Meet with other Colorblind Women
- Posted by Daniel Flück on February 26th, 2007 filed in People
During the last days I was contacted by colorblind women seeking other colorblind women to share thoughts, ask questions and just to talk. I was looking for a way to make it possible to meet and discuss. Finally I set up an own forum about color blindness here at Colblindor, where everybody can join and talk about color blindness viewed through colorblind eyes.
Color blindness in women is very rare. Only about 0.5% of all women have some kind of color vision deficiency and often this isn’t even recognized. Most people think color blindness is only man’s business – but that is wrong.
Because the biology behind red-green color blindness tells us, that much more men are colorblind (approximately 8%) this doesn’t mean that women can not be colorblind. Specially very uncommon cases like tritanopia (blue-yellow color blindness) and monochromacy (complete color blindness) are equally distributed among men and women.
Update: Because the forum was mostly a huge spam trap I removed it again. Sorry if any inconveniences arise through this.
March 7th, 2007 at 23:51
hello,
I am not color blind or color deficient. However, my comment is for women who are. I have a grandmother and 2 uncles who are red/green color deficient and a mother-in-law who is blue/green deficient. I have 2 boys and 1 girl and never thought much about the deficiency until 2 years ago. My then 5 yr old son and 4 yr old dauhter were fighting over what color my daughters nail polish was. She said purple and he said blue. I listened for a bit and then broke in to resolve the matter. The nail polish was very purple and made me then concerned with my son’s vision. I took him to a doctor and he confirmed he was color deficient-Tritanomoly. I guess the 2 types of deficiencies merged to create his tritan deficiency, which is extremely rare.
The doctor then informed me that I could have 5 daughters and none of them would be color deficient. However, they would all be carriers. And if I have 2 boys then chances are that one would be color deficient but not the other. And that is really all the help he offered.
So, I guess my point in all of this blabbering is that if any woman is color deficient please be aware of your children. I was completely clueless, but, well aware of the other deficiencies in my family. Again, I will say I admire any man or woman who is color deficient. They must over come obstacles that most of us take for granted.
Best of luck
jennifer
November 9th, 2007 at 16:23
Hi there!
I am a color blind woman and I wanted to ease your mind a little. There are times that I want to scream (matching outfits at stores) but for the most part it is comical that I can’t tell the diff between blue and black, green and brown, etc. All of my girlfriends and husband help me out and we often get a good laugh out of the situation. I am 38 years old and can’t say that I’ve done much suffering over my color deficiency. Actually it’s kind of cool to be different. People always say “women can’t be colorblind”. I just smile and say “oh yes they can”.
December 25th, 2007 at 1:59
Hi,
I became aware of my color deficiency at age 19. I am now 39. I always knew my brother and male cousin were red/green deficient, but also heard that females could not be. I discovered it through a physical exam to enter into working with electronics. It was a no go. For several years, as a housewife and mother, it didn’t effect me too much. More recently however, as I work w/ small children, I come across many problem areas. I am not always able to identify when a child’s cheeks are rosie due to fever or sunburn. I am not able to see a slight rash developing, etc. As I have made a conscious effort to become more aware, I notice that turn signals in traffic can be a challenge. Computer screens confuse me at times when, for example, items will change color showing you have clicked on something before and so on. Anyway, just thought I would share.
December 26th, 2007 at 17:18
Hello,
I’m an artist/jewelry designer that sometimes struggles with this issue, and so it’s nice to know there are other women out there who understand.
Best,
Laura Young
http://adornment.blogspot.com/search?q=i+see+color
January 6th, 2008 at 19:02
I am 16 years old and color blind when i tell people i am, they are a fan of saying Women cant be colorblind. I wish people were more educated on that they can be..its just rare
January 10th, 2008 at 14:09
hey i’m 18 and i feel the same way. all my friends always pick up things when we are in the store and be like what color is this.
April 16th, 2008 at 19:50
I’m 15 and female and im almost sure im colorblind. My dad has the red-green defiency, and im wondering if it is possible to have a less severe version. I mix up green and black, and orange and red. I was also wondering if anyone know if being colorblind could affect my career choice. I will graduate highschool in two years and im extremely nervous that I can’t pursue the career of a surgeon.
April 16th, 2008 at 21:45
Jena, if you are colorblind it can be different than the color vision deficiency of your father. Because as a woman you have to inherit it from both of your parents.
I think there is one thing which I can’t judge and which you should be able to do if you want to study medicine: Can you judge about someones health by his skin color? I definitely can’t because I can’t differentiate it. So if you can, you are on the good side.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:40
a woman can be a carrier of color-blindness without it affecting her if she has a good color gene. ask your mother if she has any history of color-blindness in her family.
August 12th, 2008 at 16:05
My mother (now deseased), one of my sisters, and myself seem to have problems distinguishing between dark colors. (Deep blue, brown, black, and green.) For instance, we think that my dog is black, while everyone else says that she is chocolate. Not that it’s a problem, it just seems odd. I am really baffled trying to sort socks. I just lay them out according to manufacturerer and let others figure it out.
best regards!
August 16th, 2008 at 3:40
im 22 male n i have green-red color blindness… i dun feel bad hving des prob but some times i lose in snooker cuz i can’t differentiate between d red color ball n d brown i guess hehe… so ma frinds will start make fun of me hehe
i already used to it
bye