blue/yellow symbolism in Heartstopper
Episode 1
While watching Netflix’s Heartstopper series, based on the popular graphic novel series by Alice Oseman, I couldn’t help but notice the overt blue and yellow symbolism. If I took a shot every time I noticed it, I’d be incapacitated due to alcohol poisoning.
Red/pink also make an appearance perhaps to indicate deviating from binaries.
[I tried to screen record specific instances but Netflix is pretty good at making that difficult to do so please excuse the terrible quality of my phone camera to illustrate the examples.]
There are casual instances of blue and yellow throughout the show, in the background setting or casually part of someone’s outfit. The boy’s school uses a blue as a their primary uniform colour, for example, which looks normal upon first glance but could easily represent gender norms and toxic masculinity. Yellow on the other hand can represent femininity and freedom of expression, or more specifically in the context of the show, queerness. The girl’s school uniform incorporates a yellow shirt.
In the beginning of the show, Nick wears a lot of blue in his casual attire which is something to pay attention to as the show progresses.
Let’s get into specific examples from Episode 1!
When Charlie sits down beside Nick, his chair uncovered, showing its yellow covering, while Nick’s chair is always covered by his jacket.
When Charlie meets up with Ben, the lighting behind them is blue. This represents the closeted, toxic nature of the relationship. Ben is having trouble coming to terms with his sexuality and it is tainting Charlie.
In this scene, one of the many where Nick and Charlie say “hi” (seriously, I can’t believe they invented the word “hi” for this show), this symbolism is clear. Nick who is unaware of his bisexuality and hangs out with the rugby lads (stereotypical toxic masculinity) is positioned in front of the blue side of the wall while Charlie who is openly gay and becoming aware of his attraction to Nick is positioned in front of the yellow side.
In this quick shot, we can see that Charlie, Tao, and Isaac sit at the only yellow picnic table in this area. Coincidence? hm...
Lastly, when Charlie first enters the rugby changing room, his bag is a stark yellow in comparison to the blue surroundings. There is another yellow back on the righthand side, maybe indicating the femininity/queerness of another character.
There are many other instances of this imagery in the first episode but these are the main ones. Should I do this for all the episodes?
