Rainbow washing is when establishments use the LGTBQ+ community as a smokescreen to whitewash human rights violations or as a way to make money off of uninformed consumers. The rainbow washing used by companies is usually called rainbow capitalism.

Bluewashing is when a company joins the UNGC but doesn’t actually follow up on its principles, basically deflecting from their bad business practices. This also applies to governments: they use humanitarian operations or actions to cover up their bad practices.

After examining purplewashing and all its facets, I believe it’s important to examine our work from an intersectional feminist perspective because as my research has shown, feminism and women’s empowerment can be used for purposes that don’t actually help women. We may be bound by client requirements/ preferences sometimes, but we should always be mindful of purplewashing and strive to ensure all women are empowered, not exploited, in client communications.

Brownwashing can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the context. As translators, we don’t create the content and its representational issues, but we can advise on problematic elements as we see fit.