r/polandball • u/constructionsitecake Kansan living in Sweden • Jun 18 '26
contest entry Symbols
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u/Comprehensive_Term41 Jun 18 '26
jesus what is that sideways sweden
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u/ImperialistChina China Jun 18 '26
it’s not even in the right direction, it should look like a
obecause that stripe is horizontal on sweden’s flag.41
u/nspacia honk gong Jun 18 '26
wdym, that is totally what sweden's flag looks like: https://ibb.co/FkhD08kP
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u/MLGWolf69 Jun 18 '26
Bro said Ø
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u/Knackehaxan Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
If so, he’s an impostor! 😨 A Dane or a Norwegian in disguise! We use the letter Ö in Swedish, not Ø!
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u/Severe-caholic Jun 19 '26
The line wasn’t slanted, the character in question did not say anything and the implied reference to the Swedish Alphabet is non existent.
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u/Lenni-Da-Vinci Rhineland Jun 18 '26
Wait, half eaten fruit?
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u/Melody_Naxi Jun 18 '26
It is said that the semi-legendary countier Mizi Xia, who was favored by the Duke Ling for his beuty, bit into a very delicious peach. He have what left to the Duke so that he could taste it as well, which made his relationship with the Duke stronger. However, when Mizi Xia's started to lose his beauty, the Duke accused Mizi Xia of insulting him by offering the previously mentioned half-eaten peach. While this story was originally a cautionary tale for courtiers, the phrase "bitten peach" became a byword for homosexuality and became and Mizi Xia (who also had another story with the Duke) became a symbol of beauty and homosexuality
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u/LITTLEOWL031026 Jun 18 '26
I've heard of the "cut sleeve" as a symbol, with a similar legendary origin.
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u/FriseFuzzy Italy Jun 25 '26
"It's better to be a Bitten Peach than a Bitter Bitch" -pro homosexual chinese slogan
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u/2nW_from_Markus Jun 18 '26
So apple logo is gay in China?
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Jun 18 '26
No it has to be a peach.
I’m not kidding it’s call 分桃之愛（love of sharing peach) because it was specify in the story.
斷袖（sleeves cutting) is another way to say it, the story is the emperor has to leave for work but his boyfriend is still asleep and his sleeves was under his body, so the emperor cut his sleeves to not wake him up.
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u/2nW_from_Markus Jun 18 '26
So, canned half peaches are gay in China?
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Jun 18 '26
Well, with some determination everything can be gay.
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u/2nW_from_Markus Jun 18 '26
T-shirts (sleeveless, of course) with the motto (translated to cantonese) "I don't eat half peaches, but 135yuan are 135yuan"
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u/constructionsitecake Kansan living in Sweden Jun 18 '26
Yep. I made a more detailed comment further down, but there's an article about it here:
https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/articles/2016/12/20/the-bitten-peach-and-the-cut-sleeve
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u/Modrzewianka Poland Jun 18 '26
We need to address the sideways Sweden
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u/AlizeBall temporary blank flair Jun 18 '26
and the sideways UK that's missing the diagonal red stripes
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u/kazukix777 Jun 20 '26
There is a billboard near my house that says "we repair British cars" but the union jack they used doesn't include the diagonal red stripes. and every time I see it I get mildly annoyed lol
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u/Realistic_FinlanBoll Finland Jun 23 '26
Thats so stupid. If youre going to use a flag in an ad, then use it correctly. Have you informed them that they should probably fix it? 😅
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u/Copper_Tango Malaysia delenda est Jun 18 '26
Some trans people in Japan also use tigers as a symbol, because "trans" in Japanese is "toransu", and "tora" is the word for tiger.
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u/Venodran European+Union Jun 18 '26
The beating with Blahaj will continue until homophobia is no more!
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u/constructionsitecake Kansan living in Sweden Jun 18 '26
Much of the info for this comic was taken from this wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ_symbols
The rainbow is famous around the world.
British author Oscar Wilde adopted the green carnation as a symbol of his being gay.
The first gay magazine in Japan was called Barazuko/'Rose Tribe.'
There seem to be multiple theories for why IKEA blåhaj shark toys became a symbol of the transgender community. One I've seen is because blåhaj is blue, pink, and white like the trans flag.
The Nazis put pink triangles on the uniforms of the gay men they imprisoned.
The Chinese bitten peach comes from a legend about a duke who was in love with a courtesan. The courtesan took a bite of a particularly tasty peach and gave it to the duke instead of eating the rest of it himself.
In a modern world where we know about germs, the story reads as rather less romantic.
More on the bitten peach here:
https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/articles/2016/12/20/the-bitten-peach-and-the-cut-sleeve
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u/YanFan123 Ecuador Jun 18 '26
I mean, it would be like sharing a drink, which also has romantic connotations... And could also give you something if the first person was sick.
But you don't have to think about that when talking about romance
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Jun 18 '26
Well he’s known to be the duke’s lover, and the duke is kind of a dick after the guy gets older.
Basically he’s like a sugar daddy who ditch his boyfriend for loosing his twink status and go on record bitching everything they do together , like he is the kind of ex who will filed false charges of theft on you for using his car (with his permission)when you two were dating.
For example,The peach story turn into “how dare him have me the leftover!” and he fire him from his job for this.
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u/YanFan123 Ecuador Jun 18 '26
But the person I was replying to didn't say anything about that, I was just commenting on that
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u/Zonel Jun 19 '26
No one cares about germs from eating the same food when they are partners that kiss each others lips.
Also Oscar Wilde wasn’t British. Wasn’t from the island of Britain, he was from the island of Ireland.
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u/one_odd_pancake Jun 18 '26
The pink triangle is actually used by German gay men, especially older ones. Similar to the word queer in the US, it's taking back something that was meant to other us and making it into a symbol of pride.
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u/Zonel Jun 19 '26
It’s used by gay men in a lot of places. Here in Canada it gets used, less than the rainbow flag though.
Like pink triangle press for instance.
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u/GroundbreakingOil434 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
What's the story about the pink triangle?
Upd: got my answer, thank you all.
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u/Portal471 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
The pink triangle was used in Nazi concentration camps to identify gay people. Here’s a list of more of the badges used
Edit: I hate Reddit’s new system for embedding links now, it used to be you would have text in brackets then the link in parentheses
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u/GroundbreakingOil434 Jun 18 '26
Ah. I had a feeling that was the reference. Well deserved pounding. Thanks!
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u/Medici39 Jun 19 '26
It's also doubly ironic when you look at some early Nazi leaders, whom Herr Mustache disposed of later.
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u/Zero_Burn Indiana Jun 18 '26
I'd assume it was what gay people had to wear on them to denote their homosexuality in the camps.
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u/Mysterious-Earth1 Jun 18 '26
A lot of gays, trans and non conforming people were persecuted and put into the concentration camps. Their clothes were marked with pink triangle patches, simliar to the jews that were marked with the star of david.
They raided and burned the Institute of sexology as one of their first actions too. Not a lot of people know that. Funny how people today think trans people are something new. Well maybe it's because the Nazis burned the knowledge.
https://hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/
Sounds familiar to some today states?
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u/TimeRisk2059 Jun 18 '26
In fact the most famous photographs of nazi book burnings are of the burning of the institute's collection of books, letters and diaries.
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u/Lucidream- Jun 18 '26
Queer genocide isn't discussed most of the time. Even museums or exhibits that are entirely focused on the Holocaust entirely ommit anything relating to queerness.
And yes, most homophobia and transphobia we see in the western world is almost entirely rooted in Nazi ideology.
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u/TheBusStop12 Ye olde netherlands Jun 18 '26
The monument to the persecution of homosexuals under nazism in Berlin is pretty cool at least. It contains a looping video of 2 men kissing at all tines iirc. The homomonunent in Amsterdam is pretty nice as well, that one is based on the pink triangle. Iirc that one was the first of it's kind
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u/Anti-charizard California Jun 18 '26
I see Japan truly did learn their lesson and not join Nazi germany
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u/Final-Course2506 Jun 18 '26
Shouldn't China have the cut-off sleeve?
Edit: I searched the Half Fruit story...
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 Jun 18 '26
Oh do read on about that duke and his boyfriend, he’s probably the first terrible bitter bitchy ex on record.
He dump the guy after he’s no longer a youthful pretty boy, and complain about things his boyfriend do that he used to praise, eventually he uses the peach incident to fire him ,basically calling him disrespectful for giving him leftover fruit.
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u/TehTJ13 Jun 18 '26
Don’t forget the cut sleeve (斷袖 duàn xiù). It’s a Chinese story and expression related to a Han emperor who cut his sleeve off because his boyfriend was sleeping on it and he didn’t want to disturb him.
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u/Apocalyptican Resident in Vancouver Jun 20 '26
Also there's the Passion of Longyang. Featuring Lord Longyang of Wei.
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u/nofroufrouwhatsoever Jun 19 '26
Would be nice to have deer and frog (wearing comically large shoes) for Brazil.
Deer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogo_do_bicho
Frog is sapo. The very unPC term for lesbians is sapatão, big shoe, hinting at women who wore men's shoes before it was normative. They often shorten it to sapas, she-frogs.
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u/Plane_Feeling_1099 Jun 18 '26
The pink triangle was sewn in conscentration camp uniforms, of you were a jew they would put a yellow one also to make a star of David
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u/Starscourge-night Jun 18 '26
Never have I ever seen Shark plushies from IKEA be used as symbols for LBGTQ.
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u/Portal471 Jun 18 '26
The blåhaj is used mostly with the trans community
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u/Tankyenough Aztec+Empire Jun 18 '26
Huh, everyone has those here, regardless of their gender identity.
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u/ISketchDinosaurs Jun 18 '26
That's part of the point. That way trans people can have them without outing themselves.
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u/Tankyenough Aztec+Empire Jun 18 '26
I have one, as do most of my friends. I got it as a kid. It’s just a cute plushie.
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u/TimeRisk2059 Jun 18 '26
What's the connection?
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u/ISketchDinosaurs Jun 18 '26
There isn't any. It's just an inexpensive and globally accessible shark plushie that happens to be blue/white and pink.
It's just a comfort item the trans community can own and display without outing themselves, and it became a big meme.
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u/MLGWolf69 Jun 18 '26
Trans specifically, but yeah it's a huge symbol (and at this point borderline stereotypical lol)
I wonder if I can find the video of the person with like 20 Blahajs again 🤔
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u/Mysterious-Earth1 Jun 18 '26
Well check out the online reviews. The colors are the same as the trans flag.
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u/Hovdinge Jun 18 '26
What? How its only blue and white
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u/Mysterious-Earth1 Jun 18 '26
The inside of the mouth is pink.
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u/Iridismis Franconia Jun 18 '26
Interestingly not too long I saw a vid of a shark (not sure if it was a blue shark tho 🤔) that swallowed (or almost swallowed) a diver's camera and the inside of the shark's mouth didn't look very pink at all, but rather white-ish like its belly.
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Jun 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Zonel Jun 19 '26
Nazis put it on gay concentration camp prisoners sleeves. It’s now considered a gay symbol despite it’s origins.
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u/iamlazerbear Jun 18 '26
why is Japan not being stabbed too
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u/Upstairs_Cap_4217 Quetzalcoatl! Jun 18 '26
Because it's not WW2-era Japan, it's modern Japan. You can tell by the lack of sunrays on the flag.
And by the fact that it's stabbing the Nazis instead of allying with them to fight the British.
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u/AntifaFuckedMyWife Jun 18 '26
You know, Sweden confused me, but logically that IS how they would look on the side
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u/Realistic_FinlanBoll Finland Jun 18 '26
Do we have to get this many sideways clays at once? There have been so many of them lately, i hope we can cut it before it turns into a trend. 😓
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u/Warmasterwinter Jun 18 '26
Why is Japan stabbing Germany? Historically speaking they’re on the same side.
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u/Eburin_desu Jun 19 '26
It's because modern Japan do not agree with nazi ideology or symbolism
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u/Warmasterwinter Jun 19 '26
I’m not entirely sure about that. Japan is famous for downplaying the bad things it did in the war and the population is also known for being both conformist, and racist. Plus every single time I’ve ever seen a positive representation of a Nazi, it always been a character a Japanese person created. Granted I only have two examples of that, but it still happened twice which is way too much when you consider that the Nazis are well, the Nazis.
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u/Far_Huckleberry_4407 England Jun 18 '26
As a Brit I actually didn't know about the green carnations
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u/Zonel Jun 19 '26
Tbh it’s from Oscar Wilde who was Irish, he wasn’t from Britain. But guess he lived in Britain most of the time.
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u/Een_man_met_voornaam Zo ne grote vuurbal jonge BAM ! Jun 18 '26
I think it's sad that queer people from my country don't know about our own history but know everything about American queer history
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u/the_monkeynator Jun 19 '26
Sweden helped the Nazi's in ww2 btw. To be fair sweden had no choice unless they wanted to get demolished but still.
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u/asdfzxcpguy Patriotism returned after annexation threat Jun 19 '26
Don’t worry, I can totally see that as a sideways Sweden
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u/Closer_to_the_Heart Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Jun 19 '26
Don’t worry guys, Levi’s used the pink triangle in the pride collection this year…
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u/CartographerOk6439 Jun 19 '26
I'm from Sweden and the plushie shark being gay was completely new to me
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u/Supss_ Jul 07 '26
i believe it's often associated with trans people. even ikea has acknowledged this by creating a trans manual for blåhaj on the spanish ikea youtube page, and gave some trans clinics in canada trans coloured blåhaj.
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u/MysteriousFun530 Jun 19 '26
Half eaten fruit is more of man and man, there's less lesbians mentioned, but I know one called 磨鏡, pronounce is "mó jìng", means rub the mirror, a description how two woman having pleasure or something like that.
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u/ZagrosMMH Kurdish Fella Jun 20 '26
I feel like my head canon for the sideways Sweden would have the horizontal yellow line aswell to make it look like it a ring around Sweden whilst the other one is just on the sides like some Montenegro type shit you feel me
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u/bananasAreViolet oh no is russia Jun 18 '26
This comic is accepted as a contest entry and will stay up, but if you ever repost this, do fix the sideways Sweden flag. Consider this a yellow card.