I love a newborn elephant as much as the next person, probably quite significantly more, but must we get all stupid and say that she likes pink? Must we, Zooborns? Really? Sigh.
Sent in by Chloe Angyal at Feministing. Thanks Chloe!
Pink, by the way, has only been associated with female humans for the last 60 years or so, and only in parts of the world. See, for example, our posts on a vintage Father’s Birthday card and advice for mothers. (And, while we’re at it, this art project is pretty stunning.) I’m pretty sure elephants, even girl ones, are indifferent.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 11
Melody Feline — August 21, 2011
Not everything is a gender conspiracy.
Larrycharleswilson — August 21, 2011
How does any human know how or what an elephant thinks?
gasstationwithoutpumps — August 21, 2011
My first question was "Can elephants see pink?" A quick Google search revealed that elephants have about the same color vision as red-green color blind humans ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449733/ ), so they can see pink, but can't distinguish it from pale green or pale orange. They can tell it from pale blue though, so it would be possible to do simple experiments to see if the baby elephant prefers pink or baby blue. I doubt that the zoo has done so.
Zanderxm — August 21, 2011
Well, since the color pink has been associated with girls for over 50 years, it seems a reasonable way to say "It's a girl!". I don't think the zoo is attempting to claim that they can determine the thought process of an elephant. Perhaps they are just trying to be "cute"... Or, maybe there is some way to empirically determine the color preference of an elephant (not being a zoologist myself I can't say for sure) and it happened to be pink...an ironically disquieting turn of events for feminism it would seem...
Corvid81 — August 21, 2011
I am sure that there is a potential for elephants to prefer one or more colors over others - they are highly intelligent and have distinct personalities - but I would guess that they would be more likely to favor certain sounds, textures, or smells, because they seem to use their ears and trunks more often than their eyes when exploring the world. I'm sure an elephant keeper would be able to tell us...
My experience comes from working with birds, and they can definitely have color preferences. However, those preferences are usually species-specific (e.g., hummingbirds love the color red). Male bowerbirds will decorate their elaborate "bowers" (big piles of sticks) with colorful objects, and the colors chosen depend on the species and individual male. Some like pink flowers, others like white shells, and others will even squish blue berries and "paint" the walls of their bower. Of course, they are doing this to attract females, so perhaps they "think" that females will prefer these colors? It's hard to tell at what point in the animal kingdom genetically-based preferences end and more individual, emotional preferences begin.
However, I doubt very much that young female animals all prefer pink while young male animals prefer blue!
Ms. Sunlight — August 21, 2011
Reading the actual article, it seems the elephant's inflatable pool just happens to be pink. As a headline "elephant likes water" would be about on a par with "bear defecates in woods". Of course the elephant likes water. Much more interesting to put a human cultural spin where none exists.