It is my firm belief that whenever you see a young person reading something, you must enquire about the contents of his/her book. Chances are that you will acquire either some new information or a novel concept. That is why, the other day, when I witnessed my young colleague in the department reading a manual, I asked her about its contents. And that is how, I was introduced to the concept of ‘pinkwashing’, which of course, led me to a whole new world of ‘washings’ of which, till date, I was completely unaware.
The idea of ‘whitewashing’ brings to our mind the picture of an itinerant painter with his boxload of paint brushes and rollers, tins and cans of a variety of paints, his multi-stained outfit especially reserved for the working hours and endless days of cleaning and sorting the up-turned house. With the passage of time, we got accustomed to the idiomatic usage of the expression ‘whitewashing’ something as ‘an attempt to stop people from finding the truth or true facts about a situation.
Camouflaging facts takes us to another type of washing- Brainwashing- a term we are so familiar with that it has become almost a cliché. Mothers-in-law accuse daughters-in-law of brainwashing their precious Mama’s boys and vice versa; colleagues allege other colleagues of brainwashing the boss; bosses charge union leaders of brainwashing employees; so on and so forth. A peep into the origin of the term takes us to the mid 20th century, when American journalist and propaganda expert, Edward Hunter coined ‘brainwashing’ to represent the ‘intensive indoctrination in Maoism and the harsh repression of alternative political ideologies’ practised by the People’s Republic of China.
A couple of months ago, while searching for some information on the internet, I stumbled upon the concept of ‘Greenwashing’ which I was quick to add to my repertoire. Though the colour green has always been symbolic of harmony, happiness and fruition, I was completely taken aback by its reproachable use in the above term. As per OED, greenwashing is “misleading publicity or propaganda disseminated by an organization, etc., so as to present an environmentally responsible public image…” So, when you hear big companies and their top-notch CEOs mouthing slogans of ‘Go Green’ or ‘Eco-friendly Organization’, take it with a pinch of salt. They might be greenwashing their dirty laundry in public!
As for pinkwashing, the term was first used in the early second decade of the 21st century and is a comparatively recent term, hence still not much in use. The term refers to gender and sexual identity issues and was highlighted when Sarah Schulman used it as the headline of her opinion article for New York Times, “Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’” in November 2011. Macmillan dictionary defines pinkwashing as “the use of support for LGBT rights and issues by a state or business to boost its own image.” Nothing pink and rosy about it, is it?
Similarly, ‘Rainbowwashing’ is the use of rainbow colours by companies or for-profit organizations on their products showing support to the LGBTQ community but only as a marketing strategy and for their own good. ‘Purplewashing’ is done by companies to superficially support feminism even though their work culture could be anything but female-friendly.
Also, there are terms like ‘sportswashing’, redwashing’, ‘humanewashing’, straightwashing’ and ‘hetwashing’ that refer to companies presenting themselves as sports friendly; companies presenting themselves as progressive and concerned about equality; “efforts to market animal products to conscientious consumers through deceptive packaging and labelling, promoting the illusion of animal well-being while concealing the extent of animals’ illness and suffering”; and making gay, lesbian and bisexual characters in fiction or films act like heterosexuals, respectively.
Who knew we had so much dirty linen to wash in public!
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