[Sigia-l] Pink, revisited

[Frank Shepard]

And speaking of green (ipods), this is a color that has really gained
a new vitality in the past few years in this country.

On 9/13/07, Frank Shepard <fgshepard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Regardless of the manner in which this particular symbolic association
> has been taken up since (e.g., its appropriation as a symbol of pride
> by the persecuted group), its impact is due in large part to the
> function of this symbol under Nazi rule. And the system that enacted
> the persecution of these populations was designed. The use of the pink
> triangle by the Nazis was a design decision -- one aspect of a large
> social engineering project; and it is in large part due to the
> horrific policies that corresponded to this label (i.e., to that
> design and designation) that this particular symbol has had its power.
> I guess my point is that, regardless of the underlying reasons for the
> association of a color with a particular segment of the population
> (e.g., regardless of why the Nazis chose the pink triangle in the
> first place), design decisions can have a tremendous impact (intended
> or not) on the future place of that color within social and cultural
> systems.
>
> Just think of the connotations given to the phrase "code red" since
> the gov't's adoption of the color coded terror alert system. It's now
> something of a joke. And I remember a lot of talk about the return of
> the color (and word) red in branding campaigns after the fall of the
> USSR.
>
> Frank
>
> On 9/13/07, Brett Taylor <btaylor at roundarch.com> wrote:
> > No,
> >
> > The association with the triangle only was a way for a group of people
> > to identify with persecution of a culture. When most talk about the
> > holocaust we immediately remember the Jewish people, as we should so
> > many were killed, the pink triangle and the gays is a way for pay people
> > to say "hey Hitler didn't only seek out and kill Jews"; Jews wore yellow
> > stars, gays wore pink triangles.
> >
> > I can't say why Hitler chose the pink triangle, I must of slept through
> > that in my gay history class, but maybe in Germany it was a secret
> > identifier for gay men to wear like the red carnation was for men in
> > other countries.
> >
> >
> > brett taylor + R O U N D A R C H + bus 312.529.2502 + mob 773.844.5233 +
> > web www.roundarch.com
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On
> > Behalf Of Frank Shepard
> > Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:21 AM
> > To: SIGIA-L
> > Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Pink, revisited
> >
> > Brett Taylor wrote:
> > > The association with the pink triangle and the gay community has to go
> >
> > > back to the holocaust where the germans made the known gays wear a
> > > pink triangle. I wouldn't say that because someone is gay they
> > > automatically like pink.
> >
> >
> > In other words, what some take to be a socially or naturally produced
> > preference may actually be the result of a centralized, programmatic
> > design decision.
> >
> > Frank
> > ------------
> > IA Summit 2008: "Experiencing Information"
> > April 10-14, 2008, Miami, Florida
> >
> > -----
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