Purple is a color that has long been associated with royalty, spirituality, and mystery. However, in recent years, the color purple has also come to represent unity, inclusivity, and togetherness. This association stems from a few key places that have helped solidify purple as a color of unity.
The Use of Purple in the Gay Rights Movement
One of the first major associations between purple and unity came from the gay rights movement. In the 1970s, activists fighting for LGBTQ equality began using the rainbow as a symbol of their community and movement. The rainbow was chosen for its association with diversity, inclusivity, and vibrancy.
Within the rainbow, each color was said to have a certain meaning. Purple specifically was seen as representing spirit or diversity. As the gay rights movement progressed and LGBTQ people sought greater unity and acceptance, purple came to represent the bringing together of people regardless of sexuality or gender.
Wearing purple expressed solidarity both within the LGBTQ community and with supporters of the movement. Over time, this meaning of purple expanded beyond just LGBTQ unity to represent the broader idea of inclusivity, acceptance, and togetherness for all people.
Purple in Politics
In politics, purple has also come to represent the bridging of divisions and the seeking of common ground. This is because purple is a mix of red, which is often used to represent conservatives or the Republican party, and blue, which often represents liberals or the Democratic party.
Political groups and campaigns that use purple are generally signaling an interest in bipartisanship, compromise, and finding unity between differing political philosophies. Politicians themselves will also sometimes literally wear purple ties or outfits to symbolize crossing party lines or not wishing to be confined to one political ideology.
So in the world of politics, purple has come to be a color that represents unity, cooperation, and bipartisanship rather than polarization or division along party lines. It evokes coming together despite differences.
Purple Ribbons
Another important use of purple as representing unity comes in the form of purple ribbons used to promote various causes. Purple ribbons have been used to call attention to and show unity around issues such as:
– Domestic violence awareness
– Animal abuse prevention
– Alzheimer’s disease
– Pancreatic cancer
– Lupus
– Cystic fibrosis
– Substance addiction recovery
In all these cases, the purple ribbon is meant to create a sense of solidarity around that issue and unite those who want to see change and progress on it. The purple color signals compassion while asking others to come together in support of a shared goal.
Purple ribbons are a simple but very visible way that purple has come to inspire unity and communicate an uplifting message of inclusiveness, hope, and determination in the face of important causes that require society-wide support. The color has the ability to bring large groups of people together positively.
Purple in Religion
Looking at faith traditions around the world, purple also has a significant role representing unity and inclusiveness in many religions.
In Christianity, purple is seen as a color of mourning, penance, and sacrifice. It is used in Advent and Lent seasons to signify spiritual preparation and bring believers together in their shared observance. Purple vestments and altar cloths bring unity in faith practice.
In Buddhism, purple is associated with wisdom and spirituality. It unites Buddhist practitioners in their search for transcendence and living ethically.
In Hinduism, purple is connected to the Crown Chakra, also known as the Sahasrara, which represents spiritual awareness and unity with the Divine. Wearing purple can signify the common desire to reach higher states of human consciousness.
Across these faiths, purple carries meanings of mysticism, inner growth, and our human bonds as we seek the sacred and sublime. It is a color that solemnly reflects the universality of human spiritual needs.
Use of Purple in Branding
To tap into the growing cultural associations between purple and unity, many major consumer brands have embraced purple in their marketing and branding efforts. Using purple communicates inclusivity, compassion, imagination, and wisdom.
Tech companies like Yahoo, Twitch, and Houzz all feature purple prominently in their logos and websites. The color helps them stand out while also signaling their progressive, boundless values.
Beauty and personal care brands like Milani, Zotos, Sally Hansen, and Essence rely on purple as a core color to appeal to diverse, savvy, and welcoming target markets.
Financial services like State Farm, Discover, Delta Dental, and Allstate use purple to stand for security, trust, prudence, and reliability.
Food and beverage companies like Welch’s, Dimetapp, SunnyD, Tropicana, and Dove represent moments of refreshment, joy, and comfort with their purple branding.
For all types of companies, purple unites by targeting wide audiences and leveraging associations of purple with wisdom, spirit, imagination, and inclusivity. Brands can tap into feelings of uplift and here-for-everyone-ness that purple exudes.
Notable Figures Connected to Purple
Looking at popular culture, certain celebrities and artistic figures have also been closely associated with purple as a representation of their innovative and boundary-crossing work. These include:
– Prince: The late music legend famously used purple in his album art, song lyrics, guitars, and concert performances. It came to emblemize his unique sound and style.
– Alice Walker: The author of *The Color Purple* used the color not just in her book title, but as a symbol throughout her writing of resilience, creativity, and the experiences of Black women.
– Elizabeth Taylor: The actress famously wore purple dresses as a contrast to her violet eyes and had a vividly colorful persona on and off screen.
– Grimes: The edgy musician routinely embraces purple hair and wardrobe choices to match her genre-bending electronic pop productions.
– Jimi Hendrix: The guitar god was known for wearing purple-hued blouses, headbands, and lenses as part of his psychedelic rock fashion.
For figures like these, purple reinforces their images as boundary-crossing artists and personalities who unite people through their singular stylishness and self-expression. They use the color to defy convention and categorization.
How Our Brains Perceive Purple
Interestingly, there may also be psychological reasons related to how our brains process colors that connect purple with inclusive concepts like unity.
Purple is what is known as a non-spectral color, meaning it does not correspond to one wavelength of light on the electromagnetic spectrum in the way that red, orange, yellow, green, or blue do. Our eyes do not actually contain receptors just for purple light.
Instead, purple is processed by our brains as a combination of red and blue light receptors firing together. We see purple when our eyes take in enough wavelengths of blue and red simultaneously.
So we have to rely more heavily on cognition and interpretation rather than pure perception to understand the color purple. This gives purple an abstract, blended quality.
Compared to warm colors like red or cool ones like green, purple is more flexible and dimensional. It asks us to unite different sensory inputs and experiences in order to make meaning from it. Purple requires both sides of the color spectrum coming together.
In this way, perhaps purple has developed connections to inclusivity and symbiosis more readily in our collective consciousness. It is not sharply defined by one specific wavelength or frequency band. The essence of purple is integration.
Conclusion
In summary, while purple is a color with an illustrious history intertwined with royalty, ceremony, and luxury, it has taken on newer dimensions of meaning related to unity, inclusion, compassion, and integration.
From its prominence in the gay rights rainbow to purple ribbons waving for justice to brands hoping to appear visionary yet reliable, purple has become a distinctive shade signifying that people can come together in hope and human dignity.
At its core, purple contains neither the warmth of red nor the coolness of blue in absolute terms. Its very existence relies on blending opposites on the color wheel. This serves as a visual metaphor for the ways purple represents openness, empathy, and recognition of our shared human experiences.
So does purple represent unity? Given its cultural associations and blend of sensory inputs, there is a strong case to say that few colors evoke interconnectedness and synthesis the way shades of purple can. Its broad appeal across ages, identities, and purposes makes purple a special color that can resonate with our deepest desires for community.
