Mascromantic Pride Flag (2016, Designer Unknown)

Overview

No creator statement has been located. The description defines the term rather than the design. ^[1]

Pride-Flags published the design on 10 May 2016 as "Mascromantic Pride Flag", a 5000 by 3000 file adapting its own Masc- / Andro- base flag of 23 April with the centred-heart treatment it used across that day's batch. ^[1][3][2]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

androromantic

Androromantic and mascromantic name romantic attraction to men or masculine genders. The publisher's description gives the root: the term derives "from the Greek word andros which means 'man'", and "can be useful when describing the orientation of an individual with a non-binary gender identity". ^[1]

Creators

Associated Figure

Attribution notes

The designer is unknown. Pride-Flags published the file and supplied the high-resolution rendering. ^[1] The line "Coined by: Unknown / Designed by: Unknown" appears on the base Masc- / Andro- deviation of 23 April 2016 and on the September 2016 Mascromantic (3) page, but not on the 10 May Mascromantic Pride Flag description. ^[3][4][1] Publishing a high-resolution file is not authorship.

Origin

Digital Origin

Yes

Digital origin; no verified physical location.

Digital origin on DeviantArt. No physical origin is documented. ^[1]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2016

Publication on DeviantArt

May 10, 2016

Period in Use

2016 to present

The design circulates in flag archives and reference collections. No formal organizational adoption has been located. ^[1]

Chronology: "Masc- (1)" of 23 April 2016 is the plain three-stripe base with the credit "Designed by: Unknown"; "Mascromantic Pride Flag" of 10 May 2016 is the centred-heart romantic design and this record's primary artifact; "Mascromantic (3)" of 22 September 2016 is a separate later design with a light blue field, a darker blue Mars symbol and a small grey heart in the upper hoist. ^[3][1][4]

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Androsexual Pride Flag

Related flags

Abroromantic Pride Flag, Abrosexual Pride Flag, Ceteroromantic Pride Flag (Four-Stripe Heart, 2016), Demiromantic Pride Flag, Gyneromantic Pride Flag (ThatOneKnows, 2020), Omniromantic Pride Flag, Panromantic Pride Flag, Polyromantic Pride Flag

Sibling flags

Gynesexual Pride Flag

The plain three-stripe Masc- / Andro- design of 23 April 2016 is the direct base: this flag keeps its three colours exactly and adds the heart treatment. ^[3][2] The Androsexual record covers the same base flag used for sexual rather than romantic attraction; the two are not visually identical, because this romantic version adds the centred heart. A 2015 Ma- / Man- flag credited to pastelmemer is an earlier alternative symbol for attraction to men and is contextual history, not a documented parent.

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.

Ancestor

Androsexual Pride Flag

This record

Mascromantic Pride Flag (2016, Designer Unknown)

Colors & Symbolism

The heart is the romantic marker: the field is lightened outside it and left saturated inside it. The publisher supplied no stripe meanings. ^[1][2]

These hexadecimal values are exact measurements from the cited 5000 by 3000 source PNG. They document that artifact rather than a creator-issued color specification. ^[2]

Centered heart

The romantic-orientation marker used across the archive's 10 May 2016 batch. It is a mask rather than an overlay: the three bands run through it unbroken, saturated inside and lightened outside. ^[2]

Neither the base flag nor the romantic version publishes stripe meanings. Later stripe readings circulated by flag guides are secondary interpretation and are not presented here as original symbolism. ^[1][3]

Six values: three saturated inside the heart and three lightened outside it. All six were measured from the 5000 by 3000 source PNG downloaded from the 10 May deviation; the three saturated values match the base Masc- / Andro- flag of 23 April exactly. ^[2][3] Compressed previews of the same image are not used as a palette source.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

3

Layout

horizontal_stripes

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Cyan, Dark brown, Light purple

Center Symbol

Centered heart

Three equal horizontal bands of 1000 rows each in a 5000 by 3000 field. A large heart is centred on it, its lobes reaching the top edge and its point the bottom, spanning roughly x 864 to 4136. ^[2]

Three equal bands with a single centred heart acting as a saturation mask over the lightened field. ^[2]

Three equal horizontal bands of cyan, dark brown and light purple, lightened across the field and saturated inside a large centred heart. ^[2]

Usage & Adoption

Online Usage

DeviantArt, where the design was published ^[1], Flag archives and reference collections

Current Status

circulating online

The design circulates in flag archives and reference collections. No formal organizational adoption has been located. ^[1]

Image Archive

Base Design

2016 Publication

Later Separate Design

Archive Reconstruction

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• Three separate designs share this name and are easily confused: the plain three-stripe base of 23 April 2016, the centred-heart romantic design of 10 May 2016 covered by this record, and the Mars-symbol design of 22 September 2016. ^[3][1][4]

The publisher's note on the terminology, given on the base and romantic deviations alike: "There is some controversy on the gyne/andro terms, since there have been a lot of transphobes have co-opted it to mean 'Oh I'm only attracted to biological males' etc. but the term is still useful for many people and it would be unfair to not add it to the gallery because of them." That is the archive's statement, quoted as such. ^[1] The same description explains the root: the term derives "from the Greek word andros which means 'man'", and "can be useful when describing the orientation of an individual with a non-binary gender identity". ^[1]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

the centred-heart design published 10 May 2016

• Encycloflaggia reconstruction of the 10 May 2016 Mascromantic design · Credit: Designer unknown; reconstruction by Encycloflaggia · Encycloflaggia · reconstructionRights Archive-produced reconstruction; heart outline traced from the 2016 source PNG
• The 5000 by 3000 file published by Pride-Flags on 10 May 2016 · Credit: Published by Pride-Flags; designer unknown · DeviantArt · verified
• The base design: "Masc- (1)", published 23 April 2016, three equal bands with no heart and the credit "Designed by: Unknown". Measured #00CCFF, #603524 and #B899DF. ^[3] · Credit: Published by Pride-Flags; designer unknown · DeviantArt · Gallery reuse statement located; no formal licence
• The source artifact and this record's primary image: 5000 by 3000 pixels, published by Pride-Flags on 10 May 2016 as "Mascromantic Pride Flag". Measured saturated #00CCFF, #603524 and #B899DF inside the heart, lightened #73E3FF, #A89087 and #D8C7ED outside it. ^[1][2] · Credit: Published by Pride-Flags; designer unknown · DeviantArt · Gallery reuse statement located; no formal licence
• "Mascromantic (3)", published 22 September 2016: a light blue field with a darker blue Mars symbol and a small grey heart in the upper hoist. A separate later design, not a version of the May flag. ^[4] · Credit: Published by Pride-Flags; designer unknown · DeviantArt · Gallery reuse statement located; no formal licence
• The archive's reconstruction, with the heart outline traced from the source PNG rather than approximated. ^[2] · Credit: Designer unknown; reconstruction by Encycloflaggia · Encycloflaggia reconstruction · Archive-produced reconstruction, subject to the rights status of the underlying design