Why can't you paint your house any color in America?
Posted: November 20th, 2015, 11:33 am
I've brought this up in another post, but I'd like to rant about this. I was talking to the girl from Vietnam I've been talking to a lot, and we were discussing paint colors. She said she would want to paint a room bright purple, and paint the outside of the house bright purple as well. I told her in USA this would be frowned upon as an adult, to paint your room such a bright color kind of purple, and that most people would choose a more "neutral" color. She was really surprised and didn't like this. Obviously, inside of the house, you can paint however you want, but outside you cannot in much of USA, due to home owner's associations, and sometimes even city ordinances. I find this the strangest thing, in the "land of the free." Like, it seems almost Stalinist or North Korean, that one cannot even paint their house whatever color they wish.
Looking at houses in Vietnam for example, people paint them however they want. All kinds of crazy bright neon colors. And I like this!
Look at those houses! Look how colorful they are! I really like this, and seeing the brightly colored houses make me happy.
Obviously, a few brightly colored houses in USA exist. But they're rare. http://mentalfloss.com/article/49301/10 ... ed-protest These houses here for example, why is this a "protest" when in Communist Vietnam, at least a few would be perfectly acceptable paint jobs?
My mother and sister spend a lot of time watching HGTV, and the design trend is "neutral colors." What makes a color neutral? Really, it's ability to not offend people. So now instead of choosing a color you like, you're choosing a color that will not offend others. Not offending others is the main psychological driving force behind choosing a color for your house or room? Do you know how screwy and North Korean type thinking this sounds? That you now have to literally tell people in America you cannot even paint your house whatever color you want on the outside? Quite literally, the "collective" has more rights (in supposedly, individualistic America) than the individual in the simple matter of what color you can paint your house.
But then on the flipside, what is weird, is that while you can't paint your house however you wish, you can walk around like this:
When talking to her, she thought "People of Walmart" was the strangest most hilarious thing ever. She said in Vietnam if just one "People of Walmart" was spotted, they'd be talked about for a week on social media there. But here it's a daily real occurrence. So why are people allowed to express themselves in much more outlandish ways that way, but you can't paint your house orange if you feel like it? An orange house won't scare a small child. A person looking like that just might.
I don't know, this is quite weird. As we hear spoken negatively of Asian countries, or other countries, the evils of collectivism, lack of self expression, etc. But then in America this is one very real, albeit somewhat minor way, that our collectivism stunts our self expression or creativity, without any real argument about it being unsafe, dangerous, hurtful, etc (things said to ban politically incorrect speech.)
Thoughts?
Looking at houses in Vietnam for example, people paint them however they want. All kinds of crazy bright neon colors. And I like this!
Look at those houses! Look how colorful they are! I really like this, and seeing the brightly colored houses make me happy.
Obviously, a few brightly colored houses in USA exist. But they're rare. http://mentalfloss.com/article/49301/10 ... ed-protest These houses here for example, why is this a "protest" when in Communist Vietnam, at least a few would be perfectly acceptable paint jobs?
My mother and sister spend a lot of time watching HGTV, and the design trend is "neutral colors." What makes a color neutral? Really, it's ability to not offend people. So now instead of choosing a color you like, you're choosing a color that will not offend others. Not offending others is the main psychological driving force behind choosing a color for your house or room? Do you know how screwy and North Korean type thinking this sounds? That you now have to literally tell people in America you cannot even paint your house whatever color you want on the outside? Quite literally, the "collective" has more rights (in supposedly, individualistic America) than the individual in the simple matter of what color you can paint your house.
But then on the flipside, what is weird, is that while you can't paint your house however you wish, you can walk around like this:
When talking to her, she thought "People of Walmart" was the strangest most hilarious thing ever. She said in Vietnam if just one "People of Walmart" was spotted, they'd be talked about for a week on social media there. But here it's a daily real occurrence. So why are people allowed to express themselves in much more outlandish ways that way, but you can't paint your house orange if you feel like it? An orange house won't scare a small child. A person looking like that just might.
I don't know, this is quite weird. As we hear spoken negatively of Asian countries, or other countries, the evils of collectivism, lack of self expression, etc. But then in America this is one very real, albeit somewhat minor way, that our collectivism stunts our self expression or creativity, without any real argument about it being unsafe, dangerous, hurtful, etc (things said to ban politically incorrect speech.)
Thoughts?