sad white. · Scour

07 Dec, 2025 *

Pantone names "Cloud Dancer" (aka white) as it’s 2026 Color of the Year

White. Really? White. Just...white.

You can call it Cloud Dancer or Sour Cream or Salt Bland or whatever you want to call it, Pantone. It’s fucking WHITE.

For the past few years, Pantone has been turning down the saturation knob on their Colors of the Year. We haven’t had a really bold color since 2023, when it was a bold magenta. We’ve just been getting less and less saturated, until now, when it’s just...white. I’m seeing a lot of people online talking about how it’s the absolute lack of color - which isn’t true, white light contains the entire spectrum of wavelengths - but in this case, that’s pretty much on the nose.

Th…

07 Dec, 2025 *

Pantone names "Cloud Dancer" (aka white) as it’s 2026 Color of the Year

White. Really? White. Just...white.

You can call it Cloud Dancer or Sour Cream or Salt Bland or whatever you want to call it, Pantone. It’s fucking WHITE.

That, and this color is not true white. It’s just off of center, enough to not be pure, bright white. It’s a sad white, a not quite white, a "playing it safe" white. It doesn’t light up a room, it doesn’t reflect and boost color, it’s just...there. Meh. Like a bump on a goddamn log.

And yes, I absolutely do think that Pantone is being tone-deaf as all get out with this color choice. Or maybe they’re not, and they’re catering to this recent push by conservatives and white supremacists that are in power in so many places now. Maybe they’re toeing the line so as not to get pushback. Either way, it’s sending an awful fucking message.

I don’t believe this nonsense and drivel they’re spouting about the whole "this is a fresh color that means new beginnings and new starts". Nah. It’s bland. It’s the color equivalent of boiled meat. It’s the color of cheap apartment walls when you move in, and god help you if you splatter anything on them. It’s that sort of white that goes with greige and tan in "minimalist" rich homes and spaces. It’s the color of conformity and sterility and joylessness, and it aims to leach the happiness out of you. It’s not a "fresh start", it’s demanding your compliance.

Fuck a bunch of that.

The scary thing to me is that this sort of compliance is trending in not just colors, it’s everywhere - from clothing to makeup to fashion.

"Clean girl" aesthetics are not about embracing your bare face and skin, it’s about conforming to a "wholesome" appearance. Clean girls have natural colored hair, short bare nails or only "approved" nail colors, makeup that looks makeupless. Combine that with the push towards "wholesome" and "natural" foods, which is just another bunch of diet culture bullshit, and you have trends attempting to keep women "pure" and "good" - not to mention weak and bland. No standing out for clean girlies, no sirree.

Clothing for women have been trending towards covering up over the past few years, showing less skin, longer skirts, wide pants, turtlenecks, floral prairie dresses. Delicate and "traditionally feminine". It’s giving pentacostal, y’all.

This color of the year choice is nothing more than another trend towards keeping us in line and in this mindset of "don’t stand out, don’t stand up, keep your head down and keep quiet". It’s more of a push to prevent people from speaking up and speaking out and being loud and being true to themselves.

I say, loudly and unabashedly, FUCK THAT AND FUCK YOU.

Stand up. Be loud. Take up space. State your mind. Be bright and bold.

゜。+。゜゜。*。゜゜。＋。゜*゜。゜。+。゜

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