| Mars/Venus, Red/Green, Men/Women |
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Sunday, December 14th, 2008 22:21:16 GMT |
| Astrology |
Here's a blog post about an amusing news story I ran across yesterday: Men Are Red, Women Are Green; According to Brown Scientist | ZME Science
That blog post made the entertainingly almost astrological-sounding statement that 'We've heard the phrase "men are from Mars, women are from Venus"' [...] 'a hundred times. But quickly, associate a colour with the two planets; over 90% of those asked to do this will associate red with Mars, and Green with Venus. So there could be truth behind that old saying.'
Of course, that news story isn't actually about astrology, even though the above blog post made a virtually astrological statement in passing. The overall gist of this news is, apparently Caucasian men have more red pigmentation and Caucasian women have more green pigmentation.
Here's an official news release from the Brown University site: Men Are Red, Women Are Green, Brown Researcher Finds
I also found this FAQ page by the researcher Michael J. Tarr: Men are red, women are green: FAQ
This discovery actually is a bit interesting from an astrological point of view, because in astrology, men are indeed associated with Mars, the Red Planet, and women are associated with Venus, the not very green-looking creamy tan planet, which in astrology is nonetheless sometimes associated with the color green anyway, for reasons unknown to me. It's sort of a neat coincidence.
Then again, maybe it's pretty commonly known that the extreme heat of Venus (the hottest planet in the solar system) is largely the result of the strongest greenhouse effect in the solar system. Or, maybe a lot of people are aware that in a lot of old sci-fi stories, Venus was described as being a tropical planet full of jungles and swamps. Or maybe the name Venus reminds lots of people of the Venus fly trap, a carnivorous plant. Or maybe lots of people know that the Spanish word "verde" means green, as does the French word "vert", or they know the obscure English word "verdure", which means greenery.
Oooh, here's something I never knew about: SPACE.com - Venus: No Lightning, But a Strange Green Glow Wow, so Venus actually is more green than I ever knew... :-D
That's a neat coincidence, that Venus literally has a green glow on its night side, and is sometimes associated with the color green in astrology. :-)
The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica article on astrology claims that Venus was associated with the metal copper under Ptolemy's system (and the color yellow, no idea why). However, it's interesting to note that the metal copper can eventually turn green as a result of weathering, and can also leave a green stain on some people's skin. Maybe those facts somehow led to Venus eventually becoming associated by some astrologers with the color green.
I wonder if it's really true that, as the ZME Science blog post stated, over 90% of people asked to associate a color with Venus would pick green. I can kind of believe a figure like that for Mars (which even many non-astrologers know is called the Red Planet), but, unless I'm missing something obvious, Venus isn't quite as easy to associate with the color green.
I have no idea who came up with the idea in astrology that Venus is associated with the color green, since, unfortunately, The Rulership Book
Though it's 11 days early, I guess this post is sort of timely for Christmas, whose traditional colors are red and green. Too bad I can't think of any obvious way to relate Christmas to Mars and Venus in astrology. :-)
