Over the Rainbow by Nicola Field

Author:Nicola Field [Field, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dog Horn Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Whilst the gay market is primarily identified as white and male, given the traditionally higher earning power of that group, the increased openness surrounding gay identity in the commercial lifestyle world has brought an increased interest in the fashion-value of lesbians. Once stereotyped as women too ugly to attract men, chic lesbians are now elevated to cult status in the fashion stakes. Their collective image is one of super-sophistication and cultural innovation. The role of individual lesbians in the new commercial environments is not as proprietors or publishers but as managers, marketing executives and commissioning editors. It is an asset for a thrusting gay company to feature a well-dressed lesbian in its executive line-up.

The classic gay lifestyle, as defined by the media, is in fact a distilled replica of a traditional middle-class lifestyle and is a concrete indication of the dominance of middle-class cliques within the gay movement. The editors, journalists and designers who create the glossy images are identified as representatives of lesbians and gays per se. Of course their interests in opera, designer clothing and Scandinavian furniture are inaccessible to the vast majority of lesbians and gays. The powerful myth that all gay people are united by a common interest has obscured the fact that gay taste, gay sensibility and gay lifestyles are in fact merely middle-class taste, sensibilities and lifestyles. The preoccupations of working-class lesbians and gays — police harassment, job losses, wage cuts, benefit cuts, homelessness, domestic violence—are excluded from the editorials of lifestyle magazines, except as copy documenting the activities of middle-class led reformist and campaigning organisations.

A burgeoning sub-industry in public relations and business consultancy provides a cushioning interface between established mainstream companies, who wish to target the lucrative gay market, and gay business people themselves. Marketing and business consultants, by offering their services to gay and straight companies alike, reveal the essential material similarities between all business people—whatever their sexual orientation. The consultancy selling point is clearly expressed by Brian McLaughlin of Conference and Marketing Associates Ltd (CMA):

We believe that the time is now ripe for major companies to take a serious look at marketing to the gay consumer, especially as there is now such a broad choice of media to use. However, despite being a trend-setting group, the market is sensitive to ill-considered campaigns, and is especially looking for activities which will put some investment back into the gay community. We hope to give an insight into these areas.6

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