Ugly pride flags and the cost of not saying the obvious

amazing. I can feel it. this is the emperor-has-no-clothes moment for the ugly-as-fuck flags that are more complicated than 🏳️‍🌈 this 👇 is NOT ironic, as far as I can tell. the creator I'm QTing below is the same person who added the yellow triangle + circle, flown in London

Valentino Vecchietti (she/her) @ValentinoInter · Jun 18, 2023

✨Happy #AutisticPrideDay ! I have created this #IntersexInclusivePrideflag version with the rainbow colour infinity symbol to recognise the broad and varied experiences of those with neurodiversity who wish to feel visibly included in our Pride flag.

Jun 20, 2023

I am QT-dunking this cringe because it is beautiful glorious cringe that the whole world should see actually, because it has the potential to help us delayer the existing piles of cringe we've been pretending don't exist

everybody knows the chevron+rainbow flag is ugly as fuck (the trans flag itself is fine 🏳️‍⚧️) but many people wishing to stay culture war noncombatents wouldn't say that for fear of being tarred a bigot this has psy-op energy as far as I can tell, like the emperor has no clothes

I doubt the psy-op was intentional but I'm honestly not sure. my impression (especially given VV's new ABSURD flag above) is that it was a two step process: 1. people with no taste / design skill made uglier flags 2. scared leftists adopted them to seem inclusive

it seems like it's mostly due to people being in a state of panic attempting to avoid seeming like they aren't inclusive neurotic goodharting pretending behavior

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · Jan 2, 2022

I've recently started appreciating & refining a concept of "neurotic" which is a strategy for caring about something that's based on trying to avoid various pitfalls or problems without a clear idea of what "good" looks like.

anyway, whether intentional or not, the result is: once you've suppressed your inclination to say the obvious—"this thing is fucking ugly"—for fear of being tarred as a bigot, you're now on team "defend the ugly thing" and have to tar others to maintain your sense of sanity!

which means that only bigots would call it ugly... ...which means that only bigots have been speaking the truth here... which people can sense, which attracts more people towards bigotry and away from "nah trans people are fine let them do their thing"

this is why I am very very excited about this beyond-absurd ugly flag, that is so tasteless (and particularly stylistically incompatible with the autistic people it claims to represent) that I am hoping EVERYBODY can get on board with the fact that WE'VE BEEN FLYING UGLY FLAGS

and then we can stick to using the actual "already includes everybody, with no sub-groups singled out as special" (singling-out which is a recipe for the very divisiveness we're seeing)

shill 🔍 @acidshill · Jun 20, 2023

the transition from a symbol that's supposed to represent the full *spectrum* of diversity, including everyone, to a symbol with specific features representing specific groups (implicitly, including a specific subset of people) seems... symbolic... of something

quoting @Lizquidity: we could have and should have stopped with this. it includes all of us. we don’t need the trans flag grafted on in the margins and don’t need the horribly clashing black and brown stripes. rainbow is for everyone and the only version that’s actually aesthetic https://t.co/SajFKT

and stop putting up with attempts to get us to deny our senses and sensibilities!

Liz @Lizquidity · Jun 20, 2023

we could have and should have stopped with this. it includes all of us. we don’t need the trans flag grafted on in the margins and don’t need the horribly clashing black and brown stripes. rainbow is for everyone and the only version that’s actually aesthetic

quoting @ValentinoInter: ✨Happy #AutisticPrideDay ! I have created this #IntersexInclusivePrideflag version with the rainbow colour infinity symbol to recognise the broad and varied experiences of those with neurodiversity who wish to feel visibly included in our Pride flag. https://t.co/afgxsYuyOE

join the fully-inclusive-by-definition us:

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · Apr 21, 2022

If you're not against "if you're not with us you're against us", you're against us.

also you may appreciate this thread about how chaining validity to named identities is actually participating in normativity and mass-invalidation of anything that doesn't fit in boxes (which is the whole thing queer pride is supposed to oppose)

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · Oct 20, 2019

I saw a tweetstorm (that I'm not going to QT because it would read as dumping on them & undermining their point) that was naming a dozen subtly different sexual identities and saying each is valid. I actually want to amplify the part of their point that's: "your exp is valid!"