On Saturday, CNN reported on “an ISIS flag among a sea of rainbow colors,” at London’s Pride parade. It wasn’t an ISIS flag, though, but one made with images of sex toys.
Paul Coombs, creator of that flag, wrote a piece Tuesday for The Guardian about why he created it.
It has become a potent symbol of brutality, fear and sexual oppression. If I wanted to try and stimulate a dialogue about the ridiculousness of this ideology, the flag was key.
Coombs wrote he was approached by police officers, who thought the flag was funny but could put him in danger if people didn’t look closely. So Coombs put it away.
Several hours passed before I noticed spreading news that CNN reported on the flag as though it was an actual Isis banner, not a piece of cloth covered in sex toys. #DildoIsis quickly started trending online. People made tribute dildo flags. But how could a report so hysterical and so clearly false possibly get onto the air, discussed by a terrorism expert? CNN correspondent Lucy Pawle described my flag as a “very bad mimicry” but the only bad mimicry I could see was CNN’s impression of a reputable news organization. What does this say about every other report that they broadcast? And why have they not mentioned it since? They seem to think that if nobody says anything about it then it can’t have really happened.
Vox has an explainer on this, if you need to get caught up.
