Word.ws English Dictionary

purplewashing

purplewashing noun: the practice of presenting something as feminist, particularly a political action, in order to soften or downplay aspects of its reputation considered negative or as a justification for economic, political, xenophobic or racist goals. Also the present participle and gerund of purplewash.

Noun

purplewashing (uncountable)

  1. The practice of presenting something as feminist, particularly a political action, in order to soften or downplay aspects of its reputation considered negative or as a justification for economic, political, xenophobic or racist goals.
    • Epilogue: from Islamophobia to purplewashing.2015, Belén Fernández Suárez, “The construction of a victimized alterity in political and media discourses via the burka ban debate.”, in Revista Internacional de Comunicación y Desarrollo, volume 3
    • One of the most common tools of promoting militarism in Western societies is the use of women as a flag. The so-called purplewashing or purple lavage, is to provide a veneer of liberal-colonial feminism in military interventions to legitimize them as actions of almost moral and ethical obligation....2016 November, Nora Miralles Crespo, “Gender and military culture. Lives, bodies and social control under war.”, in Centre Delàs d’Estudis per la Pau

Also used as

purplewashing is also the present participle and gerund of purplewash.

Examples of purplewashing in a sentence

  • The so-called purplewashing or purple lavage, is to provide a veneer of liberal-colonial feminism in military interventions to legitimize them as actions of almost moral and ethical obligation.2016 November, Nora Miralles Crespo, “Gender and military culture. Lives, bodies and social control under war.”, in Centre Delàs d’Estudis...
  • View all notes has inspired conceptual tools such as whitewashing, purplewashing and greenwashing, among others.2017, Melania Moscoso, R. Lucas Platero, “Cripwashing: the abortion debates at the crossroads of gender and disability in the Spanish...

Origin of purplewashing

From purple + -wash + -ing. The colour purple is often associated with feminism.

Questions about purplewashing

What does purplewashing mean?
Purplewashing means the practice of presenting something as feminist, particularly a political action, in order to soften or downplay aspects of its reputation considered negative or as a justification for economic, political, xenophobic or racist goals.
How do you use purplewashing in a sentence?
The so-called purplewashing or purple lavage, is to provide a veneer of liberal-colonial feminism in military interventions to legitimize them as actions of almost moral and ethical obligation.
What part of speech is purplewashing?
Purplewashing is a noun.

Words near purplewashing in the dictionary

  1. purpletuft
  2. purpletufts
  3. purplewash
  4. purplewashed
  5. purplewashes
  6. purplewashing
  7. purplewood
  8. purplewoods
  9. purplewort
  10. purpley
  11. purplier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purplewashing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “purplewashing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/purplewashing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.