banger after banger. And the worm referenc! This is real chaser shit, no one else is on your level. If you have any insight into the Empty Spaces void girl / angel girl / doll etc typology I'd love to hear about it too.
To quote the sage: "Obviously agentic transgender women exist — but they carry out one supreme act of agency and they hate it." The necessity of our agency and the rejection of it are the raw materials of empty spaces, and you can construct all relevant kinds of girls therefrom.
Been unsure of what book to read next and got given My Brilliant Friend as a present recently so I guess that's that decision made. Thanks for the article!
I agree with nearly all of this. Except one, glaring, glaring point:
Princess Cimorene is absolutely, 10,000% purple as hell in this context. Her entire arc is a rebellion against convention; she's the girl who rebels against everything Pink to such a degree she, well, goes off and finds Kazul. Everything she does, continually, is a violation of convention; it's only when she finds someone willing to accept and embrace her as she is that she ever plays to trope.
But she doesn't fight in a pink way; she learns you can melt wizards with soapy water with a bit of lemon and gets straight to wizard-melting. The Princess she befriends in DwD is the pink one, but Cimorene's closest character you cite I can point to is Granny Weatherwax.
I would agree Utena is in many ways Pink, and Cimorene presents as a great contrast to Utena; while Utena in a way embraces unorthodox convention, Cimorene continually rebels against it, up to the point of doing the most Weatherwaxian thing possible in what leads to the beginning of Book 4 - training a successor in obscurity.
But by and large? I agree completely. I know I am purple, even if a part of me longs for the Madoka-like purity and kindness of pink, but the heart is too scarred, the methods I am willing to employ to win too 'improper'. Is a pink way of winning more 'pure'? Yes.
Do I think the pink strategies can win in this world? Against everything arrayed against such? Also hell no.
But ahhhh I love your writing, in the couple weeks since I've found these they have been both sugar & savory stew for the psyche.
I took Latin in middle school solely because the teacher was a cool older lesbian who used to be the knife thrower in a circus and still lived with her mother. I don't know if it's ever actually been my favorite color but I've been saying purple anytime someone asked since then. "Purple! It's the color of royalty, after all," I'd say, gesturing at myself. Anyway, shout out Ms. Zyfus.
Your immaculately placed footnotes honestly do a number on my ability to exchange banter with your work. Case in point, red IS my favorite color, and I do lean butch with self declared agency. And yet when I think I’ve got something clever to say on those points, you’ve parried them and I find myself already skewered with your own insight.
Well, it warmed my heart to see a Steerswoman reference here—where does Bel fall here? I see her as Purplish, but I might be a bit anchored by fanfic in this regard…
Transgender girl (woman, on Medium, but let's not split hairs) here. My favorite color is purple because it's the color of my heart emoji. I sent my brother a standard colored emoji react a few years back and he pointed out that none of the other trans girls he knew use standard color emoji reacts, which is mostly true (none of us are monoliths, and I point it out because if I don't any trans girl who uses the standard colored heart react will start thinking she's not _really_ trans, like I did), so I picked a color to use, which was purple. I couldn't have told you why then. Turns out most of the trans women I know use purple colored heart reacts. I have one friend who uses orange, which is awesome and I love it.
Purple isn't my favorite color. My favorite color is black. All of the miserable white boys who think every color but black is "gay" have taken it from us. I'm a white trans woman. We are not the first or primary people to suffer from white men's insistence that they own the color black. We are not men, and we are also not immune from perpetuating, knowingly or unknowingly, that bigotry. Also, I have goth imposter syndrome, so there's that. Purple is not pink and it's also not black. It's a sort of pinkish black (shout out to the Fort Worth band of that name). There's something of the duality of trans womanhood in that color, to me.
The "purple heart" is also, of course, given out by the US Military to those who are wounded or killed in their service. People call purple heart recipients "brave" a lot. They did what they needed to do and got hurt badly or died for it. I got called "brave" a lot too, early in my transition. I'm not trying to steal anybody else's valor. I don't believe that being hurt for doing what I need to do is "brave". I think it's stupid and pointless. I also, to be clear, didn't pick a purple heart because I consciously wanted to evoke any of that imagery. It was just a color. There were only so many heart emoji colors to pick from. That was the one I went with. I didn't think that hard about it.
I like purple quite a bit and I can relate to this a lot, and while I'm not a "not like the other girls" poster it's definitely a tendency I've seen. Stylistically it's not butch, as you said, but rather more of a tomboyish/alt look
a little surprised at the lack of violet baudelaire in here (especially given significantly more niche references like the girl who circumnavigated fairyland etc). curious how she might be categorized
Honestly, my favorite colors are like, #ff1493 (hot pink) especially when paired with black, black, and then idk, it used to be green based on Yoda's lightsaber color cause I loved the wize old mentor archetype then, but I've since found a better star wars-y wise old mentor in KOTOR2's Kreia, and her lightsaber(s) color(s) are technically up to player choice to a certain point I believe, although she'll get purple as part of a specific event, which I won't elaborate on cause it's spoilery and shouldn't be spoilered cause she's worth being explored by everyone. I don't really care for purple, perhaps because I'm somewhat colorblind and some shades of purple and blue are confusingly identicle to my eyes, just like some shades of yellow and orange, as well as yellow and green, turn out to be same-ish and a few green-blue shades are just plain grey. Somehow that's considered red-green colorblindness which is odd to me but idk. But I indeed identify more with your purple girl characters than your pink ones, although, in an ideal world I would want to be a pink girl, perhaps with some purple traits. Instead, I am inherently forced into the purple girl type.
Hello, I am a trans. I'm thinking hard about how I fit into this taxonomy. As a little boy, (I was, that's how it worked for me, growing up just hit different) I liked blue, but notably I always, and still tend to, prefer blue objects. The color I'd wear the most was in the maroon-burgundy range. I still lean on these colors to some degree as a woman, though patterns have unlocked the rest of the spectrum and my favorite color lately skews more purple, which was always my second favorite even before, because it was Mommy's favorite. Either before or after, blue clothes are for goblin mode.
I do indeed detest pink clothes and most pink objects and many Pink stereotypes. However, when I think about my social role, it is very complicated. I think the best way to put it is that I have very Purple values, but I easily use Pink methods in situations where there's a problem to solve or a chance to do some public speaking. I have done community organizing, and am frequently the sort of student that teaches half the class in a variety of subjects. And what is the most prized part of my wardrobe? A bright red peacoat and a slightly brighter beret to go with it. And yes, chuuni af. I think I may have identified Red as a distinct pattern of agentic Purple-Pink code-switching.
I think maybe Utena is Red? Jessica Rabbit and Judy Hopps are Red. It could be argued that Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi are different shades of Red, (although Troi wasn't always, and whether she was Purple or Pink before she developed depends on how Purple you think telepathy is) and in fact many of the women of Star Trek are some shade of Red. Redness may be a third dimension that changes the presentation of one's place on the Purple-Pink spectrum.
banger after banger. And the worm referenc! This is real chaser shit, no one else is on your level. If you have any insight into the Empty Spaces void girl / angel girl / doll etc typology I'd love to hear about it too.
To quote the sage: "Obviously agentic transgender women exist — but they carry out one supreme act of agency and they hate it." The necessity of our agency and the rejection of it are the raw materials of empty spaces, and you can construct all relevant kinds of girls therefrom.
Been unsure of what book to read next and got given My Brilliant Friend as a present recently so I guess that's that decision made. Thanks for the article!
I agree with nearly all of this. Except one, glaring, glaring point:
Princess Cimorene is absolutely, 10,000% purple as hell in this context. Her entire arc is a rebellion against convention; she's the girl who rebels against everything Pink to such a degree she, well, goes off and finds Kazul. Everything she does, continually, is a violation of convention; it's only when she finds someone willing to accept and embrace her as she is that she ever plays to trope.
But she doesn't fight in a pink way; she learns you can melt wizards with soapy water with a bit of lemon and gets straight to wizard-melting. The Princess she befriends in DwD is the pink one, but Cimorene's closest character you cite I can point to is Granny Weatherwax.
I would agree Utena is in many ways Pink, and Cimorene presents as a great contrast to Utena; while Utena in a way embraces unorthodox convention, Cimorene continually rebels against it, up to the point of doing the most Weatherwaxian thing possible in what leads to the beginning of Book 4 - training a successor in obscurity.
But by and large? I agree completely. I know I am purple, even if a part of me longs for the Madoka-like purity and kindness of pink, but the heart is too scarred, the methods I am willing to employ to win too 'improper'. Is a pink way of winning more 'pure'? Yes.
Do I think the pink strategies can win in this world? Against everything arrayed against such? Also hell no.
But ahhhh I love your writing, in the couple weeks since I've found these they have been both sugar & savory stew for the psyche.
does lavender count as purple??
unambiguously yes
I took Latin in middle school solely because the teacher was a cool older lesbian who used to be the knife thrower in a circus and still lived with her mother. I don't know if it's ever actually been my favorite color but I've been saying purple anytime someone asked since then. "Purple! It's the color of royalty, after all," I'd say, gesturing at myself. Anyway, shout out Ms. Zyfus.
If you’re surrounded by pink friends you become magenta to blend in better
Your immaculately placed footnotes honestly do a number on my ability to exchange banter with your work. Case in point, red IS my favorite color, and I do lean butch with self declared agency. And yet when I think I’ve got something clever to say on those points, you’ve parried them and I find myself already skewered with your own insight.
Well, it warmed my heart to see a Steerswoman reference here—where does Bel fall here? I see her as Purplish, but I might be a bit anchored by fanfic in this regard…
Orange :3
Wahey, me too.
one of your best. thank u halimede!
Transgender girl (woman, on Medium, but let's not split hairs) here. My favorite color is purple because it's the color of my heart emoji. I sent my brother a standard colored emoji react a few years back and he pointed out that none of the other trans girls he knew use standard color emoji reacts, which is mostly true (none of us are monoliths, and I point it out because if I don't any trans girl who uses the standard colored heart react will start thinking she's not _really_ trans, like I did), so I picked a color to use, which was purple. I couldn't have told you why then. Turns out most of the trans women I know use purple colored heart reacts. I have one friend who uses orange, which is awesome and I love it.
Purple isn't my favorite color. My favorite color is black. All of the miserable white boys who think every color but black is "gay" have taken it from us. I'm a white trans woman. We are not the first or primary people to suffer from white men's insistence that they own the color black. We are not men, and we are also not immune from perpetuating, knowingly or unknowingly, that bigotry. Also, I have goth imposter syndrome, so there's that. Purple is not pink and it's also not black. It's a sort of pinkish black (shout out to the Fort Worth band of that name). There's something of the duality of trans womanhood in that color, to me.
The "purple heart" is also, of course, given out by the US Military to those who are wounded or killed in their service. People call purple heart recipients "brave" a lot. They did what they needed to do and got hurt badly or died for it. I got called "brave" a lot too, early in my transition. I'm not trying to steal anybody else's valor. I don't believe that being hurt for doing what I need to do is "brave". I think it's stupid and pointless. I also, to be clear, didn't pick a purple heart because I consciously wanted to evoke any of that imagery. It was just a color. There were only so many heart emoji colors to pick from. That was the one I went with. I didn't think that hard about it.
I like purple quite a bit and I can relate to this a lot, and while I'm not a "not like the other girls" poster it's definitely a tendency I've seen. Stylistically it's not butch, as you said, but rather more of a tomboyish/alt look
I believe I know a "pink" trans woman and she's the bane of my existence
a little surprised at the lack of violet baudelaire in here (especially given significantly more niche references like the girl who circumnavigated fairyland etc). curious how she might be categorized
Honestly, my favorite colors are like, #ff1493 (hot pink) especially when paired with black, black, and then idk, it used to be green based on Yoda's lightsaber color cause I loved the wize old mentor archetype then, but I've since found a better star wars-y wise old mentor in KOTOR2's Kreia, and her lightsaber(s) color(s) are technically up to player choice to a certain point I believe, although she'll get purple as part of a specific event, which I won't elaborate on cause it's spoilery and shouldn't be spoilered cause she's worth being explored by everyone. I don't really care for purple, perhaps because I'm somewhat colorblind and some shades of purple and blue are confusingly identicle to my eyes, just like some shades of yellow and orange, as well as yellow and green, turn out to be same-ish and a few green-blue shades are just plain grey. Somehow that's considered red-green colorblindness which is odd to me but idk. But I indeed identify more with your purple girl characters than your pink ones, although, in an ideal world I would want to be a pink girl, perhaps with some purple traits. Instead, I am inherently forced into the purple girl type.
Thinking about other colors and I think that yellow is pink, black is purple, blue is contextual, and green is a purple's purple
Hello, I am a trans. I'm thinking hard about how I fit into this taxonomy. As a little boy, (I was, that's how it worked for me, growing up just hit different) I liked blue, but notably I always, and still tend to, prefer blue objects. The color I'd wear the most was in the maroon-burgundy range. I still lean on these colors to some degree as a woman, though patterns have unlocked the rest of the spectrum and my favorite color lately skews more purple, which was always my second favorite even before, because it was Mommy's favorite. Either before or after, blue clothes are for goblin mode.
I do indeed detest pink clothes and most pink objects and many Pink stereotypes. However, when I think about my social role, it is very complicated. I think the best way to put it is that I have very Purple values, but I easily use Pink methods in situations where there's a problem to solve or a chance to do some public speaking. I have done community organizing, and am frequently the sort of student that teaches half the class in a variety of subjects. And what is the most prized part of my wardrobe? A bright red peacoat and a slightly brighter beret to go with it. And yes, chuuni af. I think I may have identified Red as a distinct pattern of agentic Purple-Pink code-switching.
I think maybe Utena is Red? Jessica Rabbit and Judy Hopps are Red. It could be argued that Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi are different shades of Red, (although Troi wasn't always, and whether she was Purple or Pink before she developed depends on how Purple you think telepathy is) and in fact many of the women of Star Trek are some shade of Red. Redness may be a third dimension that changes the presentation of one's place on the Purple-Pink spectrum.