I didn't know there were transgender flags before some discussion today and man, the extant things are uhhh-gleee! I definitely agree about the male-female symbol thing, it's just wrong.
I don't know if I actively like your alternative, but anything beats what's out there now.
I have some other ideas I may play with; this is just a first take on something that's more... I dunno. More about the alchemical fire aspect of gender change, than about 'there are boys and there are girls and I'm both/neither'.
Suggestion, both flames and pheonix as white silhouettes on rainbow flag, possibly overlapping slightly to ensure the viewer connects the two mentally?
Yeah, there definitely needs to be more continuity between bird and flame than in this doodle. I'd tried throwing the white bird and colored flame on the rainbow (see edited post), but not white flame...
Re: That looks very familiar :DshatterstripesJuly 9 2007, 20:58:13 UTC
One phoenix image looks much like another. *grin* Especially when they use the device of composing diagonally to get the most possible motion out of a rectangular space.
My initial scribble had it going vertically on a wide canvas, and had it coming out of the flame; I ended up accidentally losing that as I recomposed. Being connected to the flame is definitely a symbolic layer worth playing with.
I love this. Like you said, FtMs definitely need something a little more butch... too much of the transgender world concentrates only on MtF culture. That said, I LOVE the phoenix, especially the first one. Rainbows are nice too though. :0
Yeah. The existing iconography of transsexuals is, I think, designed exclusively by MtFs trapped in a very binary gender mindset. It's all about the pink and the blue - and more about the pink, more often than not. It turned me off of associating with trans groups; it sure can't be helping to bring transwomen and transmen together.
I'm on the fence about the rainbow stripes. Stripes seem to be a given for the genre of 'queer pride flag' but making the imagery work against it is a pain!
That... actually, is a really good design challenge. I don't know about a flag concept myself, I think you have a good start, but I'm now thinking hard about an icon concept.
I might put some time into this, though, I don't think I'll be doing more than tossing ideas up. Something about having an icon designed by someone outside of that identity just doesn't give it credibility.
Some part of my brain is thinking of this as a branding exercise! And a challenge, because flags are almost always designed by non-artists; how can I make something that doesn't feel overly slick?
By 'icon', do you mean something in the terrain of the Venus/Mars symbols used to represent female/male? The most elegant compromise I've seen out there, IMHO, is the use of Mercury. Though some feel that says 'specifically intersex' rather than 'in transition'. I've fiddled around with homebrew symbols in the same design domain as the planet symbols, but nothing's really worked.
Input is welcome; I'm listening to a lot of cisgendered voices here. And I'm trying to make this flag represent two very different, yet similar paths - the journey from male to female and the one from female to male. Trying to come up with something acceptable to someone who started as a girl and is becoming a man is, in some ways, presumptuous of me. In others not, since I'm explicitly making this about the change, not the result.
The sign for mercury, to me, looks like a venus symbol with horns, like some chick would be wearing it on a t-shirt that says "Bitch" on it, and jeans that say "Juicy" on her ass.
By the way, another friend of mine recently submitted an entry into a PIRATE flag contest... and when I initially read the first paragraph of this post, I read "transgendered pride flag" as "transgendered pirate flag". That added a whole 'nother layer of symbology, as I pictured that phoneix banner flying high from a mast.
Comments 37
I don't know if I actively like your alternative, but anything beats what's out there now.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
My initial scribble had it going vertically on a wide canvas, and had it coming out of the flame; I ended up accidentally losing that as I recomposed. Being connected to the flame is definitely a symbolic layer worth playing with.
Reply
Reply
I'm on the fence about the rainbow stripes. Stripes seem to be a given for the genre of 'queer pride flag' but making the imagery work against it is a pain!
Reply
I might put some time into this, though, I don't think I'll be doing more than tossing ideas up. Something about having an icon designed by someone outside of that identity just doesn't give it credibility.
Reply
By 'icon', do you mean something in the terrain of the Venus/Mars symbols used to represent female/male? The most elegant compromise I've seen out there, IMHO, is the use of Mercury. Though some feel that says 'specifically intersex' rather than 'in transition'. I've fiddled around with homebrew symbols in the same design domain as the planet symbols, but nothing's really worked.
Input is welcome; I'm listening to a lot of cisgendered voices here. And I'm trying to make this flag represent two very different, yet similar paths - the journey from male to female and the one from female to male. Trying to come up with something acceptable to someone who started as a girl and is becoming a man is, in some ways, presumptuous of me. In others not, since I'm explicitly making this about the change, not the result.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
( ... )
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment