pinkwash

present singular third person pinkwashes · participle present pinkwashing · participle past pinkwashed · past pinkwashed

1. transitiveuncommonliteralTo cover in a coat of pink paint.

   […] I see, twenty yards away, workmen pinkwashing the newly laid, badly stained, cheap-looking brick cladding of a newly built apartment house called — well, something ridiculous: Nepal, let's say.

   1986 December 29, Susan Lardner, “Lotus Blossum”, in The New Yorker

2. transitivebusinessTo promote consumer goods or services by supporting breast cancer-related charities.

   Gayle Sulik, sociologist and author of "Pink Ribbon Blues", said pinkwashing is only the beginning of how "breast cancer culture" undermines women's health.

   2012 February 15, Karen McVeigh, “Susan G Komen's 'pinkwashing' problem a black mark on charity”, in The Guardian

   1 more example

   They see such corporate involvement as exploitation, making profits on the backs of ill women. […] They claim these campaigns trivialize the disease, "pinkwashing" its real nature.

   2008, Penelope Williams, Breast Cancer: Biography of an Illness, BPS Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 162

3. transitiveTo tout the gay-friendliness of something in an attempt to downplay or soften aspects of it considered negative.

   Critics say Israel is 'pinkwashing' its practices vis-a-vis the Palestinians by emphasizing its good record on gay rights.

   2012, "Seattle LGBT commission cancels meeting with Israeli gays over treatment of Palestinians", The Times of Israel, 21 March 2012 (article tagline)

   1 more example

   Pinkwashing not only manipulates the hard-won gains of Israel’s gay community, but it also ignores the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations.

   2011 November 22, Sarah Schulman, “Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’”, in New York Times

   Synonyms: rainbow-wash