Stereotyping Through Use of Colour

I am going to show you two versions of the same image (both versions I have personally altered to suit this blog post), and then ask you who would generally prefer which version.



But before I do, I will just mention:

John Berger's Ways of Seeing, has inspired this a little. His theories on manipulating an image to create different meanings left me pondering on Stereotypes, and how different versions of images appeal to different target audiences because of preset customs and beliefs. So, I guess, this blog entry is another that should be linked to his theories.





So. Ready?




Take a look:




I'm sure you can guess what I'm thinking about, here.

In terms of Gender, who would prefer which colour??





If you thought 'pink = female' and 'blue = male', you are stereotyping straight away.

Thanks to modern culture and society, it has become an unwritten rule, almost, that anything 'pink' has to be targeting females. And for a man to drive around in the pink version of the Audi R8 Spyder above would be 'embarassing'.

In reality, there is no reason at all why a guy couldn't drive this car. If, for example, they actually liked the colour, they would be more than welcome to purchase this version. However, I can guarantee people would stop and stare, and because of the way people stereotype, a lot would even talk behind that person's back, whispering false accusations and assumptions about their character and sexuality.

It is wrong, and it is unfair.

It is stereotyping.

For the majority of males, regardless of whether or not they like the pink coloured version, they would refuse to buy it, refuse to even consider test-driving it purely out of ... for lack of a better term - fear of damage to their street-credability. Despite the fact owning a car like this would cost near £150'000 and would suggest they are immensely successful and impressive, the colour would leave people wondering, and this could be damaging to that person's reputation.

Similarly, for a girl to drive the dark-blue version would leave passers-by considering their sexuality, too. Consider them to be tom-boys or the likes. Personally, I love that colour and would take the blue version over the pink one, any day. So here is me, ripping the theory of stereotyping clean away; I am a girl, and would not prefer the pink version.

But if it came down to it, and they had a lot of both money and reputation at stake, I reckon a lot of car-buyers would think very carefully about the colour of the car they choose before driving out of the saleroom.