Color Me Blind

It is well known that girls can see far more shades of color than guys. Really. It’s not just that guys don’t care (we don’t); what we consider as shades of a color are often different colors to girls. I learn such things… by being insulted by my daughter.

A couple of years ago, we went to this mall and decided to let my daughter pick a nail polish of her choosing. She pointed at one; and I told the sales girl to get us the yellow one. I was promptly and loudly corrected by the kid:

“That’s golden, not yellow.”

More recently, she asked me to name the color of the nail polish on her mom’s hand. Brown, I said. No, it’s maroon, she corrected. My wife then explained to her that guys can’t differentiate as many colors as girls.

I often play matador-and-bull with my daughter (she’ll charge like a bull at whatever cloth I am waving). The other day, while watching some bulls on Discovery, I explained to her that bulls are color blind, and so it’s not the red cloth that triggers the charge; instead, it’s the waving of the cloth. I concluded my lesson with:

“Imagine that. The bull can’t see colors. It sees everything as black and white.”

Misinterpreting my statement as one of pride at us humans’ ability to see colors, she gave me that “What are you so proud about?” look, and said:

“So? Guys can’t see half the colors either.”

To her, men lie somewhere between bulls and girls on the color spectrum!