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You know that scene in Little Miss Sunshine when Dwayne finds out he’s color blind and can’t achieve his lifelong dream of becoming a jet pilot? That may have had some real-life inspiration (see #3 below). Here are 10 famous people who suffered from the same problem as Dwayne.
1. Mr. Rogers was totally red-green color blind and couldn’t distinguish between tomato soup and pea soup. He asked a colleague to taste his soup one day and tell him what flavor he had gotten. Knowing that he liked both, she asked why he didn’t just tuck in. “If it’s tomato soup, I’ll put sugar in it,” he said.
2. Samuel Clemens. At least, that’s the word on the street – I couldn’t find a good story to back it up.
3. Paul Newman wanted to be a pilot for the Navy. It was during the flight physical that he discovered he was color blind. Instead, Newman trained to be a radioman and a gunner and, obviously, eventually went on to become an actor.
4. Meat Loaf, on the other hand, tried to fail his Army physical by listing his numerous ailments: he was color blind, 68 pounds overweight, had a trick shoulder and was prone to concussions. He was drafted anyway.
5. Jack Nicklaus. As Sports Illustrated puts it, dude “couldn’t tell you a green number from a red on a leader board if the winner’s check depended on it.”
6. Bing Crosby. Bing’s loud clothing was fodder for many jokes back in the day – Bob Hope especially relished zinging Der Bingle for his bad taste. But it’s no wonder that Bing picked out such tacky pieces – he was, quite literally, color blind. “He will think something is a beautiful blue,” his wife once explained, “and it will turn out to be a bilious green.”
7. Matt Lauer has a mild case of color-blindness, but that hasn’t stopped him from being named best-dressed man on several lists, including Vanity Fair’s.
8. Howie Mandel is color blind, which probably doesn’t really hinder him in his job on Deal or No Deal. But back in the day when he was selling carpet, it could be a problem. “There were a lot of ugly homes in Toronto because of me,” he said in an interview.
9. Emerson Moser. OK, he’s not famous, but I felt his story was worth telling. Moser was Crayola’s senior-most crayon maker: after 37 years of employment he had molded more than 1.4 billion crayons. It wasn’t until he retired that he revealed a secret: his blue-green color blindness meant that he couldn’t see all of the colors he was making.
10. Hugh Downs is also in the color blind club. His wife helped him with clothing choices by number-coding things – one group of items that went together would all have “1” on them; another group would be clustered by “2”s and so on.
Do you know of any others? Or are you color blind? If so, do you get sick of people asking “What color is this?” all of the time? Let us know about your experiences in the comments!
Comments (63)
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I had a friend in high school who was color blind and that thought I was blond….I’m very much a(natural)redhead.
posted by ashley.paige on 11-9-2009 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for including the Emerson Moser story on here. I’m a r/g colorblind photographer, and that just reinforces my theory that colorblindness shouldn’t stop me from doing anything I want to do.
posted by Josh on 11-9-2009 at 5:22 pm
I’m sorry to be this person, but I can’t help but question the Mr. Rogers anecdote. Why would his colleague, who was presumably not color blind, need to taste the soup to tell the difference between tomato and pea? And if taste was going to be used to tell the difference, why couldn’t he just taste it himself?
Love the Quick 10. Maybe some reruns can be arranged the next time you’re out? That was a long week!
posted by Adam on 11-9-2009 at 5:39 pm
One of my ex-boyfriends is color blind. He used to work as a cake decorator, and his coworkers thought it was SOOO funny to rearrange the frosting colors he kept very carefully in their places so that the grass would be purple, etc… They decided it wasn’t so funny, though, once their boss caught on and started docking their pay for the cakes they caused him to ruin.
posted by Megan on 11-9-2009 at 5:43 pm
I had a friend in high school who was color blind. I don’t remember what colors specifically, but he wanted to go in the Army as a sniper. They wouldn’t let him, though, so he signed up to do “camouflage painting”- where you go into the desert (or wherever), and “paint the target” with a laser for airstrikes. Apparently some color blind folk have an easier time distinguishing stuff under camo netting; that’s a pretty cool niche job to have in the military!
posted by Tamsyn on 11-9-2009 at 5:44 pm
When I learned that color blindness often results in the inability to distinguish between red and green, I thought that would make driving difficult, but figured you could probably get used to stopping for the light on top and going for the light on bottom. Then I went to Texas where all of the traffic lights I saw were horizontal.
I couldn’t help but wonder if that would make it harder for color blind drivers. Maybe it’s just as easy for drivers from Texas, but challenging if you were just driving through and didn’t know to expect the change?
Anyone have an answer?
posted by Adam on 11-9-2009 at 5:55 pm
I had two friends in high school who were color blind. One was in my art class, and we would always jokingly ask why he was painting his grass blue.
My other friend also once went to a green version of my red car. He didn’t believe me when I kept walking.
No spoiler warning for the Little Miss Sunshine info? Good thing I’ve seen the movie.
posted by Ethan on 11-9-2009 at 5:58 pm
My father in law is color blind and in the army. He leaves for Iraq six months at a time. His trips all over the place last 6 months.
My mother in law has to write ones, twos, and threes on all his tags. A 1 or 2 on a shirt tag means it will match a either a tie marked 1 or two. You get the idea.
He’s mighty trusting, isn’t he?
posted by Kels on 11-9-2009 at 5:59 pm
In Texas, most are horizontal, but some are vertical.
It should be just as easy to think “red is left, green is right”
posted by Troy H. on 11-9-2009 at 6:04 pm
Is it possible to become color blind as you get older? My grandfather was a Navy pilot in his younger days, but I’m convinced he was a bit color blind toward the end of his life. There is no other explanation for his odd clothing color combinations.
Side note to Ethan: If a movie has been out for more than a year, I don’t think a spoiler warning is required or “polite”. It’s just not necessary anymore.
posted by Christina on 11-9-2009 at 6:19 pm
Roger Staubach, the great Dallas Cowboys quarterback from the 1970s (and one of my heroes when I was growing up), was colorblind. Staubach played for Navy before joining the NFL; he shouldn’t have been admitted to the Naval Academy, but by the time the mistake was discovered it wasn’t grounds for letting him go. All they could do was make sure he didn’t get put on the type of duty where colorblindness would be a safety issue.
posted by John Carney on 11-9-2009 at 6:25 pm
My husband is color blind. I buy all of his clothes and tell him what goes with what. He says his favorite color is blue, but he can’t tell blue from purple, which is MY favorite color. Our house is decorated with a lot of purple, but I just tell him it’s blue and everyone’s happy…
But seriously, I would love to able to see the world as he sees it. I couldn’t imagine not being able to distinguish between blue and purple. They’re both beautiful and unique in their own ways. He also can’t tell yellow from orange; and if you put green, grey, and brown in front of him, they all look the same.
His father was also color blind. His two brothers have normal vision.
posted by Liz on 11-9-2009 at 6:32 pm
As one of the less than 1% of women that are colorblind (red-green, in my case), I enjoyed learning that I’m in pretty good company.
I used to ask my college roommate if my clothes matched. Years later, she finally admitted that if she were mad at me, she’d tell me they matched even if they didn’t!
Adam, for some reason, I don’t have any problems seeing red stoplights. At night though, the green stoplights tend to blend in with streetlights so I’m sometimes surprised when they change to yellow. Better that than the reverse, I suppose!
Regardless of colorblindness, I’ve often wondered whether what one person learns to be a color is same as what another person learns. How do you know that your version of “blue” is the same as someone else’s? It’s not like you can see what they see and compare?
posted by Janice on 11-9-2009 at 7:23 pm
I live in Texas and years ago had a friend who was/is colorblind. It’s my understanding that the state is trying to make the green traffic lights more blue-green to help.
posted by Christi on 11-9-2009 at 8:23 pm
Homer.
It’s a simple explanation for the numerous mentions of the “dark wine sea” in the Odyssey and the Iliad.
-micha
posted by micha on 11-9-2009 at 8:26 pm
I’m a teenage girl and I’m colorblind. My sister, great-grandmother and two of my aunts are colorblind as well. My friends joke about it a lot. Especially if I have to ask them about a color. I know something was up around 5th grade, but I just thought I was crazy when I mixed crayons up and stuff. I didn’t understand why people called money greenbacks until I was at least a freshman in high school.
posted by Heather on 11-9-2009 at 8:30 pm
I had a science teacher in High School who was color blind. We could always tell when he and his wife had a fight; his tie and his socks didn’t match his shirt.
posted by Sue on 11-9-2009 at 9:28 pm
I’m “color confused” — wrote about it some years back (post includes links to some online color blindness tests and simulators):
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/6379
posted by Chris Higgins on 11-9-2009 at 9:29 pm
I am red green colorblind and am an electrician. If it is dark, I have to get a flashlight to make sure the red and greens are not mixed up. It has caused sparks a few times.
posted by XaxMan on 11-9-2009 at 9:31 pm
I am color blind in Texas and I seem to differentiate what everyone else thinks is red as red even though I don’t really know what red is according to color blind tests. I know a stop sign is red so I associate. After a while it becomes habit. As far as clothes, my kids always make fun of me because I do not match. I think sticking to solids is my best bet. I took an Art Class in college and had difficulty seeing the colors as others see them so I bought a pack of crayola crayons with the color names on them and it helped me get through the class.
posted by Paula on 11-9-2009 at 9:40 pm
I’m not sure, but I believe hockey player Milan Michalek is color-blind. I think I read somewhere that, while still playing with the San Jose Sharks, the team pulled a prank on him and changed his protective visor to one with a yellow-tint, knowing he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Any Senator/Sharks fans know if that piece is true or not? I remember reading it somewhere, but I forgot where…
posted by Scotti on 11-9-2009 at 9:41 pm
I have a cousin who is colorblind and very involved in the theatre, including directing shows. I wouldn’t have thought how difficult that could be for him until he pointed out that he has to have a lot of trust in his lighting director because they could totally mess with his shows and he wouldn’t know!
posted by C on 11-9-2009 at 9:52 pm
I also had a teacher in high school. He and his wife had an agreement that, no matter what or how mad they were mad at each other, his wife would not mess with his clothes lables. It was also interesting when he used the overhead projector, as he would pick the “darkest” color based on the caps even if the markers were running out. This usually resulted in notes printed in about three colours per session. He had a good sense of humour though and joked that he got good deals on TVs as he could buy the black and white models.
posted by Nihil on 11-9-2009 at 9:53 pm
Several years ago my wife and I were watching TV when a UPS commercial came on with the phrase “Go with the brown” (or something like that). I asked my wife why they used that tagline. She gave me an even stranger look than usual and said it was because of the trucks, to which I replied “But the trucks are green”. I still think they are and that everyone has conspired against me.
posted by harold on 11-9-2009 at 10:10 pm
My sister’s boyfriend is colorblind. Dyeing Easter eggs is always an adventure when he is here lol
posted by Kristine on 11-9-2009 at 10:32 pm
one of my college friends is r/g colorblind. In chemistry class we had to do titrations with an indicator from green to pink. His accuracy was way off because he could not see the change.
posted by KCK on 11-9-2009 at 10:40 pm
My son is Red/Green color blind. Luckily the keys on the piano are all black and white.
posted by doug on 11-9-2009 at 10:49 pm
Firstly,I am a one of the rare 1% of women that have colorblindness. I have a red/green deficiency. The ONLY way that can happen is if your mother’s father/grandfather/great grandfather was colorblind…..it comes from your mothers DNA,but from her fathers side. Also,it may be hard for people whom are not colorblind to tell,but if you look at the two sets of traffic lights,you will see that the reds and greens in one of them has slightly more yellow or blue in them than the other…this way it covers both R/G and B/Y deficiencies!
posted by Cecily on 11-9-2009 at 10:54 pm
Jackson Rathbone of the Twilight Series is color blind and admits it due to some of his demented clothing decisions
posted by Marie Sharp on 11-9-2009 at 10:54 pm
There was a kid in my class who was colorblind, and I remember to this day what he told us on the first day of class: “Don’t ask me what color this is. I’m colorblind, not an idiot.”
posted by SEM on 11-9-2009 at 11:02 pm
! I never realized paper money was actually green until I read the comment about it above just now and asked my wife! I always thought calling money green was just an expression–I thought it was gray/brown!
posted by Jeff on 11-9-2009 at 11:10 pm
I hated when the kids would peel the wrappers off crayons. For some reason all the kids would peel from the wrong end and then throw the crayons back into the box randomly. I was always confused.
posted by doug on 11-9-2009 at 11:27 pm
Note to Harold: UPS trucks are brown =)
Note to Tamsyn: Colour-blinded people can spot up to 3 different shades of the colour khaki..ain’t that cool?
My brother has a mild case of colour blindness – not sure which colours though..have to admit I was a little sad when I found out..
A coursemate of mine (and his brother) have a severe case of colour blindness. I think it is Blue/Yellow deficiencies. They used to be beaten up by their mother very badly whenever they mixed up blue and purple. She thought they were just being defiant until a few doctors gave the same diagnosis.
Hyde (Japanese artiste, of L’arc~en~Ciel) is also colour blind..would’ve been an artist if it weren’t for his colour blindness.
I have always wanted to see what the colour-blinded people see in our world of colours. Anyone has any link to share?
posted by Sarah on 11-9-2009 at 11:33 pm
My paternal grandfather was green blue color blind. When riding in our car he’d say to my Dad, “you can go, Bud. You have the Gray light”!
posted by Karen Sheeler on 11-9-2009 at 11:43 pm
My Dad is Red-Green colorblind. It does get kinda annoying occasionally when he asks for confirmation on something. I once decided not to get him a red and green track jacket and went with a black one because I just thought that would be too mean.
posted by Brian on 11-10-2009 at 12:13 am
Colorblindness is interesting.. I don’t have it, I am pretty sure anyways. I remember a test in biology class and a girl in there was absolutely shocked to “fail” the dot test. I can actually see both numbers in the dot tests…I would like to test my man sometime, I think he is a little tone insensitive…he doesn’t seem to be able to tell the difference between similar colors side by side.
posted by Tiffany on 11-10-2009 at 12:40 am
I’m color blind and I’m wicked sick of people asking me what color things are! I also worked at a paint store mixing paint for 8 months. I still haven’t told them.
posted by Tom on 11-10-2009 at 2:04 am
My Uncle was colorblind, and when he decided to marry my Aunt (father’s sister), my dad took him to the Tuxedo shop. To be funny, he got him to pick out a s*it-brown tux (Aunt’s description), letting him believe it was black. My Aunt was mortified!
Most of their wedding pictures are in black and white. And hey, it was the 70’s after all…
Also, I ended up dating two different men who were both colorblind – and who both worked at the Gap at some stage in their lives! Random.
posted by Logan on 11-10-2009 at 4:35 am
My husband claims he is “barely” color blind (r/g in “certain situations”). He consistently mixes up browns, blues, anything in dark shades (maroon and navy are always the same) reds, greens, etc etc all the time though, and I uphold he is much more colorblind then he believes. He also dresses bizarrely- I think he used to attempt coordination but after getting razzed so many times he basically said to hell with it and wears whatever he wants with pride. He has to ask me what matches and why certain shades (hot pink, violent neon green, his favorites because they are easy to identify consistently) bother a lot of people and why he can’t wear them all the time. Nonetheless hot pink ended up being one of our wedding colors.
posted by Beth on 11-10-2009 at 5:00 am
to the person who asked if people can become colorblind later in life…
when a person develops normal cataracts due to aging, the center part of the lens becomes yellowed and tends to absorb blue wavelengths, so older people have a harder time seeing blues. its probably why a lot of little old ladies dye their hair bluish when they think its gray and wear lots of bluish eyeshadow…they just can’t see how blue it is!
posted by mary on 11-10-2009 at 7:38 am
My dad is red/green, blue/purple, and gray/brown/black colorblind. He only buys black socks so that they always match. One day when I was a teenager, he came downstairs dressed for work with about 6 different colors of green on (olive pants, kelly green sweater, hunter green tie, etc.). I asked him what was up with the outfit (he knew everything was green, because when he bought clothes, someone would tell him what color it was), and he said, “Green is green, right?” I also think that one of my sons is colorblind, but not to the extent of my father. I remember in HS biology that it is a hereditary trait, but can’t remember how it is passed on.
posted by Jenny on 11-10-2009 at 9:41 am
My uncle, an optometrist, is R/G color blind. It makes taking the color-blindness tests from him rather amusing.
I was once driving down the street with him and we came across a stop light that was sideways. He explained that the red and green looked different to him because they use different amounts of saturation in the lights.
posted by Steven on 11-10-2009 at 10:12 am
I went to school with a kid who was color blind. It was a private school with uniforms, which included that boys had to wear either black or white socks. One day his little brother tricked him and told him some socks were black when they were actually red. When my classmate showed up, everyone laughed and then learned his secret. Sad now when I think of it. I know his brother got in big trouble.
On another note, I have a question to color blind people. I know cats are partially color blind, but have excellent night vision. Has something to do with the number of rods and cones in the eye and the way the light is received and translated. I was wondering if anyone who is color blind can tell me if you have good night vision? I am not color blind, but my night vision is horrible! Thanks.
posted by FlowerPower on 11-10-2009 at 10:41 am
Aw, when I saw the title of this article I thought it’d be great to send to my little sister who is colorblind – but the lack of women on this list would probably make her feel worse! I know that the condition is more rare in girls, but still!
posted by Lynnie on 11-10-2009 at 10:48 am
@FlowerPower Do you have a stigmatism? I have a slight one and I have similarly tragic night vision. Other than that my vision is excellent except I am prone to eyestrain after sometime.
posted by Lynnie on 11-10-2009 at 10:50 am
Thankfully, no astigmatism and no eyestrain, although I am prone to migraines.
posted by FlowerPower on 11-10-2009 at 11:01 am
My husband is R/G and B/Y colorblind. He can sometimes distinguish very bright colors, but for the most part he can’t tell the difference. And I think it’s true that colorblind people are often better at distinguishing patterns and camouflaged objects than those of us that are distracted by color– my husband has always been really good at that.
posted by Louise on 11-10-2009 at 11:03 am
I’m red/green deficient. My aunt figured it out when I was 2 years old while playing catch with me. She told me the ball (which was green) was at my feet. I apparently looked down and reached and was amazed when I found it. I personally think it was just being a baby and amazed by anything. I fail the number tests, but I can tell you what any color is w/o fail. I really don’t understand how that is right to classify me as being color deficient. I have the same problem as people do with camoflage and what not. Green is green, red is red, etc. Color deficiency really gets on my nerves because its a disability that doesn’t really disable me especially. The title gets slapped on based off those number tests and then I become banned from the military jobs I always wanted. Sorry about the rant, its just a lot of emotion over the subject from a 22 year old male.
posted by Dan on 11-10-2009 at 11:06 am
I new my boyfriend was colorblind, but I was disappointed when he admitted he didn’t know my eye color well over a year after we started dating.
posted by LT on 11-10-2009 at 11:16 am
I’m color blind, which for a girl is very rare. There is only one other case in my family, my grandfather. When I was a kid my mom just thought I was being creative putting on the wrong color socks and coloring my grass blue. It wasn’t until I was 14 and had an eye doctor do the “tell which number you see ” test that I found out I really couldn’t see all the colors. Rainbows and multi-colored billboards are the hardest for me to see.
posted by Melissa on 11-10-2009 at 11:59 am
My parents owned a label (sticker) printing company. Their head printer was color-blind, though he passed all the color tests and was able to always color match the labels very exactly, so long as he had a comparison. He still works there in the same position to this day. His brothers were also color blind with one seeing only black, white and shades of gray and he was an electrician. I always wondered about that.
posted by Cpollak on 11-10-2009 at 12:06 pm
I only first realized I was colorblind in 5th grade. We were learning names of colors in Spanish via flash cards. I was very good at Spanish. They flashed up the green card and I yelled out \rojo\!. The class laughed so hard & I was completely embarrassed but knew I was right!
posted by Wally on 11-10-2009 at 1:41 pm
Maybe this is a silly question but:
Can people who are color-blind/color-confused see 3-D images/movies that use Cyan/Red or polarized glasses?
And how about those 3-D “Magic Eye” images?
posted by Nerak on 11-10-2009 at 1:50 pm
I can’t see the “Magic Eye” stuff at all, but I have no idea if that’s related to colorblindness. I know plenty of non-colorblind people who can’t see them either. Honestly, I’ve only ever felt limited by colorblindness in two ways. First, when trying to figure out traffic signals. I’ve learned over the years that green is on the bottom, red on the top. The problem is, when driving in states that have them sideways, which way is it? Yes, Texas, I’m talking to you. Worse yet is the single flashing light. Is it yellow or red? Usually I have no idea. Also, newer green traffic signals are so bright that they appear to me, at night, to be the same color as streetlights. So, if I’m approaching a green-light intersection at night, with a bunch of streetlights around, I probably won’t see the traffic signal at all. Second “limitation” was in the Navy. You can’t go to the Naval Academy if you’re colorblind. No exceptions. Worse than that, you can’t even sign up for Naval ROTC, so my options for getting college paid for (and a commission) once I enlisted were pretty much nil. Annoying, but the GI Bill still worked once I got out.
posted by Jeremy on 11-10-2009 at 3:06 pm
Harold, I used to work for UPS (I did tech support). Honestly, UPS uses a rather excremental shade of brown for trucks, driver uniforms, and just about anything else they think they can make dark brown.
As for the night vision question, I’m interested too. I have no known color vision problem (and am female), but am very myopic (different optometrists have had different opinions on the astigmatism question), and have horrible night vision. I have to keep reminding my husband (who has normal vision in general) that there are situations in which I simply can’t see something he has no problem with.
posted by Seanette on 11-10-2009 at 5:10 pm
I am color blind.
I went to school in Texas and completely freaked out the first time I saw lights that were not up-and-down (fortunately I was not driving). Once I got used to them, I found they were actually better, at least at night, because I could tell the position better on occasions when I could not see the whole traffic signal.
In response to other questions, I have excellent night vision, I am rarely fooled by standard military camouflage, can’t see Magic-Eye pictures, and get migraines from 3-D movies. Of course, my sister tried sending me out in mis-matched clothes. I got back at her by intentionally wearing them anyway.
Eventually, I reduced my entire wardrobe to colors that cannot clash.
All of these tricks are common; most color blind men do these things.
However, I have finally found the way to end the “What color is this?” question that every color blind person gets.
I just say: “Plaid.”
(I used to tell women who would ask what color their blouse looked: “Transparent.” Not so good in a professional environment, but effective.)
posted by Christopher C on 11-10-2009 at 5:31 pm
Being color-blind has led to a fair amount of discussion with my friends. There is the often “what color is this?” and the jokes of confusion, but overall most don’t seem to be able to understand the shift in perspective.
I’m sure a lot of color-blind people can agree with me that they simply don’t think in terms of color. If you had to describe an object, color is the last thing I would think to mention. Its probably from all the years of getting things wrong, but its simply not an “adjective” that I add.
I’ve also noticed that I “assign” colors to things. This happens when I may see one color but know it must be another. Example: Everyone wears purple jeans to me. Now I see purple but immediately think of that color of purple as blue, since they are called blue jeans.
posted by Nir on 11-10-2009 at 6:29 pm
Scotti: That’s not true about Milan Michalek. I don’t think he’s ever worn a tinted visor. That story did used to float around about Kyle McLaren on his wikipedia page. But it’s from wikipedia, so I don’t know how true that is. Hope that was helpful!
posted by Sophie on 11-11-2009 at 9:29 am
Thanks Sophie!!! I knew it was an old Sharks player, and probably made the connection with the last name beginning with ‘M’. But McLaren’s not color-blind either. Oops. Disregard prior comment!! (P.S. Sophie, in the catagory of hockey trivia, you get bonus points!! :D )
posted by Scotti on 11-11-2009 at 5:42 pm
I, too, am a color blind female, whose grandfather was also color blind. And like Melissa, I didn’t realize it until I was 15 years old and was shown a color blind test in biology class. I am the mother of three daughters. They still help me to choose my clothes wisely.
I’m glad to learn some tricks for the “What color is this?” game. I hate that!
My biggest problem is at Christmas when there are so many lights on the streets. So confusing.
posted by Kathi on 11-12-2009 at 8:41 pm
I’m a R/G colorblind male. I only recently became interested in figuring out what kind of colorblind I am, since I got through all my elementary school color stuff fairly easily and could easily tell primary/secondary colors apart then. I’d done a few online tests with the dots and I usually get about halfway through the test before I stop seeing the numbers and just see dots. I finally got diagnosed with it for sure last year (on my 23rd birthday) when I went in for a routine eye exam and they told me that I had a partial colorblindness to R/G. I’m surprised they hadn’t done it before, but then again it was my first time going to this particular eye doctor. I had always thought I was ok, since I could always distinguish between, say, blue and green, or yellow and orange, blue and purple–but then again, only with 100% certainty when they were positioned right next to one another. It’s when it gets to shades of colors where I get pretty lost, like bluegreen is really confusing, and so is teal, aqua, burgundy, maroon.. Don’t get me started on maroon! I say red when I see it, but some people will say “No, that’s more of a purple.” Oh, and green and brown?–I’ve totally given up on trying to tell shades of those apart haha. Shades of dark green come across as brown to me. And anything that looks like it could be light brown I generally chalk it up as “tan” or “khaki” unless someone corrects me! =]
Through the years I’ve developed a system of figuring colors. I mean, as far as clothes go, if you keep up with fashion at all, you know what colors are in/out for the particular season, and 90% of the clothes you see are going to be certain common colors (for guys anyway, we wear a lot of either very cool colors like navy, green, gray, or warm/flashy colors like reds.. it’s really very easy to dress up as a guy). I mean, the only time you really deviate from the set of colors is when it’s explicitly in-style/fashionable to go with strange colors. Then you’ll find some purple, or if there’s a brown/orange fad going on, you might find a rack of that. I end up being a shopping assistant for a lot of both girl and guy friends when I’m at the mall, and really they’ve all got their colors straight, but still ask me for my opinion in terms of how things look, because they generally regard me as someone who dresses well and matches the colors on my clothes well also.
Tips for colorblind fashionistas: just read up on the latest fashions/trends, and MEMORIZE THE COLOR CODES for your favorite clothing designers (because it really helps give you that 100% confidence in your choice) and just go out there with some confidence! If you really don’t wanna do that, just go with black, white, and shades of grey, cuz classy never goes out of style!! =]
Really no one in my life KNOWS I’m colorblind. Even my mother, who has always had a creeping suspicion, can never put her finger on it. She’ll ask me one day what color something is and I get it wrong, but the next day ask me another and I’ll get it right.. And she’s also pretty blind in general so it doesn’t give her a lot of faith in her own ability to distinguish anything ahahahaha.
I find it very strange that people who are colorblind gravitate towards interests that they cannot reasonably pursue. I have a friend very colorblind that wants to get into graphic design and advertising, and I have a cousin who loves art. I even at one point had similar interests, but decided finally that if I was to become truly great at what I do, I would need to be able to do my job with conviction and authority. I don’t want to have to rely on someone confirming the color scheme on my print ad, or have a girlfriend pick out my paints for my artwork.
When people ask me what my favorite color is, I just say grey, because I really love how it goes with any and every other color (slate is my favorite shade), but has more character than say, black or white. And when you put it like that, no one can really argue with you!
And for Texas folks, the positioning of our traffic lights is so logical: Green is on the right-hand side, because green gives you the right-of-way! If you grew up and live in Texas you’d know, we like everything real simple, but I’m all for the adding of tinting to the traffic light colors. It’s just not safe for people to be on the road not knowing as they approach an intersection whether to go, slow down, or stop.
posted by john on 11-13-2009 at 12:20 am
Night vision: I’m pretty sure that cats (and dogs and cows, BTW) have an extra membrane in the back of the eye called a “tapetum” that gives them a reflective retina and helps them see better in lower light. I would be surprised to hear that color-blindeness and night-vision were related….
posted by bikrchik42 on 11-14-2009 at 6:20 pm
I’m with john – though I’ve known I’m partially r/g colourblind since I was about three. Eventually you learn tricks to cope with what you can’t figure out on your own. I too can see the “normal” shades of colours just fine, but dark green/brown, pink/purple, and yellow/greens really give me troubles. Traffic lights are distinct enough that they don’t cause me problems though, and I generally don’t have issues dressing myself (in fact, I often get compliments on how I’m dressed).
To add fuel to the fire – I have never once been able to see a Magic Eye, and I have excellent night vision. I haven’t spent any time in the military or hunting, but having grown up in the country I find I can see animals and other things much more easily in the bush than some non-colourblind folks I know. So go figure.
And yes, that damn question has been one of my pet peeves for twenty years, mostly because they inevitably pick something that’s obviously red, or blue, or green. I love the responses I’ve seen here though, I think I’ll have to borrow the “plaid” one.
posted by Bert on 11-16-2009 at 11:25 am