I know now that the “flag” of the gay movement in general is a rainbow, but the color pink was used for, I think for many years (as an aside, in the German concentration camps, which had a huge variety of classification IDs for its son-to-die prisoners, the badge for homosexuals was pink).
Also, when/if did pink gradually become superceded by the rainbow symbol?
I don’t know, but I’ve heard that in the 19th century, pink was considered a masculine color, being associated with the bold color red. Blue was considered soft and feminine.
Right. I’ve wondered the same thing, and it is very hard to find an answer. All I can usually come up with is that pink/red were at one point decidedly more masculine than blue, and then there was a shift, associating pink with femininity. Clearly, there was a shift, but was the Nazi thing the result of the it, or part of the onset?
It’s lavender actually. You’ll sometimes see levendar roses at SS weddings. The “lavender revolution” was a gay liberation movement circa 1969. But mauve represented homosexuality back in the 1890s. I’ll have to look it up, because I don’t remember the origins.
Edit: This is from Wikipedia, but I’m quite sure I have a more authoritative cite in my library, I’m just not sure if I have the time to dig it up at the moment.
Remember that lesbians were not given pink triangles. Lesbian behaviour wasn’t a big concern for the Nazis and unless it was obvious was generally ignored. Lesbians were taken into camps when they became “obvious” and given black triangles. Several lesbian organizations have adopted the black triangle. The black triange was given for anti-social behaviour.
They may be evil mass-murderers but they did have fantastic formal-wear.
I never associated the color pink with homosexuals. I never associated any color with them except for the rainbow flag, which is obviously not one color but a collection of several. And naturally, the Bear Flag, a marvelously macho take on the rainbow.
the terms “blue collar job” and “pink collar job” have a long history. I believe “pink collar” term was already being used during the Depression. And the level of manliness and special training required is an obvious distinction between the two.
From what I can glean online, the Russian term based on the color “light blue” is thought to be either coined recently or at least widely spread recently (in the 1970s). Nobody seems certain about etymology, but one of the suggestions is based on the similarly sounding word for “dove” that was allegedly used internally by the gay subculture at some point.
In the German army of WW2, panzer troopers wore pink trim on their uniforms. So I don’t think the Germans considered it effeminate. I think the pink triangles in the concentration camps was just a coincidence.
After WW2, gay rights advocates adopted the pink triangle symbol as a deliberate statement.