1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your 3 00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: my My My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie. 4 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: Valentine's a day fast approaching, so of course we have 5 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: decided here to devote a few different episodes too, you 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:29,720 Speaker 1: could say Valentine's Day content or maybe anti Valentine's Day content. Yeah, 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 1: Usually Valentine's Day comes around and we sort of begrudgingly 8 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,599 Speaker 1: do an anti Valentine'sday just to be like, yeah, it's 9 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:39,519 Speaker 1: coming up terrible. But I've noticed this time we have 10 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,479 Speaker 1: like five or six topics that we have planned to 11 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:47,279 Speaker 1: really plumb the depths of different aspects of Valentine's Day 12 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:51,000 Speaker 1: and to really attack it from four different fronts and 13 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: just take it out. Ye, take it out, take it out. 14 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:58,200 Speaker 1: You know what we're talking about here. We're really going 15 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: to get into Valentine's Day. We're going to dust it 16 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: and put it away, and we're gonna start by exploring 17 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: the color pink. Yes, because pink and red are the 18 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: predominant color scheme for Valentine's Day. It's the colors that 19 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,760 Speaker 1: just assault you come pretty much the end of January, 20 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: maybe even right after Christmas. These days, you start seeing 21 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: it popping up everywhere, trying to sell you that candy, 22 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 1: try to sell you those flowers, try to sell you 23 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 1: god knows what else, all in the name of this 24 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: big commercial holiday. Yeah, I call it the pink menace. 25 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: And I call it that for a couple of different reasons. 26 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: Some you know, the associations with Valentine's Day, which is 27 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: the sort of treacle that we we cling to, these 28 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,120 Speaker 1: notions of idealized love and so on and so forth. 29 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: But also because I just don't enjoy the color pink, 30 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: and I never have. So you don't like looking at it, 31 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: you don't like wearing it. It makes me feel unsettled. Okay, 32 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: And this is something I'm going to point out. I 33 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: think some of our female listeners will understand what I'm 34 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: talking about here. There is a certain hue of pink 35 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: that you will find in a gynecologist office, and it's 36 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: usually this kind of mauve pink hue that you find 37 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,520 Speaker 1: in literature about the reproductive system, or you even see 38 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: in the models of the reproductive system. Okay, I know 39 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: what you're talking about. That that that shade of pink. 40 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: You also see on the translucent pages that go over 41 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: anatomical illustrations. You see it like nice and shiny there. Yeah, 42 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: but you particularly will see it in a gynecologiest office. 43 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: And I call it vegonna pink. And it's just it's 44 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 1: just that kind of shade of pink. That's just it 45 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: doesn't have a lot of verve to it. It's a 46 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 1: bit of a depressing pink. And also I feel like 47 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: I'm in the ganna coologist office. I don't necessarily need 48 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: to be um, you know, walloped over the head with 49 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: this color. I know what I'm there for, you know 50 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean in our culture, pink 51 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: has become this huge gender thing. It's become the color 52 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: for females, right, It's become fetishized, I think. I mean, 53 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:05,079 Speaker 1: think about out pink diamonds, pink firearms, pink legos, which 54 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: we'll talk about a little bit. Pink salt Does that count? Uh? 55 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: I feel like that is the natural colored salt, right, 56 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,919 Speaker 1: hillily and salt, And it's very tasty. So I will 57 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: put that to the side. Beautiful cracked over a freshly 58 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: baked pizza. Okay, So in this episode we're going to 59 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:24,639 Speaker 1: We're going to discuss pink. We're gonna talk about pink 60 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: from a cultural and historic standpoint. We're gonna break down 61 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,400 Speaker 1: some of the science of pink and uh, you know, 62 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: and at the end of it, we're gonna reach out 63 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: to the rest of you and get your input on 64 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: pink as a color, as a color that appears in 65 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: her surroundings, is the color that we we take on 66 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: on for ourselves. How do we feel about it and 67 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,840 Speaker 1: how does it make others feel? Yeah, I'd like to 68 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: read this quote from Elizabeth Camp. She's writing for a 69 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: on magazine, and she says, pink matters because it is 70 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: bound up with ways of being in the world that 71 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: are partially aesthetic but also personal and political colors and 72 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: code aesthetic norms that run straight through to style, personality, culture, 73 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:12,560 Speaker 1: and class. You know. Growing up, I feel that pink 74 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: was never like a huge deal. Like I wasn't one 75 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: of those kids that was raised with this idea like 76 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: just beaten into you do not wear pink because pink 77 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,039 Speaker 1: is a girl's color. But on the other hand, I 78 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:26,760 Speaker 1: don't remember having a lot of paint clothes, except perhaps 79 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,280 Speaker 1: around Easter, you know, where you would have to have 80 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: dressed and sort of pastor pastel colors and go everybody 81 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:35,799 Speaker 1: goes to church, and you get this horrible picture made 82 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: and it's you know, and your your your kid, it's 83 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: it's kind of sunny out. You just all you want 84 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: to do is get out of those church clothes, and 85 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:45,320 Speaker 1: then instead you have to stand around and stay in 86 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:48,719 Speaker 1: them and and wait for everybody to get together. Yeah. So, 87 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,679 Speaker 1: so I have kind of those connotations with with pink 88 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 1: and some of its pastel colors, not so much that 89 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:56,479 Speaker 1: it's I guess a little bit that it would that 90 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 1: it is feminine as well, because you end up going 91 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: to you know, two junior high and then it's it's 92 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: the issue of gender is huge, to the point where 93 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: I remember being made fun of because my legs weren't 94 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: hairy enough and therefore it was a sign of femininity 95 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,600 Speaker 1: and man was there, and I remember feeling bad about it, like, oh, 96 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:15,080 Speaker 1: I guess like I have to wear long pants all 97 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:19,480 Speaker 1: the time. So I was gonna talk to you about that. Um, 98 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:21,600 Speaker 1: but let me ask you this, does the color pink 99 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: ever evoke associations with calmness or peacefulness? Well, I will 100 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: say when it comes to pepto bismol. There is the 101 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: there is the promise of possible peace with the color. 102 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,680 Speaker 1: But with that I also have a strong memory of 103 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: it was either me or one of my sisters taking 104 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: pepto bismol for an unsettled stomach as a kid, and 105 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: then vomiting it up against the wall and onto the floor. 106 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:48,720 Speaker 1: And the floor was white carpet, so he had a 107 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: nice pink stain there from where someone had had vomited. Okay, 108 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: well that ties in lovely to a color called drunk 109 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: tank pink. And why does a tie in so well, Well, 110 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 1: it is a color that was used and actually I 111 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 1: believe it's still used in some holding cells in jails. 112 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,599 Speaker 1: It's a bubblegum pink color. And think about a sort 113 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 1: of maybe an unruly intoxicated person they're locked up, the 114 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:21,359 Speaker 1: cell they're put in, is that's drunk pink pink. What 115 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,479 Speaker 1: are the effects? Well, the idea here is that the 116 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,039 Speaker 1: pink is going to have a calming effect, a soothing effect, 117 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:29,919 Speaker 1: because you have not a you know, necessarily a delightful 118 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: TV drunk like otis on the Andy Griffith's Show, but 119 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:35,360 Speaker 1: rather somebody who might be a little a little violent, 120 00:06:35,400 --> 00:06:37,839 Speaker 1: a little a little out of it and a little perturbed. 121 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:41,159 Speaker 1: They've been apprehended and placed inside of a cell. So 122 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,360 Speaker 1: if there is a promise of potential calming from this color, 123 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 1: in fact, if you have some studies that back this 124 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: up as well, all the more reason to just throw 125 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: a bunch of pink paint at the problem. And I 126 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:54,480 Speaker 1: hope that it's kind of a magic bullet, right, Yeah. Yeah, 127 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,359 Speaker 1: And this was discovered in n by psychologists who figure 128 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:00,839 Speaker 1: it out that this hue of pink could really calm 129 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,279 Speaker 1: people down, and they used it on buses, school buses. 130 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: They painted the seats pink, and they discovered that vandalism 131 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: rates declined. Uh. Door to do door to door charity 132 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 1: workers wore pink shirts in their donations rose threefold and 133 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: um some some very clever football coaches even introduced the 134 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: color into locker rooms. Yeah, in particular, the visitors locker 135 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: room at the University of Iowa was painted pink back 136 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: in seventy nine, and it was it was heavily criticized 137 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: for for being you know this this means of demoralizing 138 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:40,160 Speaker 1: and also trying to to to use colors to manipulate 139 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 1: the effectiveness of your opponents. Um. One of the key 140 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,239 Speaker 1: individuals that pops up in these studies is Alexander Schauss, 141 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: and that's why you sometimes see the pink. This particular 142 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 1: mode of pink referred to as shause pink, also known 143 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,720 Speaker 1: as Baker Miller pink, also known as passive pink, also 144 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,080 Speaker 1: known as p s which I like that because it 145 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,800 Speaker 1: sounds even more nefarious, like you're gonna use p six 146 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: one eighteen against your enemies. Well, and that has sort 147 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 1: of incarcerated sound to it as well. Right bring up 148 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: the shouts is quoted as saying, even if a person 149 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: tries to be angry or aggressive in the presence of pink, 150 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: he can't. The heart muscles can't race fast enough. It's 151 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 1: a tranquilizing color that SAPs your energy. Even the color 152 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:29,560 Speaker 1: bind are tranquilized by pink rooms. UM very much playing 153 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: into this idea that it's it's it's like a vampire 154 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: of colors. It's just SAPs your soul out of you. Um. 155 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: He He conducted a couple of different studies. The most 156 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: notable one was posted in the final issue of Ortho 157 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: Molecular Psychiatry in nineteen this when he took a hundred 158 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,680 Speaker 1: and fifty three healthy men exposed them to cardboard squares 159 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: one of them blew one of them pink, And after 160 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: a full minute of staring at these, they were asked 161 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:56,160 Speaker 1: to hold their arms out in front of their bodies, 162 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:58,520 Speaker 1: you know, like a like a like a horror movie 163 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: zombie or mummy or something, and you know, and see 164 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:03,240 Speaker 1: how long they could hold them out. And then their 165 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,960 Speaker 1: arms were put down. They were given a few seconds 166 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: to recover, and then they did a second test, same thing, 167 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:12,320 Speaker 1: and he found all but two men were dramatically weaker 168 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:15,800 Speaker 1: after staring at the pink, while blue left the strength 169 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:18,880 Speaker 1: in the test intact in both the first and the 170 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: second strength test. He ended up following this up in 171 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: another study thirty eight men squeezing a measuring device, and 172 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,880 Speaker 1: again found found that they were weaker after exposure to 173 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:32,719 Speaker 1: the pink. Now, the amount of time that you're exposed 174 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: to the pink is really key here, because Adam Altar, 175 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 1: who wrote the book Drunk Tank Pink, has said that 176 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: there's pretty good evidence that over a nine month period, 177 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,800 Speaker 1: the very aggressive prisoners at a naval prison in Seattle 178 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: were much better behaved when they emerged fifteen minutes after 179 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:54,319 Speaker 1: being put in the pink drunk tank. After that fifteen 180 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:56,640 Speaker 1: minute exposure, if you go up to thirty minutes, you 181 00:09:56,760 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: have the reverse effects of that calming suit and color. 182 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:06,320 Speaker 1: All of a sudden, that color becomes distracting, it becomes angering. Yeah, 183 00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:09,360 Speaker 1: there's also the o this idea that you're you're tamping 184 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:12,080 Speaker 1: everything down, You're you're kind of repressing stuff, and it's 185 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:18,320 Speaker 1: going to eventually explode, Like paint cannot constrain the beastly 186 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:22,200 Speaker 1: heart for too long, it cannot. The mary Kay of 187 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: it all will just fall apart, and the beast within 188 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:27,480 Speaker 1: all of us, even mary Kay, will emerge. So we 189 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:29,080 Speaker 1: were talking about this after we we looked at some 190 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:33,040 Speaker 1: of these studies, instantly thinking about the use of pink 191 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:38,240 Speaker 1: in sport and in physical combat, Like you would think 192 00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 1: you would see more usage of pink on the playing 193 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: field um and and even on the battlefield UM in 194 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: lieu with some of these colors, that it wouldn't just 195 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:51,080 Speaker 1: be a matter of all, let's paint the visitor locker 196 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: room pink and hopes that will will mess with their head, 197 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:56,960 Speaker 1: Like why not? Why not just full on pink uniforms 198 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,200 Speaker 1: and let your opponents try and play against that. You 199 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,880 Speaker 1: get a thirty minute advantage, right, and then they're gonna 200 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:04,960 Speaker 1: start to become aggressive. But maybe they'll be a little 201 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: over aggressive. I don't know much about sports, but maybe 202 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: it's like a judo thing where you know they're they're 203 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:12,400 Speaker 1: they're only ramping it up. Then you can adjust accordingly 204 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 1: and use their aggression against it. Well, we were also 205 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:19,000 Speaker 1: talking about Dennis Rodman, who were saying seems to have 206 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,720 Speaker 1: co opted a lot of the more uh, the more 207 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: feminine aspects of of his dress and his portrayal of himself. 208 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:32,720 Speaker 1: I mean, just think about this guy. He's a big guy. 209 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: He is um. You know, if I were to be 210 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:39,199 Speaker 1: a basketball player and met him on the court, I 211 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: might be like, wow, okay, this guy is formidable. But 212 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:47,280 Speaker 1: now think of Dennis Rodman wearing lipstick, or his hair 213 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 1: is a very feminine color, or he's wearing makeup, and 214 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:52,679 Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like you're playing against a 215 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,839 Speaker 1: ground queen. And this becomes an entirely different proposition because 216 00:11:55,880 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: now Dennis Rodman is playing with coda, with gender and 217 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,200 Speaker 1: with hetero norms. And we know, and we'll talk about 218 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,960 Speaker 1: this more, that nothing could be more unsettling in a 219 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:12,839 Speaker 1: society that really ascribes to gender norms than someone crossing 220 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,960 Speaker 1: those boundaries and playing with it, and it becomes a 221 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,880 Speaker 1: bit of a threat. You're turning our established symbols and 222 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 1: motifs on their head, and it's essentially playing mind games 223 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:25,600 Speaker 1: with me. Like, suddenly I have to do a whole 224 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:28,720 Speaker 1: lot of extra computing to make sense of you on 225 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,440 Speaker 1: the basketball court, whereas before you were just just a 226 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 1: big dude. And there I'm surrounded by big dudes. I'm 227 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:36,720 Speaker 1: a basketball player out there, I'm probably a big dude myself. 228 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: But then this, this just throws everything in its head. Yeah. 229 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: So what we're saying is make sports more interesting. Put 230 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:47,120 Speaker 1: the drag element in there. Yeah, RuPaul coaches, this is 231 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 1: this is going to really amp up the psychological aspect 232 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 1: of it. I would I mean, I say this a 233 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:55,280 Speaker 1: lot that I would be pretty much into any sport 234 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,040 Speaker 1: if it could itself be more like pro wrestling. So 235 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:00,680 Speaker 1: in pro wrestling you see lots of craze, the outfits 236 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 1: and face paint. If if you saw more crazy outfits 237 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:06,880 Speaker 1: and face paint and say professional basketball, I would be 238 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:09,840 Speaker 1: more tempted to watch. I would be there with you 239 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: I gotta tell you now, one of the things that 240 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:15,360 Speaker 1: we talked about these archetypes, uh, that that you could 241 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:19,079 Speaker 1: turn your head, is this idea that women like pink. 242 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: It's completely ingrained, it's hardwired. And this, of course is 243 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:28,280 Speaker 1: an erroneous idea out there that women are inherently gravitating 244 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:31,040 Speaker 1: towards pink. And we start touched on this a bit, 245 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:34,440 Speaker 1: albeit indirectly, and when we did our episode on the 246 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 1: color blue, because it turns out that most people prefer 247 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:42,440 Speaker 1: blue overall than any other color. That's right. I remember 248 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 1: in that episode I mentioned that, UM that my son, uh, 249 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,679 Speaker 1: my wife and I we UM. We didn't say, all right, 250 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:50,520 Speaker 1: here's blue, this is the boy's color, this is the 251 00:13:50,559 --> 00:13:53,880 Speaker 1: one you should like, stay away from pink. But he 252 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: ends up gravitating towards blue. Yeah. And I believe that study. 253 00:13:57,559 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: I know it was a paint company that funded it, UM, 254 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,200 Speaker 1: but I want to say it was the thirty countries 255 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: that they surveyed, and it was blue first, and then 256 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: I believe it was green, and then yellow was maybe 257 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:15,400 Speaker 1: the last color that that people preferred or didn't prefer 258 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: very much. Pink didn't even make it onto that list, 259 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:21,400 Speaker 1: is my point. Um, So if you delve into this 260 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:23,320 Speaker 1: a little bit more, you'll see that there's a two 261 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:28,040 Speaker 1: thousand eleven study published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 262 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: and they had one year old girls and boys that 263 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 1: were shown pairs of identical objects like bracelets, pill boxes, 264 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,040 Speaker 1: and picture frames, but with one of those objects being 265 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:41,040 Speaker 1: pink and the other being a second color. Now, they 266 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 1: were no more likely to choose pink than any other color. 267 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: But after the age of two, the girls started to 268 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,440 Speaker 1: like pink and buy four boys were determined in their 269 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: rejection of pink. And the point of this is that 270 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: it is not hardwired. It is a cultural script that 271 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,800 Speaker 1: kids began to sworb via all of the media around them, 272 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:05,960 Speaker 1: via the ways in which their parents may address them 273 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: or direct them toward things. Plus, you're growing up in 274 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: an age of TV abundance. You're just constantly marketed to 275 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: with products the pink for the girls, the blue or 276 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 1: some of the color for the boys, and it's just 277 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:22,080 Speaker 1: just beaten down into your head. Um. That being said, 278 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: it's weird to look back in my own childhood and 279 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:27,280 Speaker 1: having been raised very much in this age of just 280 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: all the television you can stand uh and and then 281 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,000 Speaker 1: all the messages that are that they're on those airwaves. 282 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,240 Speaker 1: I distinctly remember Kinkishi muscle figures. I don't know if 283 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 1: you remember these at all. Um, they're like little a 284 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: Japanese product. I remember correctly. Uh, And it was Knkisi 285 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,720 Speaker 1: in Japan and in the US it was muscle men um. 286 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: And they were all these kind of wild, sort of 287 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,760 Speaker 1: pro wrestler characters, but they had like, you know, crazy 288 00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 1: animal heads or extra limbs. They were just elaborate comic 289 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,040 Speaker 1: book type characters. But they were all this They are 290 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: all made out of this pink binda bowl material and 291 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 1: there was nothing, you know, you just completely accepted that 292 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 1: they're pink. I guess they're kind of fleshy. I don't know. 293 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: They were called muscle men. Yeah, the muscles and muscles 294 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,480 Speaker 1: are pink. We weren't called squishy non musli women. I 295 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:17,280 Speaker 1: guess maybe maybe that's the thing. Maybe there was a 296 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:20,520 Speaker 1: discussion where someone said, all right, uh, these these Knkichi 297 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,440 Speaker 1: guys are pretty cool, but if we're going to market 298 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: him in the US, we need to name him something 299 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 1: really mask go in to make up for the pink color. 300 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:30,080 Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, that's some gender performance terms. They're 301 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,800 Speaker 1: like musclemen. Yeah, alright, we're gonna take a quick break, 302 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: and when we get back, we're going to talk about 303 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: the color pink and how it actually hung with the 304 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:50,200 Speaker 1: guys for a long time. All Right, we're back. We're 305 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,720 Speaker 1: talking about pink. We've already talked about some of the 306 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:55,760 Speaker 1: psychology of pink in the Science of pink. Uh. Now 307 00:16:55,960 --> 00:17:00,200 Speaker 1: we're talking about ginger and pink and then specifically how 308 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: it's become coded into our culture, especially here in the West. Yeah, 309 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,439 Speaker 1: because we think about pink is just being squarely for 310 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,080 Speaker 1: girls and women, but in fact, um up until the 311 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:15,040 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, it was just as equally worn among men 312 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:17,719 Speaker 1: and women. In the seventeen hundreds too, you can you 313 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:21,040 Speaker 1: look back at old plates and you will see that 314 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,440 Speaker 1: men were just as likely to wear shades of lilac 315 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:29,320 Speaker 1: and pink as a woman. So what's interesting is you 316 00:17:29,359 --> 00:17:33,719 Speaker 1: get to the nineteen hundreds and you get to children, right, 317 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,639 Speaker 1: and this is where the coding begins. And largely in 318 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:41,280 Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds, you have white clothing for children, 319 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:43,640 Speaker 1: and the reason for that is because when they're very young, 320 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,000 Speaker 1: what do they do? They spill things all over themselves, 321 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:50,600 Speaker 1: the urinate on themselves. There's a lot of washing of clothes, 322 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: and so you don't want dyes in there. But as 323 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:58,200 Speaker 1: the chemical process gets um a little bit easier for 324 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:00,680 Speaker 1: for clothes to retain die than you begin to see 325 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,399 Speaker 1: more colors bring up in children's clothing. Okay, so we 326 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,880 Speaker 1: go from basically not having colors for the children and 327 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,520 Speaker 1: now we have them. So yeah, suddenly colors are in 328 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:12,160 Speaker 1: play for the the young children. And uh, it's left 329 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: to the fashion authorities to tell you what colors you 330 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 1: should dress. Here are your children in? And uh, interestingly enough, 331 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:22,960 Speaker 1: since there's not an established culture of pink for girls 332 00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:26,920 Speaker 1: blue for boys, and in fact, pink is historically had 333 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 1: been used by men and it had been a masculine color. 334 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:33,360 Speaker 1: In many instances you saw advice such as the following 335 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: from a June article in the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants 336 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,600 Speaker 1: department said, the generally accepted rule is pink for boys 337 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:43,600 Speaker 1: and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, 338 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 1: being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable 339 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:50,400 Speaker 1: for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, 340 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,719 Speaker 1: is prettier for the girl. The complete reversal of of 341 00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: what ends up becoming the gender color standard, right, because 342 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: pink is associated with red, and red is a more virile, 343 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 1: sanguine color, like the color of blood. It's robust. Indeed, 344 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,000 Speaker 1: I mean you're familiar with the Game of Thrones, Yes 345 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:11,720 Speaker 1: I am. You know House Bolton, of course, yes, vicious, 346 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,080 Speaker 1: vicious House. Their their sickle is the flayed man. And 347 00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:19,639 Speaker 1: the colors of that signal red and pink. That's the 348 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: colors of taking a person's skin off. I was just 349 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: about to say that's what you would find, right, little pink, 350 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:30,119 Speaker 1: little red. Now it didn't. The color of pink didn't 351 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: become co opted for women until after World War Two. 352 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 1: Now think about this, this is important. During World War Two, 353 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:44,320 Speaker 1: you have Rosie the Riveter. You have a pretty stark 354 00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:47,440 Speaker 1: reversal of gender roles, right because you have now women 355 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,199 Speaker 1: that are in factories and they are working and they 356 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:51,359 Speaker 1: are making income because the men are having to go 357 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:55,080 Speaker 1: overseas and fight in the war exactly. So what happens 358 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 1: after that is men return, and then there's this really 359 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: intense movement for heteronormatizing the gender roles, for essentially putting 360 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,560 Speaker 1: women back in their place and You see that in 361 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,560 Speaker 1: the fashion the day, right, because you see post World 362 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:14,399 Speaker 1: War two, Um, no longer is Rosie wearing her dungarees, right, 363 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: her blue dungarees. You see women in ads with nipped 364 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:20,159 Speaker 1: in waiste and they're wearing a lot of pink and 365 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:23,560 Speaker 1: a lot of product plays coming in. You see a 366 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,199 Speaker 1: lot of shades of pink and the products that are 367 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:29,800 Speaker 1: being offered, and the message is that the woman's house 368 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,240 Speaker 1: is her demain. So it's no longer like Rosie the riveter. 369 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,199 Speaker 1: It's more like tend to your roses. Yea. And instead 370 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,480 Speaker 1: of and instead of working on the machinery, suddenly you 371 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:43,360 Speaker 1: have the benefit all of all this new futuristic machinery 372 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,439 Speaker 1: that's coming into your kitchen and into your household for 373 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 1: you to utilize in your traditional feminine role in the house. Yeah, 374 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:53,159 Speaker 1: and hey, why not get some of that stuff in 375 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:56,640 Speaker 1: the shade of pink, especially new beauty products too. Right, 376 00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:59,360 Speaker 1: you've got a pink brush to come on your hair 377 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,359 Speaker 1: on times a day. Um. Now, in the seventies, you 378 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:07,280 Speaker 1: do see pink taking a backseat, and some of that 379 00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:10,360 Speaker 1: is because of the more feminist oriented ideas that colors 380 00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: should be unisex um. But then the big eighties return, 381 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:19,160 Speaker 1: and with the eighties neon colors fuchia, and you see 382 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,959 Speaker 1: pink kind of trickling in again as a hyper gender 383 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,720 Speaker 1: performing color. Yeah, because on one hand, you get the 384 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 1: idea that you know what, well, you know, women can 385 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: be scientists. Of course, women can have all these different 386 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,640 Speaker 1: roles in society. But not only are they strong enough 387 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:35,960 Speaker 1: to do that, they're strong enough to wear pink if 388 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 1: they want to. Yeah. Yes, But I think I feel 389 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,320 Speaker 1: like some of this was really just a marketing juggernaut. 390 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: And we've seen those you know of late and say legos, 391 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,680 Speaker 1: because no longer is that just you know, here's these 392 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:54,080 Speaker 1: primary colored legos. Now you have more girly hues of 393 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 1: legos and pink and purple and other pastels that are 394 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:01,200 Speaker 1: being marketed. It's pretty brilliant, is now. If you have 395 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,639 Speaker 1: a two child family, two different genders, you don't have 396 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,399 Speaker 1: just one set of legos, you have to Yeah, and 397 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: the same thing with like an easy bake oven type devices. 398 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:13,160 Speaker 1: I've seen those where you have the existing one, which 399 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,240 Speaker 1: is generally some sort of a pink kind of color scheme, 400 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:18,040 Speaker 1: and you just change it to black or blue or 401 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: something or black and green and get a boy to 402 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,320 Speaker 1: cook a little gross things in it, right, and then 403 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:28,000 Speaker 1: it's uh, it's marketed to to those those gender stereotypes. 404 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:31,800 Speaker 1: Side note, my daughter got an easy bake oven for 405 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:37,040 Speaker 1: Christmas purple and pink, I gotta tell you, although they 406 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:41,120 Speaker 1: come in different colors, and uh, the pizza is disgusting, 407 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,320 Speaker 1: I've not like. I didn't think I'd ever met a 408 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: pizza I didn't like, and I really I had to 409 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 1: spit it out into the trash can. I don't know 410 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:53,359 Speaker 1: what they're using in that mix. Also worth noting in 411 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:58,280 Speaker 1: this whole uh nineteen eighties reconfusion of pink is that 412 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,119 Speaker 1: you also see paint being lives as a as in 413 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,520 Speaker 1: fashions for men, but it's oftentimes kind of wrapped in 414 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,480 Speaker 1: this this way of thinking, like he is so masculine, 415 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,240 Speaker 1: he's wearing pink. He doesn't even care. That's how masculine 416 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 1: he is. I feel like that's what happened with purple. 417 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:17,479 Speaker 1: Remember the purple tie craze and purple shirt craze happening 418 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:21,040 Speaker 1: in the minnow sphere. Yeah, that was like the I 419 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: don't I want to say, like, for some reason, why 420 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,040 Speaker 1: is this in my head? We just felled and like 421 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: ussered this and anyway, like over the past five years, 422 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: it was like, yes, we're in purple. We're doing it 423 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,520 Speaker 1: with style and masculinity, which is totally fine with me. 424 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: I just think it's interesting to see colors genderized like that. 425 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:41,160 Speaker 1: But then I feel like a lot of that kind 426 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:44,199 Speaker 1: of gets back to this whole idea of again what 427 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: the color represents, and this idea of children and pink 428 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,920 Speaker 1: and little girls or sugar and spice and everything nice, 429 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 1: you know, and and boys or was it puppy tails, 430 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 1: dogtails and yes, snail tails gross thinks slimy things. Yeah, 431 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:07,400 Speaker 1: and then pink it becomes this sort of confectionery color, right, 432 00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:10,520 Speaker 1: and girls are like cupcakes. And not to take this 433 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,639 Speaker 1: too far afield, but what happens when you transform a 434 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,960 Speaker 1: girl into everything nice and she's all delicious spice, and 435 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,880 Speaker 1: she's a cupcake. It's a lot easier to walk that 436 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,960 Speaker 1: kid into objectification. The older she gets. She's something to 437 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:29,800 Speaker 1: be consumed or to be you know, looked at. Yeah, 438 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:35,639 Speaker 1: she's something unnatural, something manufactured for consumption. And it's really 439 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,120 Speaker 1: weird place to wind up as a culture. Uh. If 440 00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:40,960 Speaker 1: I can return to pro wrestling for just one second, 441 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: of course, it can always For the last time in 442 00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 1: this episode, I do want to point out Breadth the hitman. Heart, 443 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:50,600 Speaker 1: one of the the icons of pro wrestling, always wore 444 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,200 Speaker 1: pink like. Sometimes it was very pink like, predominantly pink 445 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:56,960 Speaker 1: his outfit. Other times it would be like a pink 446 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,560 Speaker 1: and black type of setting. And a lot of times 447 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,360 Speaker 1: he was a guy. Sometimes he was a bad guy. 448 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:03,720 Speaker 1: But it never played into any kind like. He never 449 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,200 Speaker 1: did any kind of effeminine character like. It was never 450 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,040 Speaker 1: playing into feminine pink. It was just his last name 451 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:12,720 Speaker 1: is Heart and Valentine's days pink, So he just wore 452 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: pink so well. And if we've learned anything from David Eagelman, 453 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: we know that the unconscious is really at or care right, 454 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,600 Speaker 1: So if you're named Heart, maybe you would say, ah, yes, 455 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,040 Speaker 1: hearts are pink and red. And I assume that role 456 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,439 Speaker 1: for myself. Yeah, I don't know. Um, I'm gonna go 457 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:32,680 Speaker 1: back to camp Um. In her article and and On 458 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: real quick and UM, I'm gonna read this quote, she 459 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,919 Speaker 1: says the exclusion of boys from a wide range of 460 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,240 Speaker 1: perfectly viable, even important forms of dress and play because 461 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,679 Speaker 1: of their association with femininity is bad enough, but in 462 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,000 Speaker 1: a patriarchal society, the confinement of girls to a limited 463 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:53,200 Speaker 1: set of permissible ways of being is considerably worse. In particular, 464 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:58,040 Speaker 1: there is empirical evidence, such as the research from the 465 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:02,399 Speaker 1: University of Michigan, to suggest that highly gendered clothing can 466 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:06,480 Speaker 1: serve as a trigger for something called stereotype threat, meaning 467 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: that girls and women end up performing worse than they 468 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: could on test of stereotypically male abilities such as mathematics 469 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,720 Speaker 1: and engineering. Now, um, I know that stuff Mom never 470 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,760 Speaker 1: told you has talked about stereotype threat quite a bit 471 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,320 Speaker 1: in particularly in the fields of stem science, technology, engineering, 472 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,439 Speaker 1: and math. But this is all part and parcel, this 473 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:33,160 Speaker 1: idea that you're performing gender, you're doing via color, via 474 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:35,880 Speaker 1: the things that you wear. And if girls are bad 475 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,800 Speaker 1: at math, as Barbie once said, when you pulled a 476 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: chord on her um, then they're primed to be bad 477 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 1: at math. And that's why all of this matters, All 478 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,560 Speaker 1: this sort of symbolism. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it really 479 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:49,840 Speaker 1: gets down to symbolism. And I'll make sure to link 480 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: to our previous episode on the power of symbols on 481 00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:55,400 Speaker 1: the landing page for this episode at Stuff to Blow 482 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: your Mind dot Com because a lot of the same 483 00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 1: energy as at work. We establish all these meanings for 484 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:03,560 Speaker 1: these symbols and then also just the colors of themselves, 485 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: and then our brain is interacting with those symbols at 486 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: at a subconscious level. I mean, they're really controlling, especially 487 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:14,919 Speaker 1: when you look at Victoria's Secret Okay, which we're going 488 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:19,360 Speaker 1: to talk about in the next episode too. Um, if 489 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,879 Speaker 1: you look at something called Pink Nation, which is a 490 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:28,920 Speaker 1: range of underwear for tweens, and it's like this crazy 491 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,200 Speaker 1: you know, Futia Pink Feller thing, and it's like these 492 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:33,440 Speaker 1: thongs and stuff like that, you know, it's like it's 493 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,640 Speaker 1: it's unsettling because you do see that you see all 494 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:40,960 Speaker 1: of this stuff being uh codified and put out there 495 00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:46,359 Speaker 1: and consumed by the general public. And so you know, 496 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:48,720 Speaker 1: again going back to David Eagleman, so much of this 497 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:51,800 Speaker 1: is working on an unconscious level. You know. There's an 498 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: article in The Atlantic definitely worth checking out titled will 499 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,440 Speaker 1: a major sports team everwhere pink? That I found pretty interesting. 500 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,719 Speaker 1: It does point that in the nineteenth century, uh, you 501 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 1: did see uh pin State uh deciding on pink and 502 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,360 Speaker 1: black for the schools and therefore the football team's colors, 503 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: and they later changed it to blue and white. But 504 00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: for the most part, you do not see pink in 505 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,600 Speaker 1: any kind of major usage with a with a major 506 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:19,960 Speaker 1: sports team, except during October or Pink Cober as it's 507 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,639 Speaker 1: become branded. Where pink, of course, is the color that 508 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,080 Speaker 1: has been taken on by the breast cancer awareness groups, 509 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,639 Speaker 1: and to help promote that cause, you'll see sports teams 510 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,679 Speaker 1: adding some pink to their to their outfits, wearing pink bands. Uh. 511 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: In wrestling, sorry, I came back to one more time, 512 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: they'll add like a pink rope, you know, and then 513 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,520 Speaker 1: wrestlers will have like pink have have pink outfits that 514 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,800 Speaker 1: normally they wouldn't have the pink color scheme, and all 515 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,200 Speaker 1: that actually just serves to cement the idea that pink 516 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:50,840 Speaker 1: is a feminine color and if a male is to 517 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,280 Speaker 1: wear it, then he's just doing it out of a 518 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: show of strength and bravery, uh, you know, for his 519 00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: his female counterparts, although breast cancer does effect men too, 520 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,520 Speaker 1: albeit none at the same rates. Um. Yeah, it's interesting 521 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: that that it is then used so effectively in that 522 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:12,360 Speaker 1: campaign because it's not a color that's uh, that's sort 523 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,080 Speaker 1: of a boring color. It's really captures your attention, and 524 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,720 Speaker 1: so it is put to good use in that campaign, 525 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,280 Speaker 1: and as you say, it's some further cements the idea 526 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,840 Speaker 1: that it's genderized. And then there's this additional idea that 527 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,960 Speaker 1: maybe there's a pink pride going on, you know, via 528 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,600 Speaker 1: the pink lego set, Like maybe it's a hey, well, 529 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,080 Speaker 1: girls can be engineers too, and they you know, we'll 530 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 1: just put some pink on it and encourage them to 531 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,120 Speaker 1: do it. But in my mind, I don't know why 532 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:44,040 Speaker 1: you would have to associate pride with it. Uh, Why 533 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,600 Speaker 1: wouldn't you just encourage the child to play with whatever 534 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,920 Speaker 1: the engineering building block set in the first place in 535 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,560 Speaker 1: a very non gendered way. Yeah. Yeah, I mean unless 536 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: it's you know, the point where they're already completely control 537 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:03,360 Speaker 1: by the symbols in place. Yeah, and then you know, 538 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,600 Speaker 1: my daughter certainly went through a brief pink phase, and 539 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,600 Speaker 1: I would say that she's pretty well balanced in whatever. 540 00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 1: You would say that the colors of that symbolize being 541 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: a girl and a boy. And she was j from 542 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,320 Speaker 1: Ninjago for Halloween. She she was so excited to be 543 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 1: the blue ninja. UM, So I have hopes there because 544 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:25,840 Speaker 1: you know, we've tried to tell her that this is 545 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,960 Speaker 1: these sorts of things are available to you no matter 546 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:34,080 Speaker 1: what your gender is. Is there a pink ninjago. There 547 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:38,120 Speaker 1: is not a pink ninjaga. There is uh Nia who 548 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 1: is um. She's not a ninja, she's a samurai. Um. 549 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,320 Speaker 1: And so she's a bit apart from the rest of 550 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 1: the ninja. But you know she's a character on there. 551 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:49,760 Speaker 1: But that my daughter is not interested in her. She's 552 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,760 Speaker 1: interested in Jay. No. She was red the question that 553 00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:56,880 Speaker 1: we have about pink, and we're not trying to um 554 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: blow your mind. No, I was gonna say, we're not 555 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,240 Speaker 1: trying to whittle pink down to nothing. But the question 556 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,880 Speaker 1: that comes up is does pink even exist? Which is 557 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:08,920 Speaker 1: kind of not a fair question, but we'll go ahead 558 00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:11,160 Speaker 1: and ask you right it. I mean it definitely made 559 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:16,640 Speaker 1: the rounds. Uh, this particular headline because at surface level 560 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: it's just nice and mind blowing and makes you really 561 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,600 Speaker 1: love science. Uh. If you're the type of person who 562 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:26,640 Speaker 1: loves science without reading beyond the headline, um, then then yeah, 563 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: you just think, whoa pink doesn't exist? I see it, 564 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,800 Speaker 1: but it doesn't exist. That's blowing my mind. That's like, 565 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,160 Speaker 1: you know, but but when you actually get into it, 566 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: it's a bit more complex than that. And but it's 567 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:37,760 Speaker 1: also a bit more mind blowing than that when you 568 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:41,040 Speaker 1: start talking about how we perceive colors and ultimately how 569 00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:45,480 Speaker 1: we perceive the details of what we take to be reality. Yeah, 570 00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:50,200 Speaker 1: I mean, here's the simplest way to say this is that, um, 571 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,600 Speaker 1: there is no single wavelength of visible light that appears pink. 572 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: So think of Roy jeep it right, your red, your orange, yellow, green, blue, 573 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,160 Speaker 1: and to go and buy it. That is all the 574 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:07,280 Speaker 1: visible spectrum of light. There is no pink within it. Yeah, 575 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:11,160 Speaker 1: we don't see pink wavelengths of light. Something looks pink 576 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: because certain wavelengths of light are reflected and others are 577 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,200 Speaker 1: absorbed by the pigments. Pink is a reflective color, not 578 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,760 Speaker 1: a transmissive color. You perceive it because your brain translates 579 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,240 Speaker 1: light bouncing off of the pink object. And moreover, it's 580 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: a bit of color mixing by your brain. So consider this. 581 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: At the back of your eyeball, specifically on your retina, 582 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 1: you have a bunch of rod and cones. Now, rods 583 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,280 Speaker 1: are just all interested in the amount of light that's 584 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: coming in, right, they're light sensitive, and colins, on the 585 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: other hand, are all interested in color. But the cones 586 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 1: come in only three types, red, green, and blue sensitive. 587 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 1: So what's a pink to do? Well? There has to 588 00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:58,720 Speaker 1: be some color mixing by those cones. So if you 589 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,440 Speaker 1: think about it, you have blue cones working with green 590 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,280 Speaker 1: cones to produce scion, and then they work with red 591 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: cones to produce the color magenta. Now, if you want 592 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,840 Speaker 1: a true pink, then you have to have, um, those 593 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:16,240 Speaker 1: cones firing just partially, those um, those blue and green 594 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: ones firing partially, but the red ones fully firing. And 595 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,960 Speaker 1: that's when you get a bit of you know, messaging 596 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,600 Speaker 1: to your brain. Hey, we've mixed this together, and that's 597 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,080 Speaker 1: pink that you're looking at right now, which is kind 598 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:30,920 Speaker 1: of mind blowing. Yeah. Yeah, I mean to throw a 599 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: little more context to um. When you see white, that 600 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,000 Speaker 1: means all the cones are activated. Black, none of the 601 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,200 Speaker 1: cones are activated. And if you want to see gray, 602 00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,840 Speaker 1: that's all three cones activated, but only partially. So similar 603 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,320 Speaker 1: in a way to pink. So you think of gray 604 00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:48,600 Speaker 1: and pink in similar terms. Yeah, I mean same if 605 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: you look at a yellow banana, right, Um, your eyelax 606 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,640 Speaker 1: yellow sensitive cones. So then the yellow of that banana 607 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,320 Speaker 1: activates your red and green cones and they fire together 608 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:00,720 Speaker 1: and then they send a message to your brain. So 609 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 1: it really is like having a little artist in your 610 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,200 Speaker 1: brain there, But ultimately it's it's all kind of like 611 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,760 Speaker 1: having a little artist in your brain in a sense. 612 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:10,840 Speaker 1: Something I don't want to feed into the idea that 613 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,480 Speaker 1: we're just brains, uh in a body or a ride 614 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,720 Speaker 1: around a horse. We've talked about the mind body connection 615 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:20,279 Speaker 1: plenty of times, but essentially blind brain depending on these uh, 616 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,440 Speaker 1: these feeble side organs to relay information to it and 617 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:27,879 Speaker 1: convince it what the outside world consists of. Yeah and uh. 618 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:32,880 Speaker 1: In a Scientific American blog entitled stop this absurd Warm Pink, 619 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:37,160 Speaker 1: the author explains that photons and neurons interplanning with cones 620 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 1: in the eye and the perception of the brain area 621 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 1: is pretty much a magic trick. That any color is 622 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,879 Speaker 1: on her head. And this is from the article. It says, 623 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,839 Speaker 1: pink is real or it is not, but it's just 624 00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:53,920 Speaker 1: as real or not real as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, 625 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: and violet. So, in other words, probably shouldn't, you know, 626 00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: quibble about whether or not pink exists. But a lot 627 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,680 Speaker 1: of people were really quick to dismiss it and uh 628 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: and gast it aside and use this against pink. They are, 629 00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,279 Speaker 1: And you know, I'm tempted to I'm not a fan 630 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:13,279 Speaker 1: of pink, but hey, it's there, it's around, it's it's 631 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,759 Speaker 1: peppt alebismal right, it's it's in the color code. Do 632 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:18,839 Speaker 1: you think some people might have leaped to this as 633 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,799 Speaker 1: well because they identify pink as a feminine color and 634 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:26,000 Speaker 1: would therefore see this as an attack on on the 635 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:28,879 Speaker 1: female gender. And I mean, I suppose you could choose 636 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,239 Speaker 1: a subtext like that out of it and say it's 637 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,759 Speaker 1: so weak it doesn't even exist pink. Yeah, or maybe 638 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:36,720 Speaker 1: they have, maybe they have some sort of agenda against 639 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:40,280 Speaker 1: other um groups out there, or maybe against just Bret 640 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: Hart in general. I don't know. I think it is 641 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,560 Speaker 1: the Bret Hart conspiracy. Yeah, all right, So there you go. 642 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:50,360 Speaker 1: There's our exploration of pink, and hopefully this episode itself 643 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: was what was in the pink was pink in the 644 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 1: sense that just exactly the way we we meant to 645 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,759 Speaker 1: h do it. That's right, because the at them all 646 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:02,040 Speaker 1: and you have in the pink. Originally in that like 647 00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,520 Speaker 1: the top of something like you know, it's in the 648 00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:08,640 Speaker 1: pink at the top of its class, but then later 649 00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:12,239 Speaker 1: on it began to take on associations with good health. Yeah, 650 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 1: I was reading that it's possible that it had. It 651 00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:17,919 Speaker 1: also ties into fox hunting jackets as well, which were 652 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,879 Speaker 1: more red. Right, but again the associations between red and pink. 653 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:28,160 Speaker 1: There's Bolton territory where it's the colors of tearing something apart, 654 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,360 Speaker 1: so it would be you know, in keeping with Wow. 655 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:35,200 Speaker 1: That was nice that that brought it full circle. Hey, 656 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:37,680 Speaker 1: in the meantime, if you want to catch up on 657 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,000 Speaker 1: other episodes we've recorded, if you want to check out 658 00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:41,800 Speaker 1: the landing page for this episode and check out the 659 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,200 Speaker 1: links also include some links to some of these outside 660 00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:46,879 Speaker 1: sources we've been talking about. Go to stuff to Blow 661 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,520 Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. That is our mothership. You'll find 662 00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:51,400 Speaker 1: all the podcast, all the blog post, all the videos, 663 00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:53,840 Speaker 1: links oide to our social media accounts, anything you could desire. 664 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:57,919 Speaker 1: And if you have pink hued thoughts that you would 665 00:36:57,920 --> 00:36:59,719 Speaker 1: like to share with us, we would love to hear them. 666 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:02,160 Speaker 1: You can send them to Blow the Mind at how 667 00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:08,160 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. For more on Thiss and thousands 668 00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:16,440 Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.