• Episodes
  • Listen
  • Transcripts
  • Tranquillusionist
  • Events
  • Lexicon
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Merch
Menu

The Allusionist

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

Your Custom Text Here

The Allusionist

  • Episodes
  • Listen
  • Transcripts
  • Tranquillusionist
  • Events
  • Lexicon
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Merch

Allusionist 156. Rainbow Washing

June 10, 2022 The Allusionist

MP3 • APPLE PODCASTS • RSS • STITCHER • GOOGLE • TRANSCRIPT

From whitewash (the paint) we got whitewashing (the covering up of misdeeds) and from there greenwashing, redwashing, bluewashing, purplewashing, pinkwashing - and now rainbow-washing, where companies will put Pride flags all over products and posts during the month of June, but behind the scenes will not necessarily be useful - and sometimes they'll be anti-useful.

Mitra Kaboli, host of the new podcast Welcome to Provincetown, helps sort the real allyship from the rainbow-washing; and writer Sarah Schulman, who popularised the term 'pinkwashing' in a 2011 piece in the New York Times, explains the more political meaning of that word.

This episode contains some swears.

EXTRA MATERIALS:

  • History of the suffix -washing.

  • Why Breast Cancer Action coined ‘pinkwashing’.

  • Stonewall vs Bud Light’s parent company.

  • Rainbow washing “misleads well-intentioned people into thinking they’re supporting the LGBTQI+ community, when in reality they’re lining the pockets of multi-billion dollar corporations.”

  • ‘We love gay’: Yassification and Appropriation in Mainstream Culture.

  • Pinkwashing Julia Child.

  • “M&S threw the first artisanal sandwich at Stonewall”.

  • “Marketing the Rainbow... is there a pot of gold at the end of it?”

  • That CIA Pride post… :/

  • “Since 2000, BP has used the tag line “Beyond Petroleum” as part of its green campaign. The overhaul of BP’s image has been celebrated by some as a rebranding success and decried by others as a perfect example of greenwashing.”

For other Pride-relevant Allusionists, check out this playlist of episodes about ‘queer’, ‘bisexual’, ‘Pride’ and much more.

Also! I was just on the lovely podcast Twice Upon a Time with Janet Ellis, revisiting Judith Kerr’s autobiographical novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

LIVE SHOWS!

July in Australia!

Ticket info at theallusionist.org/events

LIVE SHOWS! July in Australia! Ticket info at theallusionist.org/events LIVE SHOWS! July in Australia! Ticket info at theallusionist.org/events

Sign up to be a patron at patreon.com/allusionist and not only are you supporting independent podcast, you get fortnightly patron-exclusive video livestreams and a Discord community full of language chat, craft pics and word game camaraderie!

YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
autotelic, adjective: (of an activity or creative work) having an end or purpose in itself.

CREDITS:

  • Sarah Schulman is a writer; her books include Conflict is Not Abuse, After Dolores and Maggie Terry.

  • Mitra Kaboli is an audiomaker and the host of the new podcast Welcome To Provincetown.

  • This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com, listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch, and hear more of his composition on the science podcast for kids Maddie’s Sound Explorers.

  • Find the show at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.

Back in two weeks with a new episode - HZ.

In episodes Tags history, whitewashing, whitewash, greenwashing, pinkwashing, redwashing, purplewashing, rainbow-washing, Pride, Pride flag, rainbows, breast cancer, Mitra Kaboli, Sarah Schulman, LGBTQIA+, commerce, capitalism, corporate, CIA, sandwiches, beer, Stonewall, autotelic, words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, etymology, lexicon, vocabulary
← Allusionist 157. QueerbaitingAllusionist 155. The Tiffany Problem →
Allusionist Patreon
Featured
Allusionist 208: Ffff
Allusionist 208: Ffff
WhatsApp Image 2025-04-27 at 23.06.37.jpeg
several bits of news! (nothing bad)
queer playlist
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 207: Randomly Selected Words from the Dictionary
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
Allusionist 206. Bonus 2024
A Christmas Carollusionist
A Christmas Carollusionist
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Allusionist 205. Lexicat, part 2: now with added Dog
Festivelusionists
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 204. Lexicat, part 1
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 203. Flyting
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 202: Singlish Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Allusionist 201: Singlish
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 200: 200th episode celebratory quiz!
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Allusionist 199: 199 ideas that I hadn't made into podcasts yet
Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.