GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Commercialism in particular over the last ten years has begun to riddle modern day society. We’ve seen it through regular events such as Father’s and Mother’s day, Valentines’ Day, and now even Christmas in July. But even more so, commercialism is continually evolving, and is now branching out to ‘stereotypes’ on a level it never has before. So by being gay, are you more liable to notice that extra advertisement created just for you?

Billions of dollars gets spent each and every single week on every possible item that you could think of, with a significant proportion of that amount not needing advertising. But for that small percentage that does, demographics are the key. With society starting to accept gay people in larger numbers than ever before, does being gay mean that you get extra attention when it comes to commercialism? In a lot of cases these days, it does.

Take the term ‘gay icon’. We all know they are out there. Designers, singers, brands or products, particular locations, events, the list goes on. But just because it appeals to people that are gay, should it automatically be adopted and marketed to gay people? An example of this is the brand new Scissor Sisters album, Ta Dah!, which debuted at the top of the Australian Albums Chart when it was released just a few weeks ago. While discussing its immediate success amongst friends, it became clear that even they thought that a large market for the Scissor Sisters was gay people, due to the lead singer’s homosexuality. Just because someone is gay, does it mean we should all adopt them immediately as an ‘icon’, simply because ‘they are like us’?

One market that has been booming all over the world in the last couple of years is men’s grooming. Yes, I admit, I have fallen for it myself and have in my bathroom cupboard different types of moisturizers, cleansers, and shaving products. Once again, a significant proportion of advertising that is done for this market is aimed at gay men. Take the advertisement for Metrosensual as an example. It is marketing such as that, which gets instant results from different demographics. Is this clever way of marketing going to be the type of marketing we see on a regular occurrence in order to try and get us, the everyday consumer to stretch our dollar that bit further, or open our wallets just once more?

Fashion is another example. It is now stuck to our ‘stereotype’ that the majority (if not all) of gay people dress well. There are people who want to dress like us, and there are garments designed and businesses created primarily for demographics such as ours. Talk about the meaning of labels, it’s basically two birds being killed with one stone in this instance; a ‘label’ wearing labels.

Is the sky the limit to the monetary value that is now being added to the word “gay”? Only time will tell. Just like it is for betting, shop with your head, not over it.