Business, not politics : the making of the gay market / Katherine Sender.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sender, Katherine.

Series:

Between men--between women

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gay consumers--United States.

Gay consumers.

Lesbian consumers--United States.

Lesbian consumers.

Marketing--United States.

Marketing.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 311 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2004]

Summary:

Over the Past Decade, a variety of national corporations, including Subaru, Tanqueray, Abercrombie & Fitch, and American Express, have pitched their products at a new consumer niche: the gay market. In this hard-hitting book that refutes conventional wisdom, Katherine Sender argues that marketing has been integral in the constitution of a GLBT community and identity since the 1970s and has had significant impact on the visibility of gays and lesbians in the broader society.

Advocates and critics have looked at the boom in the gay market with both excitement and trepidation. For some, gay and lesbian themes in advertising represent mainstream validation of their existence, while others are concerned that marketers have misrepresented the gay community by depicting it as white, male, and wealthy. Critics also suggest that the phenomenon of gay consumerism runs counter to progressive gay activism. Sender expands on these concerns, arguing that what is at stake is not only acceptance and civil rights but also the very meaning of GLBT sexual identification.

Sender explores the connection between the business of marketing to gay consumers and the politics of gay rights and identity. She disputes some marketers' claims that appealing to gay and lesbian consumers is a matter of "business, not politics" and can be considered independently of the politics of gay rights, identity, and visibility. She contends that the gay community is not a preexisting entity that marketers simply tap into; rather it is a construction, an imagined community formed not only through political activism but also through commercially supported media.

Sender's work draws on interviews with 45 professionals who work in gay marketing and media, including magazine publishers, ad directors, sales representatives, and public relations consultants. The book analyzes and gives an insider's account of how marketers conceive of gay and lesbian consumers and articulate the "gayness" of certain products.

Contents:

1 The Business and Politics of Gay Marketing 1

2 Evolution, Not Revolution 24

3 Professional Homosexuals 64

4 How Gay Is Too Gay? 95

5 Selling America's Most Affluent Minority 139

6 Neither Fish Nor Fowl 174

7 Sex Sells 200

8 Just Like You 227

Appendix 1 Pitching the Gay Market 243

Appendix 2 The Gay Marketers 253.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [257]-300) and index.

ISBN:

0231127340

0231127359

OCLC:

55797885