[thenewkid]

Will children be able to draw rainbows free of political and cultural symbolism? Or will the appropriation become permanent, much like the word "gay" which has lost its original English and French meaning?

"The rainbow flag made its debut in 1978 at San Francisco's Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade... The original flag had eight colors, two more than its customary version, each representing an aspect of gay life: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, blue for harmony, and violet for spirit."

"In 2006, a straight family in Kansas had to defend flying a rainbow flag at their bed and breakfast from some angry townspeople... Understanding the wider symbolism, the owners nevertheless chose to fly the flag because their young son said it reminded him of the movie The Wizard of Oz, evoking the movie's signature song, Over the Rainbow."

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=7007

[nostromo]

Children can draw rainbows free of symbolism right now and forever.

Flags are different. Flags always have symbolism, that's their point.

Similarly, children can draw a hammer and sickle for fun if they want. However, should you put it on a flag and fly it in front of your house, don't be surprised if people draw conclusions.

[jlgreco]

> Similarly, children can draw a hammer and sickle for fun if they want. However, should you put it on a flag and fly it in front of your house, don't be surprised if people draw conclusions.

Even more extreme: Swastikas in the decorative masonry in a government building? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greca_a_svastica_-_palazzo...) Don't expect much controversy. Swastikas on a flag in the same building? Expect an issue. Something being in a flag or not is an incredibly important context that must be considered.

[atondwal]

Swastikas are a little different though. It's been decoratively used for apolitical reasons for thousands of years on all sorts of things, but was only really flown as a flag starting with the NAZIs in the 1920s. There's a lot of architecture, even in Europe involving pre-NAZI swastikas. And before and even shortly after the NAZI party adopted it, it was used a a good luck symbol in the west (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_...).

[jlgreco]

I think that is quite similar to rainbows though. Use lots of places in a variety of ways for a very long time, but only really use on flags by the LGBT movement.

[EvanKelly]

The rainbow (though still used in pride events here) has retained a non-cultural symbolism here in Hawaii due primarily to the prevalence of them on a daily basis. It's not uncommon to see people walking around with a rainbow motif on their clothing.

The University of Hawaii has several names for its sports teams, some of which are The 'Bows, Rainbow Warriors, and Rainbow Wahine.

[CanSpice]

Not to mention everybody has one on their car, as the rainbow's on the license plate.

[saraid216]

And religious symbolism. Don't forget that the rainbow is really a symbol of the covenant between Noah and God that He would never destroy the earth in a great flood again.

[charonn0]

A rainbow is an optical effect of light passing through a fine mist of water droplets. It has nothing to do with genocidal deities.

[arrrg]

Are you for real?

Can’t you see quite clearly that in the story you are linking to the bigots are the problem, not the symbol?! Isn’t that obvious?!

[MartinCron]

I have a small child who draws rainbows all the time. There's no symbolism or subtext beside the desire to make use of all of the crayons.

Don't worry, the kids are just fine. As are the trout.

[daughart]

People can't draw swastikas anymore without invoking political and cultural symbolism. Sometimes groups appropriate symbols in ways that render them cultural signifiers. Seems like a somewhat trivial comment on such an important civil rights issue.

[mayanksinghal]

Yes, just like they can draw maple leafs without thinking about Canada. Did red and blue on the American flag ruin the colors for children in the rest of the world?

[tommorris]

What suspicious "political and cultural symbolism" lies behind the rainbow pride flag? Pride, tolerance, and acceptance of other people's sexualities and lives.

Oh my. What ghastly values. What terrible "appropriation".

Words change meaning over time. People create logos and symbols to represent their ideas and points of view. When corporations do it to sell things, it's called branding. When we do it to try and get treated like equals by society, it's called "appropriation". Sigh.

[bcoates]

The problem there is people who fly flags as vague decorative objects when the entire purpose of a flag is to be a symbol for a specific group or cause.

People who put flags on their house because they like the pretty colors are as tasteless as someone wearing a black armband because they think their outfit needed an accessory.

[s_kilk]

quick, somebody think of the children.

[charonn0]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo

[gohrt]

A rainbow is curved. The Pride flag is not.

[dragonwriter]

> A rainbow is curved.

More specifically, its a circle. Though usually you can;t see the whole thing.

> The Pride flag is not.

The pride flag is a section of a rainbow of infinite radius.

[drakeandrews]

Alternatively, a pride flag is an orthographic representation of a rainbow whose curve is in the direction perpendicular to the viewing plane.