diff --git a/dev-python/markdown/markdown-2.6.11.ebuild b/dev-python/markdown/markdown-2.6.11.ebuild
index 136f7f0aafb88..af9423e865d1d 100644
--- a/dev-python/markdown/markdown-2.6.11.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/markdown/markdown-2.6.11.ebuild
@@ -18,12 +18,9 @@ LICENSE="|| ( BSD GPL-2 )"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~ia64 ~mips ~ppc ~ppc64 ~sparc
 ~x86 ~amd64-linux ~x86-linux ~ppc-macos ~x64-macos ~x86-macos"
-IUSE="doc pygments"
+IUSE="doc"
 RESTRICT="test"
 
-# source cites pytidylib however from testruns it appears optional
-RDEPEND="pygments? ( dev-python/pygments[${PYTHON_USEDEP}] )"
-
 S="${WORKDIR}/${P^}"
 
 python_compile_all() {
diff --git a/dev-python/markdown/metadata.xml b/dev-python/markdown/metadata.xml
index 968763ca2d14e..367b46477ac90 100644
--- a/dev-python/markdown/metadata.xml
+++ b/dev-python/markdown/metadata.xml
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
     <name>Python</name>
   </maintainer>
   <stabilize-allarches/>
-  <use>
-    <flag name="pygments">Enable fancy pygments support</flag>
-  </use>
   <upstream>
     <remote-id type="pypi">Markdown</remote-id>
     <remote-id type="github">waylan/Python-Markdown</remote-id>