Business, Not Politics: The Making of the Gay Market (Between Men~Between Women: Lesbian and Gay Studies)

"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'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."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of LGBTQ+. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.