After a month of colorful endcaps on the typically unadorned aisles of our favorite mass merchandisers, love is love t-shirts on allies that express their support through fashion choices, and unnuanced social media posts from brands proclaiming their support for the LGBTQIA+ community, perhaps it’s time for us to follow Judy Garland’s lead and begin to imagine what is beyond the rainbow. Having endeavored to ensure that the world recognizes their efforts to stand in solidarity with a community that the market conveniently overlooks for the other 11 months of the year, July 1, the day after PRIDE, is an opportune time to interrogate the realities of the support offered by the brands we patronize.
PRIDE month, a celebration of the nation’s LGBTQIA+ community, has become synonymous with rainbows; in its original and updated forms, the PRIDE flag is characterized by rainbow-hued stripes. Capturing the awe-inspiring spectrum of color in light, associated with hope, and undeniably majestic, rainbows are as symbolic as they are palatable. Naturally occurring, as well as adopted for artistic use, the symbolism they capture, scientific and humanistic, establish rainbows as fixtures in our lives. It is this ubiquity, starting in childhood, that makes them so astonishingly palatable—even when adopted as representation of segments of our community that are oft victims of collective discrimination and oppression. And it is precisely this palatability that offers an undeserved sense of progress. Over simplified mental math convinces us that more rainbows equate to more tolerance; mental math is notoriously unreliable, and rainbow mugs do not inclusive policies make. Fifty-four years after protesters responded to police sanctioned violence against those insisting on the recognition of their civil rights during the Stonewall Riots, another June was marked by organizations, otherwise silent on the matter of civil rights, eager to find uninspired ways to feature rainbows in their displays, communications, and merchandise.
Rainbow capitalism, a term that captures the commodification of support for the LGBTQIA+ movement, has distorted PRIDE into what amounts to a pop-up marketplace, a month-long plastering of rainbows on any and everything imaginable: clothing, home goods, food stuffs, even pet toys. The nation’s top brands clamor to be recognized as progressive and inclusive, taking every opportunity to ensure that their consumer base knows that they celebrate PRIDE. And well, there in lies the rub. As with many other heritage month observations, PRIDE has been coopted, mutating it into a commercial frenzy. In place of sincere initiatives to improve the lived experiences of members of the LGBTQIA+ community, many brands offer superficial efforts with the illusion of support. Perhaps it’s because consumers are distracted by the inundation of rainbows or perhaps it’s because many of us are overwhelmed with the tedium of daily life, whatever the reason, it seems that we are placated by companies’ shallow, rainbow-dripped, displays of allyship. We are accepting of their technicolor approach to June, asking few questions about their policies and practices for the rest of the year.
Yes, many firms shared messaging proclaiming their unwavering support of the LGBTQIA+ community on their social media feed last month. They may have even highlighted a queer employee or two, sponsored a PRIDE event, or given away PRIDE themed swag. These efforts, commendable on some level, leave much to be desired. Digging deeper, as consumers, we must ask ourselves is the market’s recognition of PRIDE authentic or impactful? Are these campaigns generating sincere change or simply multicolored marketing schemes, money grabs cloaked in rainbows?
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