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Peace sign an enduring cultural icon
Peace sign an enduring cultural icon
http://brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2590218
The Brantford Expositor Mon, 24 May 2010
Peace. John Lennon sang about giving it a chance. Mohandas Gandhi stated that it is its own reward. And Gerald Holtom, a socially conscious textile designer from Twickenham, England, created a visual signifier that has since attained world-wide recognition as the symbol for the word since its debut in 1958.
We wear it on our T-shirts, draw it on our notebooks and dangle it from our ears. But what do we really know about this symbol that is so much a part of our culture?
What has come to be known as the peace sign, it is possibly the most encoded and decoded symbol of pop culture.
When it was created, Holtom encoded it with a message of nuclear disarmament semaphorically combining the letter "n" and the letter "d" but through social change of generations, the peace sign has become a channel for multiple meanings.
The sign had its first public appearance on April 4, 1958, during aN 83-kilometre march from London's Trafalgar Square to Aldermaston's atomic weapons research plant in England. It made its trans-Atlantic journey to North America less than two weeks later when it was appeared in a photo in Life magazine.
During the 1960s, American activists embraced the sign and embellished it with a backdrop of the U.S. flag to protest everything from a sane nuclear policy and civil rights to opposition of the Vietnam War.
Imagine my enthusiasm when the peace sign made a recent comeback on jewelry among other things.
I had not seen it so prevalent since the 1970s when it was synonymous with fashion, ecology and love.
During the 1980s, the peace symbol returned to its roots in symbolizing nuclear disarmament as the world experienced a resurgence in the peace movement.
Of course, in this decade, it had to compete with disco.
Today, Gerald Holtom's emblem has been spotted in places like the West Bank and Iraq, two prominent hot spots for conflict.
http://brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2590218
The Brantford Expositor Mon, 24 May 2010
Peace. John Lennon sang about giving it a chance. Mohandas Gandhi stated that it is its own reward. And Gerald Holtom, a socially conscious textile designer from Twickenham, England, created a visual signifier that has since attained world-wide recognition as the symbol for the word since its debut in 1958.
We wear it on our T-shirts, draw it on our notebooks and dangle it from our ears. But what do we really know about this symbol that is so much a part of our culture?
What has come to be known as the peace sign, it is possibly the most encoded and decoded symbol of pop culture.
When it was created, Holtom encoded it with a message of nuclear disarmament semaphorically combining the letter "n" and the letter "d" but through social change of generations, the peace sign has become a channel for multiple meanings.
The sign had its first public appearance on April 4, 1958, during aN 83-kilometre march from London's Trafalgar Square to Aldermaston's atomic weapons research plant in England. It made its trans-Atlantic journey to North America less than two weeks later when it was appeared in a photo in Life magazine.
During the 1960s, American activists embraced the sign and embellished it with a backdrop of the U.S. flag to protest everything from a sane nuclear policy and civil rights to opposition of the Vietnam War.
Imagine my enthusiasm when the peace sign made a recent comeback on jewelry among other things.
I had not seen it so prevalent since the 1970s when it was synonymous with fashion, ecology and love.
During the 1980s, the peace symbol returned to its roots in symbolizing nuclear disarmament as the world experienced a resurgence in the peace movement.
Of course, in this decade, it had to compete with disco.
Today, Gerald Holtom's emblem has been spotted in places like the West Bank and Iraq, two prominent hot spots for conflict.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by NISHA BALA TYAGI on -
Peace education is a must for everyone.Everyone must know and grow in peace.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Maybury on
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There is no doubt that most people seem to accept the symbol as a peace sign. I find that many people in the UK seem to like wearing it as jewelry, and sometimes on T-shirts.
I guess that 50% of people approve of it. The remaining people are right wing or involved in warfare in some way, whether in a family with solders or involved with manufacturing weapons or supporting war. Even some of these,, surprisingly, may approve of the symbol. In fact I have found that some soldiers, who know my views against war, seem to approve of my stand.
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