Blindness in Perception & Gender of Colors

Title: Blindness in Perception & Gender of Colors

Date: 24 May 2011
Class: Chemistry IB HL
Category: Other Classes

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            During a recent chemistry class, my classmates and I were conducting an experiment. We had to add a solute (unknown) into a solvent (water). After we dissolved this solute, we encountered a color change in the substance from clear to blue. I knew I had added a substance to the water which had caused this change in color, but I could no longer see the substance that had been added. I could not see the solutes floating about in the water; the particles had all dissociated.  I realized with this simple experiment that our perceptions could easily deceive us. [Knowledge Issue] If this is the case, then why do we rely on our sense perceptions as a way of knowledge in our day to day lives? Should our sense perception be our primary source of knowledge? What other ways of knowing are more reliable? Is it OK for us to rely on only one way of knowing or is it necessary to use all the ways of knowing to fully understand the idea?

            Focusing on the color change from clear to blue, I came to think of this topic. Blue is accepted to be a masculine color, similar to pink being referred to as a feminine color. I asked my partner, Sang Yeon, “Why do you think blue is considered to be masculine?” She replied with a simple, “I don’t know.” [Knowledge Issues] Why is it that gender is designated to a color? Is it because studies have shown that boys like blue more than girls? What if the statistics for this study changed due to the change in generation? Would the gender still stick with the color or would it change? Who has the authority to change this? [Connection] This idea of a color being either feminine or masculine is so powerful in our society today, that it has influenced social discrimination. For example, men wearing pink are sometimes referred to as being gay just because of the color they are wearing. Why is this issue so important as to limit the colors that we can and cannot like and use?