This letter is response to two that appeared recently in Vancouver's Westender community paper, both of which are included below.
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As a gay man, I take issue with a rant in last week's edition, arguing that the pink paint on Davie Street bus shelters isn't connotative of femininity but is, rather, a reclamation of the colour after the Nazis used it to mark gay men in concentration camps. I'm sure if one goes far enough back into history, it will become apparent that pink has been a sign of femininity long before the Nazis ever associated it with homosexuality. In fact, many of the symbols used by the Nazis existed long before their time. For instance, Jews in the concentration camps were branded with a symbol incorporating the Star of David.
Considering that, in the public mind, homosexuality and femininity have long been associated, the use of pink on bus shelters does nothing more than reinforce the stereotype that gay men are delicate and prissy. Furthermore, even if it were true that the association between pink and homosexuality originated with the Nazis, few people in the general public would know their history well enough to make this connection. To think that they would is about as silly as claiming that everyone "obviously" knows the real reason why the bus shelters in front of the Royal Centre are blue: the Royal Bank is reclaiming the colour blue. From what or from whom, I don't know. Maybe our ranter does.
Eddy Elmer,
Vancouver, BC
Visiting a friend in the West End the other week, I was struck by the sight of transit shelters that were painted pink, a different colour than any other shelter in the city. I wondered why this was allowed, never mind actually endorsed, by the "gay" community living in the area. And why the colour pink? In my opinion, this community is self-inflicting 'minority group' stereotyping and thus allowing daily discrimination, of a very visual kind, to take place right in its own front yard. First there's the colour chosen, then there's the different colour in of itself.
Why in the world would the local community endorse the colour pink? Were they unaware that most people still think of pink as a feminine, delicate colour, a colour for little girls? And who said gays identify with the colour pink? Why not red for passion, or blue for being so cool? Who says it's okay to portray gays as feminine and delicate?
To paint the West End transit shelters pink, or any other colour rather than the norm, is not some privilege or special treatment. Rather it is a withholding of the expectation to be treated like everyone else.
Stuart Matthews,
by e-mail, September 1
To the ranter who complained that pink was an insulting girly colour for the Davie Street transit shelters. Stuart Matthews should take his head out of his ass, and get his facts straight before ranting. While pink may be a delicate colour in association with girls it most certainly is not that when associated with gays. Pink triangles were the identification the Nazis placed on gay concentration camp prisoners. Subsequently the pink triangle has been adopted as a symbol of gay liberation. Gay pink is a statement that we are out and proud, and won't be going to the concentration camps again.
The previous ill informed ranter also seemed to believe that the Davie shelters were the only ones in the city being painted anything other than standard grey. Wrong. Just as the Davie Business Association paid for the pink, other businesses are paying for their own colours; for example, the Royal Bank blue shelters in front of their main branch at Georgia and Burrard.
Anonymous,
by e-mail, September 2
Copyright © 2004, by Eddy M. Elmer
Permanent URL: http://www.eddyelmer.com/articles/deppx.htm