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Except that's reductionist and silly. Things tend to happen for a reason. Why green? has the world gone mad? We're actually subservient to our genetics much mo

Except that's reductionist and silly. Things tend to happen for a reason. Why green? has the world gone mad? We're actually subservient to our genetics much more to our culture. Maybe green gets those people more mates, thus its been standardized. Maybe greeting others in a friendly matter means a larger social circle and more dates. We're not terribly removed from animals and the mechanics of evolution control our culture, just like we see with animals. There's some wiggle room but for the most part is not arbitrary nonsense. The same way many cultures, even ones with no connection, have standardized dresses for women, typically. A dress is a clever garment. Varying the hem determines how revealing and sexy it is thus a young woman would have a short hem and an older one not looking for a mate might not. On top of the design naturally showcasing the bust and the ability to trivially modify it to show more arms, back, and cleavage.

ben_w 9y ago
Silly perhaps, but fair. Humans break on tribal lines at the drop of a hat/naqib/dreadlock, and the genes for height in the above example could easily be replaced with the genes for melanin production, where each of presence and absence of the latter has funky social effects that vary from place to place. Going back to the story, gender is, in humans, a complicated mess. Probably is in other species too (it's not just male dogs who try to hump your leg… although is that a sign of trans male dogs or just reusing an existing behaviour for multiple situations, the female canine behavioural equivalent of male nipples?) Yes, some things happen for a clear reason, but sometimes the reason is "that's not a harmful mutation".
chc 9y ago
The wearing-green detail was actually deliberate. We have pink and blue for girls and boys, respectively, but there's no good reason for it. In other times, pink has been the boy color and blue the girl color. Has the world gone mad? I don't know, but we definitely have some arbitrary gender norms in our culture.

ben_w 9y ago

Silly perhaps, but fair. Humans break on tribal lines at the drop of a hat/naqib/dreadlock, and the genes for height in the above example could easily be replaced with the genes for melanin production, where each of presence and absence of the latter has funky social effects that vary from place to place. Going back to the story, gender is, in humans, a complicated mess. Probably is in other species too (it's not just male dogs who try to hump your leg… although is that a sign of trans male dogs or just reusing an existing behaviour for multiple situations, the female canine behavioural equivalent of male nipples?) Yes, some things happen for a clear reason, but sometimes the reason is "that's not a harmful mutation".

chc 9y ago

The wearing-green detail was actually deliberate. We have pink and blue for girls and boys, respectively, but there's no good reason for it. In other times, pink has been the boy color and blue the girl color. Has the world gone mad? I don't know, but we definitely have some arbitrary gender norms in our culture.