English Version | To Be Continued: Yellow: yay or nay?

There is an urban legend that says the world is divided into two groups: people who love yellow and people who despise it. But the story of this color, apparently the happiest in the spectrum, is not so simple to tell. And in the end, which side do we stand on - do we vote yes or no?

Disliking yellow has always been something that came naturally to me. In fact, "dislike" may even be too mild to describe how I feel about the color (one of these days I found myself saying it scares me) but I tolerate its existence - preferably away from me. As much as I wish I could explain all the little reasons why I don't like yellow, there are too many to list them all. There is, however, one that stands out: my skin undertone. After thoroughly analyzing the makeup I wear and the clothes that look good on me, I have come to the conclusion that I am slightly "yellow." And that haunts me. It was in one of those searches of mine that end up in a rabbit hole on Reddit that I realized I'm not the only one. A cybernaut who shall remain anonymous shared a story on the forum in which they shared having gone through the exact same thing, but in a far more intense way. While I was forced to face the reality of my body, this user refused to accept their "yellowness" and used to their advantage the kind of knowledge that elementary school gives us: flamingos, the pink animal of choice, get their color from food. They did the same, and lived for months of their childhood on a shrimp-based diet. To his surprise, their body remained totally unchanged, as yellow as it was before the diet. After the futile effort, the only alternative left was to give up the small crustaceans and live with the skin tone they were born with, which resulted in an unbridled hatred for yellow.

Just as there are those who viciously hate yellow, there are those who fall in love with the color of the sun. Story has it - and there is little evidence to support the veracity of this story - that Vincent van Gogh was one of these people. All it takes, in fact, is to look at the Dutch painter's portfolio to understand his fixation with color. Towards the end of his life, during a dark period, van Gogh is said to have eaten a tube of paint (or drunk it, it is not certain in which category we can fit colored pigments mixed in oil) in an attempt to consume "yellow happiness." Myth or truth, the fact is that yellow is indeed a "happy" color. Just do a quick Google search to realize that it is associated with optimism, energy, hope, and that it... catches the eye. In fact, the German poet Goethe, in his work Theory of Colors, describes the shade as "of a serene, happy and slightly exhilarating character" - perhaps that's why it's so fractious. It is as easily loved as it is hated, and it can be hard to find anyone who can place themselves in the middle of these extremes. 

Rejecting yellow is easy. For me and so many others, it is a color of such intensity that the slightest trace of it can be unbearable - a study revealed that only 5,5% picked it as their favorite. Sometimes, and as I was told in one of the many conversations I had on this subject, the impression is that yellow gives a false sense of happiness, a color that only gives the appearance of being cheerful, but without being genuinely so (if I had to materialize the color yellow, I would easily conceive it as a cloak, something that covers what lies beneath with a mask of false enthusiasm). Those who can't stand the color even admit that all its positivity and euphoric hope can become suffocating, as if it wants to push its optimism on us - I even heard someone describe it as "annoying," and I can’t deny it. But this end of the spectrum doesn't end in those who are bothered by the color, it ends in those who have a pathological fear of yellow. It's called xanthophobia, and it describes the irrational aversion and panic caused by the color, even the word itself, and can be attributed to traumas involving, for example, bees or buses. 

Interestingly, the reasons evoked to justify the hatred for yellow are the same ones that make people like the color so much - it is a happy color, conveying hope and optimism. Some people report feeling more energetic when wearing it, both in clothes and makeup. In fact, more than the influence it can have on mood, some people say they like the attention it attracts, the looks and comments (only the positive ones, of course). Besides the conventional symbolism, I have also heard slightly more concrete arguments that almost won me over: that it reminds people of the sun and the beach, the heat of summer. Whatever this means (if we go down that road it will take many more paragraphs), I can't help but notice that it is the same reasons that divide the world into these two large groups.

Then there are the impartial ones, the conformists. Though rare, just the mere fact that I was able to find them was, for me, an amazing victory. And what did they have to tell me? That color is indifferent to them, that the way it makes them feel depends on the context in which it is used. However, one of the best contributions was given to me by someone who claims to be a fan of the hue, but made them end up in this purgatory category: "Someone has to like yellow." I began my research under the assumption that there are only two types of people when it comes to yellow - those who reject and fear it, and those who desire and seek it. After all, there are those who conform and accept whatever this color brings into their lives, be it much or little. Perhaps this is the way to live with yellow - quietly, in no hurry to conquer it, and without fear of facing it.