Okay, since I’m going to be making pride stuff using this flag, I’m should make a post to formally introduce it.
This is a lesbian flag proposal that I created last week.
But mod k, what’s wrong with the current lesbian flag?
Well, there are a couple of things:
- When that flag was first created in 2010, it was created as the lipstick lesbian flag. It was created in response to that fact that gay men have a bear flag, a leather flag, etc. Here’s AfterEllen referring to it as the lipstick lesbian flag and talking about how it wasn’t widely used in late 2015.
- In 2016, a group of people decided it would be appropriate to remove the lips and basically pretend that the pink flag represented the whole community. However, because it was created as the lipstick lesbian flag, it’s indisputable that it was not designed to include lesbians who are butch, futch, or otherwise gender nonconforming.
- As a result, a lot of lesbians don’t like the pink flag, and many creators have found it merchandise with that flag design sell so poorly that they don’t even make enough off them to continue to pay to list them on online vending sites.
- Additionally, the six different shades of pink can be extremely difficult to source in things like thread and material. The conclusion is that merchandise with the pink flag on it is more expensive to make than other flags and sells a lot worse.
But mod k, there are a lot of other flag proposals out there. Why did you need to create your own?
There are a lot of flag proposals out there, and I like several of them a lot. I’m geniunely not trying to trash anyone else’s design. Here’s why I made my own:
- Many of the proposals I’ve seen fall into the same trap of having several stripes in different shades of the same color, which makes them expensive to make into any tangible product, including a physical flag.
- Despite the fact that most of the people proposing flags acknowledge that the group most alienated by the pink flag is gender nonconforming lesbians, many of the proposals still include multiple pink stripes and/or a lot of pastels. While I appreciate that we were at least considered when those designs were created, a lot of them still look very feminine.
- I’m just not ever going to feel like I’m genuinely included by a flag with two or three shades of pink on it, even if there is a stripe that purportedly represents butches, you know?
- As long as we have a flag that a lot (dare I say most?) of the lesbian community can’t relate to, it’s not going to take off.
So mod k, what does your flag mean?
Thanks for asking! I created this flag by using the compliment of each color on the rainbow flag and rearranging them in this order. I made some tweaks to the colors. Two of the initial six compliments were very similar shades of yellow, so I changed one of them to the same shade of purple that’s on the rainbow flag. I also lightened the yellow and darkened the gold so they would contrast more, and I darkened the blue and green to try to minimize eye strain.
This flag’s relationship to the rainbow flag analogizes the relationship between the gay men’s and lesbian communities. We’re two sides of the same coin. We’re all gay and we should have solidarity with each other, but we don’t look the same or have the same needs and we don’t share all of the same history. I really like that this flag references the rainbow flag because that’s the flag that we’ve united under for decades. Personally, I don’t want to switch to something completely different. This flag represents the lesbian community as being distinct from the gay men’s community, but it maintains some continuity and it pays homage to the flag under which we’ve found a home for forty years.
Anyway, you’re all welcome to use this in art/on products/whatever. I’m just going to remind you that the creator is an arospec nonbinary lesbian who would rather their creation not be used to disrespect any of their identities.
