Cal Poly English professor Kevin Clark’s first recollection of the peace symbol dates back to the days when he watched horrific, graphic scenes of the Vietnam War repeatedly headlining the evening news in the mid-1960s. Despite his conservative upbringing in the suburbs of New Jersey, the images deepened his already growing connection with the protesters who frequented the evening reports, holding the peace symbol to protest the war and promote a new social consciousness.
In 1968, Clark headed to the University of Florida just as protests were becoming a worldwide movement. By his sophomore year, like many youths of the era, he traded his crew cut for a mop top and instead of nodding his head in compliance, he gave the establishment and the draft the middle finger . along with the index.
“The peace sign became associated not simply with protesting the war but a kind of consciousness in which you favored tenderness, love, obviously peace and pacifism over aggressiveness, militarism or violence,” Clark said. “It suggested it’s good to work together rather than work alone … The peace sign was everywhere.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the peace symbol, a logo as archetypal to protesters and proponents of peace as the cross is to Christians. Gerald Holtom designed the symbol in 1958 as the logo for the campaign for nuclear disarmament in Britain. In semaphore, a naval sign language that employs flags to represent letters, an “N” (nuclear) is two flags held out in an upside down “V” and a “D” (disarmament) is a flag held straight up in the air. The lines inside of the circle, which originally stood for “N” and “D,” have, over time, become an international message of peace.
Later, an activist who said no to nukes in Britain brought the sign to the U.S. for use in the civil rights movement. It soon spread to anti-Vietnam War protests and then to many remonstrations throughout the world over the last five decades.
“(The peace sign) is a world symbol. It’s not a U.S. symbol particularly,” said Cal Poly modern U.S. history professor John Snetsinger. “I think it actually has always been a unifier of young people, worldwide, questioning governments and wars with the general protest of hoping for a new world.”
The peace sign serves as a “historic link” between the political climates of the 1960s and today Snetsinger said, adding, “there are similarities between (the Iraq War) and the Vietnam War.” He said both wars had infinite timelines and were never declared by Congress. Americans use the peace symbol today to suggest alternative thinking to the aggressive militarism of the current administration, Snetsinger proposed.
Although linked with the 1960s, the peace sign no longer solely represents crestfallen youths. In fact, people of all ages have adapted the symbol. The name of the anti-Iraq War group CODEPINK, started by a group of disgruntled American women, is a play on the “Bush Administration’s color-coded homeland security alerts – yellow, orange, red – that signal terrorist threats. While Bush’s color-coded alerts are based on fear and are used to justify violence, the CODEPINK alert is a feisty call for women and men to “wage peace,” the group wrote on its peace symbol-infiltrated Web site.
Along with anti-war groups, politicians opposed to the war use the peace symbol. President elect Barack Obama’s campaign issued a T-shirt with the peace sign in place of the “O” in Obama in hopes of grabbing peace proponents like those in CODEPINK.
Though commonly an icon for activist groups, the peace sign now encompasses a larger population than just activists. While Clark perceives the peace symbol of the past as a representation of community and counterculture, today, peace seems to have expanded its underground roots into the mainstream. Sororities, carpool groups and multiple boutiques in downtown San Luis Obispo sport the peace sign, a symbol Holtom purposely did not copyright.
Nationally, the symbol has become posh as well. Barneys New York Inc.’s fall theme is “Peace and Love: Have a Hippie Holiday.” Along with garishly expensive peace symbol jewelry and clothing, famous designers will make dresses honoring the 50th anniversary of the symbol for the New York store. Tiffany and Co. offers peace sign pendants in the multiple thousand-dollar range and Target has a more affordable peace line.
Alpha Chi Omega president Stephanie Hamilton said her sorority’s fall T-shirt, “Peace, Love, AXO” was something “cute and different on campus” with no intention of political undertones. Julie Grimes, manager of Charmz Jewelry and Accessories in downtown San Luis Obispo, said she sells peace jewelry because the market shows it appeals and sells to all ages.
Grimes, who lived through the original peace fad in the ’60s and ’70s, and wore a pendant herself, said the design was originally a plain, silver medallion. Now she sells pendants of many varieties like her spring-inspired peace symbol necklaces in shades of cantaloupe, lemon and lime.
While some promote peace through political groups and others wear the peace symbol for its aesthetics, Nicole and Craig Stone of Los Osos aspire to spawn a peace revolution. Nicole Stone came up with and trademarked a logo inspired by her life mantra, “live in peace.” To begin the infiltration of this positive message, two summers ago, she and her husband handed out 5,000 complementary “Live in Peace” stickers at the Live Oak Music Festival in Santa Inez.
“People just lit up right in front of us,” Craig Stone said. He wore his first, handmade peace pendant at the age of five.
Today, the Stones have filtered about 35,000 stickers throughout the Central Coast, the country and even to some far corners of the globe. They have extended their “Live in Peace” message beyond stickers to organic, sustainably made and Fair Trade certified clothing and accessories. Just what the message means to people is open-ended, the Stones say, but they guarantee a positive reaction.
Whatever the reason for the recent influx of the peace sign, the Stones declare there is something happening here. Although they just missed the original peace sign insurgency of the 1960s, their efforts today mirror those of Buffalo Springfield as they witness what can happen when everybody stops, looks and asks about what is going down with the peace symbol and its endlessly positive connotations.
While looking off the blue pier in Baywood Park near Los Osos, as his dogs Sol and Bean hopped around him, Craig Stone detailed an anecdote his neighbor related to him earlier that afternoon. She was driving in the bank parking lot with a large prototype “Live in Peace” decal on her window when, “this woman, stopped her car, leaped out in her bathrobe and raced over and stopped her and asked her where she got the sticker.” He said the woman gave his neighbor some spare change, her name and her number on a piece of paper and said, “Here, take this to whoever is responsible, I have to have one.”
“It’s that positive shift,” Nicole Stone said.
A positive outlook on the new wave peace symbol is not universal but a completely negative reaction to the message of peace is a rarity. Clark, who often writes of the 1960s counterculture in his poetry, finds that the peace sign as a fashion trend is “a little silly” and “kind of disappointing,” but he does believe that “there is a time where fashion actually becomes a statement.”
His daughter, a senior at San Luis Obispo High School who is politically active, opposed to the war in Iraq and a firm supporter of Obama, wears her peace symbol clothing and accessories because it’s a case “when fashion meets or helps you to communicate your point of view about a social issue.”
“I’m fine with that,” Clark said.