How a Simple Memory Aid Belies Misogynist Attitudes in Electronics

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@peterthomas5571 8 ай бұрын

I'm with you 100%. Years ago I cancelled my membership of my city's major sporting team. Too many accounts of too many sexual assaults were surfacing, and too many of the accounts in court documents were sadly credible. I don't know how many players in the league were responsible, but the lower bound was high enough that it indicated a toxic culture. Of course, the clubs protected their players so that you couldn't tell which ones were guilty... with the result that wearing the team colours and logo meant I would be tacitly supporting a rapist. Which I couldn't do. As for the resistor colour code, I just set the colour names to the melody of a favourite song, and 42 years later it hasn't left my head. Anyway, thanks for standing up and being counted, and encouraging others to do the same.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Sometimes the difficult (and inconvenient) thing is doing the right thing. It's right to vote with your conscience and your wallet. Thank you for uplifting comment.

@peterthomas5571 8 ай бұрын

@@Mr.BrownsBasement Actually, I left out the most important part. I don't kid myself that the sporting organisation noticed, or that it was even equipped with ears to hear me. But I told my reasons to everyone I knew. I figure that culture is the sum of its parts, and each part can and does influence the parts around it. So hats off to you for what you're doing here.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Like each vote, every little statement makes a difference. I commend you for not blending into the majority who would prefer to let silence speak rather than their deeds.

@EvilGenius007 8 ай бұрын

I'm not sure what your regular content is like or why YT suggested this video, but you more than earned my subscription for demonstrating a willingness to stand for what's right.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

After dealing with about an hour of really negative and unpleasant comments today, it's a pleasure (and relief) to read yours. Thank you, sincerely.

@jsmxwll 7 ай бұрын

"Bad Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins" is what I learned as a kid. never heard the other one, thankfully. i've experienced how much thoughtlessly prejudiced mnemonics and sayings like that can influence behavior later in life. excellent video and good on ya for saying something.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 7 ай бұрын

I really appreciate your comments. I honestly cringed when I was reminded of the "other" mnemonic and was totally gobsmacked that the vast majority thought that it was okay. I guess old attitudes die slowly, much more slowly than I had thought. Your words of support do matter. Thank you.

@bobweiss8682 8 ай бұрын

The alternative version that I learned was "Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well", but teaching this one in schools would probably be way off-limits as well, because it promotes alcohol use...

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

I hadn’t heard this “Bad Beer” version. And yes, you’re right. Teaching the colour code this way would be frowned upon in most jurisdictions!

@Blowfeld20k 8 ай бұрын

Respect, brother, for taking a principled stand. IMHO, one of the least pleasant aspects of the STEM community (at least its online representation) is a childish need to use insensitivity to others as some kind of badge of old-fashioned rationality. Based on some of the comments I often see trotted out in such communities, I can't help the suspicion that in part some of the attitude comes from how intellectually bunkered we are within our specialisations. Seems people commit to path specialisation early on, and it seems in many sectors that rather self aggrandizing straw man perspectives of other academic sectors develop, this is not just an issue in STEM this is an issue in all academic sectors. Students are not given enough directly experienced reasons to have respect for knowledge bases outside their own. Think that makes us all a little more blinkered than we need to be.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

This is one of those instances when I’d love to see a flurry of copycat videos to repeat and amplify the message. I think of long ago when women fought en masse to question and change gender roles and to forcibly debunk stereotypes. The overt sexism in education, industry, advertising, management, and medicine was palpable. They made tremendous progress. How disheartened they would be to learn that many men are in denial and still cling to outdated ideas and continue to espouse misogynistic beliefs. I think your observation that people become isolated within their specialties is right on the money. Instead of seeing the big picture and how their specialization fits into it, they see the small picture and can’t see much of value beyond theirs. Thank you for your comment!

@rusle 8 ай бұрын

I learned a variant of that memory aid, but our teacher made it clear it was not political nor moraly correct but easy to remember

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

It sounds to me that your teacher had misgivings about the memory aid. I wonder then why he chose to teach it to you.

@theprof73 8 ай бұрын

Keep on bringing the sanity

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thanks, but there’s a severe shortage of sanity. I want to blame the pandemic and supply chain issues but I can’t say for sure. But thank you for the encouragement! 😊

@PatrickDraper 8 ай бұрын

You are correct. You are a man of great conscience. Thank you for making this video.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement.

@robertanderson3905 8 ай бұрын

loud and clear

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

No room for ambiguity on this one. Thank you!

@Wee_Langside 8 ай бұрын

I learnt a similar memory aid about 60 years ago. Different BVGW. Difficult to unlearn having used resistors regularly for the first 30 years of my working life, i was an electronic test engineer and made a lot of one-off test rigs. I don't think I ever passed it on as it's the sort of thing that makes me uncomfortable. Eventually you don't need it. Over those 30 years I had two colour blind colleagues for whom colour coding was no help.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Fortunately, I don't need the memory aid either - though I did make a mistake in the video saying blue grey brown was 6800Ω when it's only 680Ω. Oops. As cringeworthy as the BBROYG mnemonic is, it can become the springboard for a conversation. I'm happy (and relieved) to say that about 90% of the comments so far have been supportive which shows attitudes are moving in the right direction. Many of the 10% that aren't have a message and tone I've heard before. Fortunately for the colour blind there are multimeters! Thanks for your comment.

@karlfimm 8 ай бұрын

I can safely say I've never heard that mnemonic before (64 y/o retired electrical engineer in New Zealand). I wouldn't in any way consider myself 'woke', but I would certainly consider that totally inappropriate.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

I’m glad this North American thing didn’t make it across the pond. I agree with you: totally inappropriate. But a surprising number of comments defend this mnemonic, including a quite a number of insulting and disrespectful comments I’ve deleted.

@frankfaubert1927 8 ай бұрын

Not a problem. I will make sure I never see another one of your videos.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for keeping your comment respectful.

@randomblogger2835 8 ай бұрын

Perhaops substiture "repulse"

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Great idea! The simple solution is often the best!

@ryuseki-oni 8 ай бұрын

I rarely comment, but you earned it with the tone and sincerity of this video. Biological brains are a terrible mess without some measure of stability, predictability and consistency in their environment. Very young brains are highly capable of logical inference and prediction, even in the toddler stage. Sadly, contradictions break logical reasoning and so, themselves, become unique bits of information to remember which makes those contradictions easier to recall than more common information or patterns in the environment - the contradictions ( dissonant, irrational or misleading implications ) stand out. The collective and persistent presence of these contradictions in our environment tends to normalize them. This has only become amplified by recent technologies in they way those technologies are applied in social media. Discussion is one way ( arguably a very good way ) to modify attitudes around dissonant bits of information, to _abnormalize_ them again. Perhaps, depending on the circumstances of a persons life and environment as they grow and begin to mature, adult discussions require less effort than abnormalizing the environments which led to the unacceptable behaviors, but over all, I sincerely think you'll have a greater impact, if that's what you want, by choosing individual young people who are unfortunately already aware of these misgivings of our society and mentoring them, rather than shouting into the void of the internet. Sometimes one's greatest defense is not their strongest offense, but rather actual measures to inoculate more or less healthy minds from the diseases that ignorant and irrational minds are prone to. Maybe one day AI will become competent, moral and emotionally intelligent enough to provide this kind of help for everyone individually. Until then, the best we have is to find good motivators - which are at least as powerful and or as compelling as the need to survive, conserve energy and effort and maximize our opportunities through social cohesion - and utilize those motivators effectively to help individuals overcome knowledge and awareness barriers. One example I remember is of a very smart young fellow ( not myself, thankfully ) in one of my high school classes, an elective I think, maybe shop class, but I don't recall. Others in the class were uninspired by this young man's advanced use of language and they labelled him as something to the effect of being too book smart and or having no common sense. These young men stole the gentleman's satchel, spat on it and placed it into the garbage when he was not aware of their movements. The instructor simply asked these men not to behave that way and reminded them that there are consequences for their behavior. It did help, as far as I recall, with the acting out of those impulses. To be fair, it was difficult to converse with the young man who suffered their disrespect. A constructive approach obviously would have been to help all of those children, the young man lacking in social wisdom and the young men lacking in self confidence and suffering from paternalistic arrogance. The young man who suffered the disrespect suffered no worse at the hands of the other young men after that but was he never able to command respect from the other young men and the other young men did not develop a considerably more sophisticated philosophy of life, but rather simply moved on to other interests. No one actually greatly benefitted directly in that scenario as far as I could ascertain from subsequent behaviors of both parties. Maybe a seed was planted which continued to grow, it's difficult to say. Likely very few individuals, in the lives of all of those young men, had the courtesy and concern to address the situation with compassion and tolerance. At the very least this seems reasonable based on the reaction of the misbehaving group - they appeared to have some respect for the instructor and were receptive to his argument. Personally, it felt like an injustice was not settled, but merely forgiven and faith bestowed upon somewhat feeble reasoning. The only motivation seemed to be simply not to waste one's time ( paying for the consequences of actions which can more easily be avoided ) - merely a topical resolution, not a particularly advantageous shift in consciousness. This is all to implore you, humbly, please choose your battles wisely. 🙂 Good luck to you!

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Very good advice. Thank you for your comment.

@WOFFY-qc9te 6 ай бұрын

A very interesting and poignant comment; " labelled him as something to the effect of being too book smart and or having no common sense. These young men stole the gentleman's satchel, spat on it and placed it into the garbage when he was not aware of their movements. " That was me in 1962, then made worse when my middle English accent and was made fun of at a new school in the north of England. However when the uncouth individuals got themselves in a pickle it was my skill in negotiation and use of language which saved them a beating, they eventually learnt to be more respectful as I could without foul language or violence (not my thing) humiliate them among there peers, this proved to be an effective deterrent. As for colour codes, for a young mind to take on such strong programming stating unsociable and disrespectful actions hard wires the subconscious in a very harmful way. When I look at a resistor I still hear those distasteful words. "The collective and persistent presence of these contradictions in our environment tends to normalize them." So true

@W9CR 8 ай бұрын

I just have a phone app for it. I've never heard this, and generally I love offensive humor. That said, it's not something that should be taught or used in professional setting, I'm with ya on that.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Agreed, not something that should be taught in school!

@arkomausa 8 ай бұрын

I learned it at C & E school in the USMC in 1981.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Even though attitudes seemed to be a lot different 2 generations ago, it seems they haven't changed very much at all.

@arkomausa 8 ай бұрын

The last part of the mnemonic, taught to me by Gunny Boggess was "but violence gets worse".

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

There are plenty of variations but I hadn’t heard that one.

@billdesmond7389 8 ай бұрын

I learned violet gives willingly.. I taught electronics and had to write this in the board.everyone got it right after that

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Fortunately, now there are alternatives for Violet and the Boys that aren’t so cringeworthy and inappropriate!

@dsacton 8 ай бұрын

Well put,, Mr. Brown. That's how I learned what the word r*pe meant. I was 7, I believe, when I learned the resistor color code, and saw this phrase on the inside of my father's tool box. It didn't take long for me to ask about that word. Thanks for taking a stand. Yes, you have gained a subscriber!

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for subscribing. This is a difficult conversation for people and I appreciate your supportive words.

@brentbolton6984 8 ай бұрын

I learned it in the 70's. To his credit, my professor cringed a bit when teaching it and was embarrassed by the misogynistic nature of it even then. It's completely irrelevant in my current work in electrical engineering. I use color coded thru hole resistors so rarely that I simply measure them with a multimeter and don't bother reading the code, That's faster than using the mnemonic. Surface mount resistors, when they are marked, simply use a numeric value.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

I routinely read resistors when I’m doing repair and rarely make mistakes. Except with this video where I mistakenly said blue grey brown was 6.8KΩ instead of 680Ω. I don’t know what I was thinking! But you’re right, most of the time there’s little need for a mnemonic. A digital multimeter will be handy for through-hole resistors and SMD’s have legends silkscreened on them.

@123QuoFan 8 ай бұрын

Articulate and principled. Right on!

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

In other words, out of character. Sometimes I get things right by accident. Thanks!

@bobweiss8682 8 ай бұрын

Would be interesting to see just how far back this particular mnemonic goes. The 10-color code itself goes back to the 1920's, first being used with the old "BED", or "Body, End, Dot" marked resistors. I have seen a couple variations, Including one that adds racism to the misogyny, by substituting "Black Boys" for "Bad Boys", as well as one apparently from the WW2 era, which replaces the last 4 with "Behind Victory Garden Walls". Don't sweat being called "woke", seeing as the alternative would imply that you were sleepwalking through life!

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

I too would be interested to know where and when this mnemonic made its nasty debut. And yes, I’ve heard the version that adds racism to misogyny, like insult adds to injury. I won’t lose sleep over being “woke”! 😊

@moreause 8 ай бұрын

there is a big difference between using a word , that is just a word... and doing the act of what that word define what now you cant tell any bad word even in a civil discussion without people going crazy that reminder may not be the best in today view, but like the rest, was fine for everybody for alot of year and when using it the only intent is to knoe the value of a resistor not the act behind the words

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Agreed, a word is not equal to its act. Talking about rape is not the same as going out and raping someone. But words reveal an attitude. In this case, making light of it isn't treating rape as a serious crime. According to (supportingsurvivors.humboldt.edu/statistics#:~:text=An%20estimated%2091%25%20of%20victims,are%20female%20and%209%25%20male.) 91% of rape is perpetrated against women. I'm sure you don't hear a lot of women joking about it. So why are men joking about it?

@peterthomas5571 8 ай бұрын

Everyone here understands that the word is being used in a different context. Everyone also understands that if I say "I'm going to murder my brother for scratching my car", it's quite separate from actual murder. But murder has never been normalised, while rape has been. People don't contend with shame and guilt when reporting a murder. Police forces aren't notoriously uninterested in investigating murder. No-one dismisses murder as "20 minutes of action". There haven't been laws which say that murder is ok if the killer is married to the murdered party. The odds of being murdered are pretty damn low. We don't trivialise or normalise murder so using the word in a different context isn't problematic. Rape is trivialised irl. If we want to change that, we can start by not trivialising it in conversation.

@moreause 8 ай бұрын

If that was even remotely tru 4:48 you would have a higher rapist rate among poeple working with that chart ? because in your logic they treat it is casual act. You are mixing casual use OF THE WORD vs the act it self yes word can have some long time effect to shape the brain perception but you are almost calling out poeple rapist and misogyn for just saying the word at some point you need intent and action and that part is missing in your electrical circuit

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Well put. Thank you.

@danielmatthews8475 8 ай бұрын

Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West Is what I learned. I was pretty appalled when I heard the other version.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

I had never heard that before but I like it. You’re right, the other version is appalling. Thanks for the comment.

@jamesmcgee7723 8 ай бұрын

When I was taught it 50 years ago it was also racist, as the boys weren't bad....

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Yes, I've heard the version of the mnemonic with anti-Black racism cooked in with the Misogyny. I'm so glad we finally have legislation to deal with it: Section 319 of the Criminal Code ("Inciting and Promoting Hatred")

@ghoost8943 8 ай бұрын

Id vote for him

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

If I win I’ll need a vice-president if you’re available.

@pchris6662 8 ай бұрын

Oh brother. The purpose of a mnemonic is to remember something. This is one of the very few mnemonic phrases I can remember because it sticks in your brain…which is the whole point. I’ve heard the politically correct version, but guess what? I can’t remember it.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for your comment. I'm not telling anyone they can't use it if they want. I'm saying there are alternatives that don't make co-workers, colleagues and classmates feel like they don't matter.

@pchris6662 8 ай бұрын

@@Mr.BrownsBasement That’s just projection.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

@@pchris6662 I disagree. According to ( supportingsurvivors.humboldt.edu/statistics#:~:text=An%20estimated%2091%25%20of%20victims,are%20female%20and%209%25%20male.) which seems to be a reputable source, 91% of rape victims are female. Generally speaking, do you hear women joking about rape? Why not? Do you think women are comfortable while men around them are joking about rape? So do you want to be one of those men?

@grokwhy 8 ай бұрын

You make good arguments, but as a mnemonic device goes, I heard that 40+ years ago in military training and remember it today. It worked. But I too wouldn't give a rat's behind if you found it offensive. Its absurdity and offensiveness are what make it memorable.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for your compliment. You’re right, a mnemonic only works if it’s remembered. But is this particular mnemonic SO special and SO good that it should still be used to the exclusion of others that don’t contain references to sexual assault?

@grokwhy 8 ай бұрын

@@Mr.BrownsBasement I've heard various versions over the years, but I don't remember any of them. Maybe it's because I heard that one first. There is a lot of talk these days about this is offensive, or that is offensive, people have gotten weary of it. I think it comes down to how you internalize it. I don't, it's just a silly mnemonic. But I don't mind if others do. Have you heard the one, There was a young woman on Venus...

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Fair enough. I think you’d be surprised by how passionately some folks are defending this mnemonic. If you scroll through the comments I’ve left most of them. But I’ve deleted a few that are unpleasant and insulting, that don’t talk about the mnemonic at all but about me for daring to make this video.

@grokwhy 8 ай бұрын

@@Mr.BrownsBasement The way the internet works, the extreme viewpoints get amplified. The middle of the road doesn't engage, and the machine wants engagement. Maybe we need a circuit that clips or clamps the extreme spikes. I try to ignore them, otherwise you'll lose focus on your goal.

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

The internet needs a big fat MOV!

@cyberoptic5757 8 ай бұрын

Thank you sir!

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

You’re most welcome. I had debated for some time before making this video. But in hindsight I’m glad I did.

@robertanderson3905 8 ай бұрын

staun yer grun BROON

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

i don't know how to reply. Could you clarify please?

@cindys1819 8 ай бұрын

Who needs this moralizing? I'm gone grandpa....

@Mr.BrownsBasement 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for your comment. The purpose of this video was to comment on something I think is wrong. I’m sure there are issues that you have strong feelings about and would explain if someone asked you to. So go ahead … why do you feel this is moralizing?

@peterthomas5571 8 ай бұрын

OK Karen, neither the Internet nor KZbin are built around your personal interests. For which I am truly thankful.