pinkwash

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To 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.
2. 2

   To promote consumer goods and services using support of breast cancer-related charities.

   • 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.
   • Gayle Sulik, sociologist and author of "Pink Ribbon Blues", said pinkwashing is only the beginning of how "breast cancer culture" undermines women's health.
3. 3

   To tout the gay-friendliness of something in an attempt to downplay or soften aspects of…

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

   • Pinkwashing not only manipulates the hard-won gains of Israel’s gay community, but it also ignores the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations.
   • Critics say Israel is 'pinkwashing' its practices vis-a-vis the Palestinians by emphasizing its good record on gay rights.

The neighborhood

• neighborpurplewash