r/pointlesslygendered Aug 10 '25

POINTFULLY GENDERED Is it gay to prefer pastels? [gendered]

Post image
3.8k Upvotes

310 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/Upset-Elderberry3723 Aug 10 '25

Indeed. Although, some research does exist indicating that women se a wider range of colour shades than men normally do due to cone density in the eyes.

As a trans woman, I've always been able to see really tiny differences in shades that others around me haven't.

63

u/Shadowgirl_skye Aug 10 '25

Sorry I really gotta doubt the validity of this research. We’re getting far too close to gender medacimism with these kind of claims.

Just looking at the abstract of the top google search result reveals it doesn’t seem to account for sociological differences.

Looking at some other studies suggests differences only in some colour ranges.

The reality is this is far to complex to be making these types of claims

13

u/Upset-Elderberry3723 Aug 10 '25

You can make claims based upon research. That's how it works.

There indeed probably is a sociological difference, but that doesn't make it any less real. Biological development often works in tandem with sociological gendering. It might be the case that women actually retain a better capacity for colour differentiation due to a societal need to do so. When you grow up as a girl, with an emphasis on beauty, colour differentiation becomes a more central task.

This would also fit with some evolutionary psychological theories that state males are biologically inclined to be more rash and hardline in their perception of all things due to a need to make critical, split-second decisions on safety.

It would also be congruent with other findings about the senses and nervous system in women, such as them retaining more of their cerebral cortex density post-puberty than men do (trans women retain more, as well).

In reality though, different neural presentations occur throughout both sexes. There are some that are found primarily in one sex, though, such as the neural presentations that seems to correlate with possessing ASD (mostly evidenced in males).

1

u/Electric-Molasses 28d ago

Where's the actual research though?