The Fleur de Lis logo: keep, lose, change-to-what?

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hexaquark wrote:Don’t take this the wrong way, but never underestimate a symbol's ambiguity. I expect we can all agree that there are unintended problems with the AVEN triangle because the implications were not fully considered back in 2001 when it was first used on AVEN.

When I saw the fleur-de-lis logo on this forum, I thought it was an odd choice, because my brain flicked through all the things I know that the fleur-de-lis has been used to symbolize, and tossed aside things like “France” and “royalty” because they did not make sense in this context. So the first things I landed on (like mel mentioned in the other thread) were “purity”, “chastity”, and “virginity”, which I was certain you were not going for, but it doesn’t change the fact that the fleur and the lily from which it derives already have those meanings. It does confound our issues.

History can repeat itself, the AVEN triangle was up for debate, and with the problems going on with that symbol right now, please give this some careful thought.

Quoting that link under the cut because AVEN is always on the fritz these days.

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Does anyone here use ace as an umbrella term? There has been a trend on tumblr where people are doing that, to avoid using asexual as an umbrella term for those in the ace spectrum. Not that I'm saying you should use the card motif.

Hmm, I was going to suggest a prism, since sexuality is a spectrum, but what do you know, most prisms are represented as triangular, so I came full circle.



Dies of the irony.

Are you going to stick with the fleur unless something better comes along?

Smiley Tom wrote:Personally i quite like Tegids avatar (if you don't want to use it fair enough it is your avatar) maybe without the green circle or the n and infinity sign but i feel it is a fairly simple graphic that can be easily embellished to suit the individual.
With regards to the fleur de lis, other connotations aside, it is very similar to the scouting symbol which is a white fleur de lis on a purple background. The only major difference (to the ones on the sides of the banner) is that the scout logo has a star in each of the side fronds. The rope around the outside of the scout fleur de lis is supposed to represent the world wide part of the movement and the symbol is fairly regularly used without it (at least here in the UK).

Spoiler:

hexaquark wrote: . . . When I saw the fleur-de-lis logo on this forum, I thought it was an odd choice, because my brain flicked through all the things I know that the fleur-de-lis has been used to symbolize, and tossed aside things like “France” and “royalty” because they did not make sense in this context. So the first things I landed on (like mel mentioned in the other thread) were “purity”, “chastity”, and “virginity”, which I was certain you were not going for, but it doesn’t change the fact that the fleur and the lily from which it derives already have those meanings. It does confound our issues. . . .

Well, my only problem with the fleur is that as a stylized lily, some of the symbolism it carries with it may contribute negative publicity as well. Lillies are a traditional symbol of chastity, virginity, and purity. Even though the fleur is used in other contexts, using it in a "sexually related" context knowing that it contains some of those connotations could further cement our reputation as being "slut shamers" or as celibate-by-choice.

According to Pierre-Augustin Boissier de Sauvages, an 18th century French naturalist and lexicographer:[10]

"The old fleurs-de-lis, especially the ones found in our first kings' sceptres, have a lot less in common with ordinary lilies than the flowers called flambas [in Occitan], or irises, from which the name of our own fleur-de-lis may derive. What gives some colour of truth to this hypothesis that we already put forth, is the fact that the French or Franks, before entering Gaul itself, lived for a long time around the river named Luts in the Netherlands. Nowadays, this river is still bordered with an exceptional number of irises —as many plants grow for centuries in the same places—: these irises have yellow flowers, which is not a typical feature of lilies but fleurs-de-lis. It was thus understandable that our kings, having to choose a symbolic image for what later became a coat of arms, set their minds on the iris, a flower that was common around their homes, and is also as beautiful as it was remarkable. They called it, in short, the fleur-de-lis, instead of the flower of the river of lis. This flower, or iris, looks like our fleur-de-lis not just because of its yellow colour but also because of its shape: of the six petals, or leaves, that it has, three of them are alternatively straight and meet at their tops. The other three on the opposite, bend down so that the middle one seems to make one with the stalk and only the two ones facing out from left and right can clearly be seen, which is again similar with our fleurs-de-lis, that is to say exclusively the one from the river Luts whose white petals bend down too when the flower blooms." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_de_lis