Post by TimberWolf7.62 on Oct 20, 2009 13:31:45 GMT -5
There are some fundamental differences between men and women, in addition to the obvious. Testosterone must impede color recognition, for one thing. Men can distinguish about eight or ten colors. Black, white, gray, brown, the colors of the rainbow, that's about it. Women can recognize thousands, millions, probably. It's like dogs being able to hear those whistles that have a pitch far above what humans can pick up.
For example, my wife and I were picking the color to have the walls painted when we built our current house. You have to look at these little paint chips, a piece of cardboard about one inch by three inches long, and imagine how a whole wall will look in this color. She hands me two of these, and asks me "Which one do you like best".
Me: "They're the same color."
Her: "No, they aren't. This one is a little darker shade."
Me: "Bulls**t, they're the . . . well, they do have different names."
I held them up and squinted at them, moved them more under the light, looked at the from different angles. I honestly couldn't discern any difference. "Bulls**t, they're the same color."
Her: "No, they aren't. You men don't know anything. Give me those." She took the paint chips away from me. I don't know which of the colors we ended up with. But they both looked the same to me, so it doesn't matter.
And of course, all of these other colors have to have names. I know a few of them. Beige, for example. I know beige because most computer cases are that color. It’s kind of a dark white. I know that cerulean is blue, from a college English class. (OK, I was just making that up. The truth is that it was in an X-Files episode years ago.) But it still just looks like a medium blue to me. I think fuschia is red and purple. Maybe. I don't have a clue what ochre or puce are. "Puce" sounds like "puke" - in French, or something. That pretty much exhausts my knowledge of colors. Beyond the normal ones.
I guess, being this attuned to colors, women focus on them more. I saw a friend's new car, and was describing it to another friend. My description was along the lines of mechanical things - engine specifications, horsepower, gear ratio, etc. My wife described it to this guy's wife like this: "It's a pretty shade of blue. Kind of a [?] or a [?]."
Now, I have square brackets and question marks here because my wife used some words with which I was not familiar, and don't remember. I'm sure they were names of colors that men can't recognize. But the other woman could. She knew exactly what my wife was talking about. Besides which, the only important thing to the women was the color. They never did discuss gear ratios.
I had a girlfriend do this to me once, too (obviously, prior to my having a wife!). I had a 1973 Z/28 with a fiberglass L-88 hood, Cragar SS mags, skinny tires (F78's) up front and big fat ones (L60's) in back, a badass 378 cubic-inch engine (a destroked 400 smallblock), high-lift cam, headers, big four-barrel carb, the works. . . . and she pointed it out to another girl as "the black one". Yeah, it did have nine coats of black lacquer and four coats of clear - but THE BLACK ONE?!?!?! Jeez, it could have been a f**king Honda Civic for all that description conveys!!
I was hurt. I was wounded. My cool ride was insulted. I just had to take heart in the fact that she didn't use some word to describe the particular shade of black that the car was painted, some word that signifies a color that only women and faggots can see. And I am sure that it was some particular shade of black, just not one that I could discern.
For example, my wife and I were picking the color to have the walls painted when we built our current house. You have to look at these little paint chips, a piece of cardboard about one inch by three inches long, and imagine how a whole wall will look in this color. She hands me two of these, and asks me "Which one do you like best".
Me: "They're the same color."
Her: "No, they aren't. This one is a little darker shade."
Me: "Bulls**t, they're the . . . well, they do have different names."
I held them up and squinted at them, moved them more under the light, looked at the from different angles. I honestly couldn't discern any difference. "Bulls**t, they're the same color."
Her: "No, they aren't. You men don't know anything. Give me those." She took the paint chips away from me. I don't know which of the colors we ended up with. But they both looked the same to me, so it doesn't matter.
And of course, all of these other colors have to have names. I know a few of them. Beige, for example. I know beige because most computer cases are that color. It’s kind of a dark white. I know that cerulean is blue, from a college English class. (OK, I was just making that up. The truth is that it was in an X-Files episode years ago.) But it still just looks like a medium blue to me. I think fuschia is red and purple. Maybe. I don't have a clue what ochre or puce are. "Puce" sounds like "puke" - in French, or something. That pretty much exhausts my knowledge of colors. Beyond the normal ones.
I guess, being this attuned to colors, women focus on them more. I saw a friend's new car, and was describing it to another friend. My description was along the lines of mechanical things - engine specifications, horsepower, gear ratio, etc. My wife described it to this guy's wife like this: "It's a pretty shade of blue. Kind of a [?] or a [?]."
Now, I have square brackets and question marks here because my wife used some words with which I was not familiar, and don't remember. I'm sure they were names of colors that men can't recognize. But the other woman could. She knew exactly what my wife was talking about. Besides which, the only important thing to the women was the color. They never did discuss gear ratios.
I had a girlfriend do this to me once, too (obviously, prior to my having a wife!). I had a 1973 Z/28 with a fiberglass L-88 hood, Cragar SS mags, skinny tires (F78's) up front and big fat ones (L60's) in back, a badass 378 cubic-inch engine (a destroked 400 smallblock), high-lift cam, headers, big four-barrel carb, the works. . . . and she pointed it out to another girl as "the black one". Yeah, it did have nine coats of black lacquer and four coats of clear - but THE BLACK ONE?!?!?! Jeez, it could have been a f**king Honda Civic for all that description conveys!!
I was hurt. I was wounded. My cool ride was insulted. I just had to take heart in the fact that she didn't use some word to describe the particular shade of black that the car was painted, some word that signifies a color that only women and faggots can see. And I am sure that it was some particular shade of black, just not one that I could discern.