No, this isn't a post about sex and porn. I just did one of those, you pervert.
Long ago, (when the blog was young) I started a post on a statistical breakdown of North American superhero comic book sales. The post did what it was supposed to- undercut an argument that recent comic book art (and the resulting sales the new style generated) were sexist by implying that they were to statistically insignificant to matter, and that a tiny part of the population was just being allowed to read what they wanted.
I canned the post because that's a horrible thing to go around a write/try to prove. And that it's basically hollow.
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| Figure A: Male superhero vs Female superhero. Yeah. |
Remember, this is a new reboot of the DC comic book franchise, more or less. This is how they want to depict things to appeal to modern audiences.
Just keep that in mind while we launch into the topic at hand.
Currently sweeping the Internet is the story of how a brother argued for his younger brother's right to get a purple controller as a gift. The pair were in a videogame store, and the older brother let his younger brother pick out a game with a female protagonist and a purple controller to play on. They were being brothers (as brothers are) and taking their time in the cornicopia of brightly colored fun that videogame stores can be.
The father of the pair walks into the store, and proceeds to stereotype himself expertly as "white trash". He ends up yelling at his younger son over the choice of videogame and controller color. The older brother then does the most badass and cool thing possible- gets his younger brother the gifts he wanted anyway.
It's sort of heartwarming, except for the fact that this story shouldn't be a story at all. It's absolutely retarded- if yelling at your kid over something so petty as the protagonist/subject matter of a video game and control color sound like a good idea to you, then don't procreate. Ever. Period.
There is scientific proof that girls and guys are drawn to different colors- so yes, purple is a color that is favored more by girls. But you don't have to always play to statistical norms. For example, everyone (according to the statistics) prefers blue hues, but I know plenty of people who are serious fans of bright green or bright orange.
And damn it, I like the color purple- especially the deeper shades. So, yeah, this is kinda personal.
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| Not only do I know that Periwinkle is a color, but it's one of my favorites |
The idea of femmephobia- that boys are afraid of "girly" things because it emasculates them, is alive and well. The silliest part is that even little kids figure it out from the other side of things: that it's really, really retarded that girls sections of toy stores are baiscally pink isles.
It's equally retarded that the boys isles are the blue ones, but this idea seems to have gotten less traction. This isn't about being gay, or bi, or whatever. Google's already got all that covered with the "It Gets Better" video. This is about simply preferring different things that what other people expect you to.
And yes, it is enough to make you feel left out and alone- perhaps not picked on as badly as someone who really is different, but enough to make you feel like there isn't anyone else in the middle: not man enough to play WWII shooters and football, but also not gay.
Not that there aren't some some amazing articles about it, don't get me wrong. But I want to say it loud, I want to say it clear:
Colors are no more than light being reflected (or not reflected) into your eye. Clothes are no more than fabric, dolls no more than plastic or stuffing. Do what ever you goddamn want- whatever makes you happy.
To the kid who wanted a purple controller: you deserve the games and controllers that you want, not that anyone else wants you to want. And don't you ever forget that.
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