A recent post on A Whore in the Temple of Reason has me thinking about the scarlet A selected to symbolize the OUT Campaign again. I support what the campaign stands for but think that the choice of the scarlet A was unfortunate.
My reasons for disliking that chosen symbol are as follows:
- The large red letter A already has a widely recognized meaning from Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary classic, The Scarlet Letter. In Hawthorne's book, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet A on her attire to symbolize her sin of adultery. This seems like an absurd symbol for atheists to attempt to reclaim as our own.
- Aside from the association with adultery, the scarlet A fails to symbolize the sort of "atheist pride" many want the OUT Campaign to represent. People seeing the symbol will either assume that the A stands for adulterer or be confused about its meaning. Wouldn't an unambiguous expression of atheism be a far more effective way to achieve the stated goals of the OUT campaign? At the very least, the symbol could be paired with its meaning like this. However, I tend to think that existing logos like this would be even more effective.
That's it. Those are my only reasons for thinking that the symbol was a poor choice. And again, this does not prevent me from supporting the campaign itself.
Tags: Richard Dawkins, atheism, atheist, OUT Campaign
More Thoughts on The Scarlet A
