Though the official statements claim that they are not commenting on the (hateful, ignorant, disgusting, destructive) anti-gay laws that are making the Sochi Olympics a first world political problem, the imagery begs to differ.
Whether they are silently showing solidarity, or this time around they just feel a bit colorful, I love it. Though in a related topic, the Russians have already put out a design for Sochi Olympic gloves, with rainbow fingers. They seem to be ignorant of the irony.
I can't really blame them for not being aware of what the rainbow flag means here. It's not a worldwide universal symbol for gay pride. I'd argue it's certainly a Western World symbol of gay pride.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
There's no purple. It's not the gay rights flag.
Posted by vegimo (Member # 12618) on :
Black, green, yellow, red, blue....the fingers on those gloves are, oddly enough, the same colors as the Olympic rings.
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
I'd say that probably a lot of Russians know about the rainbow flag. Having said that, I've also known some Russians who were pretty incredibly oblivious about gay people and issues. But I've also met gay Russians and they definitely knew all about rainbows.
I'd also say that those gloves don't look very rainbowy at all. There's a black finger, for starters. They're just multicolored.
Also, not surprised about the Germans, if that's what they're up to. Germans are generally pretty liberal these days.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
quote:Originally posted by vegimo: Black, green, yellow, red, blue....the fingers on those gloves are, oddly enough, the same colors as the Olympic rings.
Right.
The irony isn't so much lost on them as it is kind of misplaced.
Even if they did put the two together, I doubt they're going to throw the Olympic rings overboard because they share colors with the rainbow, which happens to be a gay pride symbol.