digitig - You're right that colours do have different connotations it different parts of the world. Eg: yellow is the colour of mourning in Egypt, and it can have both positive (hope, joy) and negative (warnings, cowardice) in the Americas & Europe, but it is mostly positive (particularly for representing courage) in Japan. A couple of years ago I researched colour connotations by culture and found Cherokee especially interesting. Cacian - Does that mean you would also consider black and grey not to be colours?
Pink and blue for boys and girls have been swapped back and forth over history... If I remember correctly, blue was associated with protection, so naturally the heir would be clad in blue. But then people 'realized' their sons would be better protected from the mystical creatures that steal boys, if they were dressed up as girls. But colors are less stereotypes than associations. Stereotypes are 'fireman' 'blonde bombshell' 'dumb blonde' or 'evil scientist' - they work ok as side appearances, maybe in a short short story, where you use the stereotype to convey without having to explain at length. In a longer piece of writing, the stereotype may appear in a main character, but to pull it off, you have to explain where it comes from, else it will just appear shallow and boring. I like to see it used more in the manner of having your character use the stereotype of their appearance/profession in order to get an advantage. 'appearing like a dumb blonde wasn't hard, and it always got her what she wanted...' (don't let my sister read that, but it is true)... Colors are fairly safe, until mass media psychoanalyzes you
I think that when one is considering the cultural significance of colours it makes sense to include white because it has so much symbolism associated with it.
Which reminds me of two Dolly Parton quotes: "I don't mind dumb blonde jokes because I know I ain't dumb. And I know I ain't blonde." "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."
I would consider grey as a colour because it is a shade off both black and white. Black the same as white are not colours to me.
yeah try 1962 to 2012 for the movies alone, the first book was written in 1952. so yes the "60's" is selling it short.
Ok. well early fifties if you like, I am only about 10 years behind. It was a pure guess of when it began but then TV and media did not quite take off untill after the sixties. So in a way if it was not for the TV how big would James Bond have been? is a very good question.
Not sure if I understand the concept of the colors. I just let my protagonists and antagonists tell the story for me, regardless of who they are. I write them as the plot demands it, not what the stereotype demands.
James Bond was an absolutely huge film series long before the films started appearing on TV (in the early 1960s my family only had a 6" TV screen which wasn't all that unusual. Funny how it's coming back to that with people watching on their phones). Before that there was a radio show. Before that there were, of course, the books.
Hey, if you're more convincing writing your own (or opposite) gender, is it a stereotype, or just a sensible choice? There's no point in aiming for a politically or statistically correct cast throughout your work. I would place any bet that there is no such thing in real life, anyways...
Possibly? I looked this up and it makes sense to me, I can identify with it, but I'm not sure if that's enough to say it's true. It's not really something I've thought about too much until recently.
