why orange is rarely a choice on favourite-colour quizzes and other musings
I gravitate toward brilliant autumnal hues, like rusty orange and goldenrod yellow. I love blood red, new-leaf green, deepsky blue, and fuschia; teal is gorgeous, and night-deep purple, and anything intense and energetic. They key is the way the colour sings, such that you notice the colour before you notice the object itself.
You could say, then, that I truly do not have a favourite colour. I frequently mention orange because orange makes me irrationally cheerful, and because if I HAD to choose then orange would decidedly be it. But really a vast number of colours with the right intensity make me feel good. My housemates will often make the amused comment that "anything goes in Anna's room, no matter how ridiculously coloured it is," and they're right. My walls are gold, my sheets are purple, my comforter is teal and green and blue; I have pillows in most every hue of the rainbow and blankets of bright blue. My wall art is intense and mismatched. Black and dark colours are represented, too; what unites the room is passion rather than logic. It is the exact opposite of Hina's carefully coordinated room.
---
I have not often thought about why people are drawn to certain colours, but when Barwick and I used to waste time taking online quizzes I began to notice. I didn't notice because every quiz EVER seems to ask what colours you like best, but rather because almost NOBODY includes the colour "orange" as an option. It's almost hilarious, this phenomenon. You can choose pink, grey, rainbow, etc, but not orange. Why is that? Barwick first observed this after a couple of my jokingly frustrated comments, so we tested it. 10 quizzes in a row, 0 chances to specify "orange."
So I wonder: why does nobody consider orange? Is that a colour that nobody's pinned down yet? Red we associate with lust and rage, romance and passion, blood and roses. White we associate with innocence and purity, death and potential, new beginnings. But orange...? Orange doesn't even get fire because for some reason we give that to red. Orange doesn't get the sun because we hand that off to yellow. So orange is just ignored. How am I supposed to know what kind of fucked-up My Little Pony I really am?
I once took a bizarre psychological personality test that determined what colour I was. To this I actually got orange, which it described in a number of amusing ways. Athletic and adventurous, curious and energetic, affectionate and somehow kinky and childishly innocent at the same time (what?) -- arbitrary things. Or perhaps not. I wonder if they gave orange to all the undecideds.
I have met a lot of people who like orange, but I've not met anyone else who likes orange as a favourite colour. Maybe that's because no one has orange eyes and you don't see it all that often in poetry. It's funny, though, how completely different my opinions on eye-colour seem to be from most of my friends; take blue eyes, for example. I don't judge by eyes, but whereas most people call blue eyes innocent and baby-like to me they seem pale and insincere. I like really dark blue okay because it is intense, but I can't read pale eyes. And blue is not warm, nor is pale green.
Hazel looks wild; it is unsettling to pass a stranger with eyes the exact same colour as mine. Do you like people with the same colour eyes? Hina loves blue eyes because hers are dark brown; a lot of people seem to be drawn toward oppositely-hued eyes. Me, I don't know. I love honey-brown eyes, a rare colour you sometimes see on Middle Easterners, and I like mixed-coloured eyes. They are somehow exotic and untraceable to a particular ethnic group. But eyes the *same* colour as mine would be freaky. We'd have to wear sunglasses around and take them off at the exact same time when meeting new people just to make them go "What the hell?" :P
Sometimes I think I would be so much more attractive if I had those snow-bunny sky-blue eyes, the kind that look healthy and childish and sexy all at once. Actresses have them. They are quite popular. For an art project once, I actually did mess around in Photoshop and give myself blue eyes, though, and they looked... wrong. So there you have it.
Enough rambling on colours, though; I wanted to take this further and go into the colours of my dreams recently and the increasing awareness of certain hues that move me on a spiritual plane, but that's another post. This one was just silly.
Time to go roll and cut gingerbread cookies....
You could say, then, that I truly do not have a favourite colour. I frequently mention orange because orange makes me irrationally cheerful, and because if I HAD to choose then orange would decidedly be it. But really a vast number of colours with the right intensity make me feel good. My housemates will often make the amused comment that "anything goes in Anna's room, no matter how ridiculously coloured it is," and they're right. My walls are gold, my sheets are purple, my comforter is teal and green and blue; I have pillows in most every hue of the rainbow and blankets of bright blue. My wall art is intense and mismatched. Black and dark colours are represented, too; what unites the room is passion rather than logic. It is the exact opposite of Hina's carefully coordinated room.
---
I have not often thought about why people are drawn to certain colours, but when Barwick and I used to waste time taking online quizzes I began to notice. I didn't notice because every quiz EVER seems to ask what colours you like best, but rather because almost NOBODY includes the colour "orange" as an option. It's almost hilarious, this phenomenon. You can choose pink, grey, rainbow, etc, but not orange. Why is that? Barwick first observed this after a couple of my jokingly frustrated comments, so we tested it. 10 quizzes in a row, 0 chances to specify "orange."
So I wonder: why does nobody consider orange? Is that a colour that nobody's pinned down yet? Red we associate with lust and rage, romance and passion, blood and roses. White we associate with innocence and purity, death and potential, new beginnings. But orange...? Orange doesn't even get fire because for some reason we give that to red. Orange doesn't get the sun because we hand that off to yellow. So orange is just ignored. How am I supposed to know what kind of fucked-up My Little Pony I really am?
I once took a bizarre psychological personality test that determined what colour I was. To this I actually got orange, which it described in a number of amusing ways. Athletic and adventurous, curious and energetic, affectionate and somehow kinky and childishly innocent at the same time (what?) -- arbitrary things. Or perhaps not. I wonder if they gave orange to all the undecideds.
I have met a lot of people who like orange, but I've not met anyone else who likes orange as a favourite colour. Maybe that's because no one has orange eyes and you don't see it all that often in poetry. It's funny, though, how completely different my opinions on eye-colour seem to be from most of my friends; take blue eyes, for example. I don't judge by eyes, but whereas most people call blue eyes innocent and baby-like to me they seem pale and insincere. I like really dark blue okay because it is intense, but I can't read pale eyes. And blue is not warm, nor is pale green.
Hazel looks wild; it is unsettling to pass a stranger with eyes the exact same colour as mine. Do you like people with the same colour eyes? Hina loves blue eyes because hers are dark brown; a lot of people seem to be drawn toward oppositely-hued eyes. Me, I don't know. I love honey-brown eyes, a rare colour you sometimes see on Middle Easterners, and I like mixed-coloured eyes. They are somehow exotic and untraceable to a particular ethnic group. But eyes the *same* colour as mine would be freaky. We'd have to wear sunglasses around and take them off at the exact same time when meeting new people just to make them go "What the hell?" :P
Sometimes I think I would be so much more attractive if I had those snow-bunny sky-blue eyes, the kind that look healthy and childish and sexy all at once. Actresses have them. They are quite popular. For an art project once, I actually did mess around in Photoshop and give myself blue eyes, though, and they looked... wrong. So there you have it.
Enough rambling on colours, though; I wanted to take this further and go into the colours of my dreams recently and the increasing awareness of certain hues that move me on a spiritual plane, but that's another post. This one was just silly.
Time to go roll and cut gingerbread cookies....