Come pride month, we are surrounded by lgbtqia+ content. Pride is wonderful, beautiful. It is a celebration of vibrancy, and an acknowledgement of the struggles that the entire community has had to go through to get to the point where we are now and no doubt, goes through even to this day. There is a long way to go for us as a society, to reach a time when everyone is seen as human first, before their race, ethnicity, sexual alignment, gender, or anything else that may cause a divide.
However, just like anything else, people find a way to put a damper on this too (no I’m not talking about homophobes, although, they suck as well). As June rolls on, we begin to see big brands put pride merchandise out, i.e. JUST SLAPPING A RAINBOW ON EVERYTHING. Seemingly as an act of solidarity, but their honest intentions are, well, let’s say questionable.
SO. We arrive at the concept of “RAINBOW CAPITALISM”, which has been defined as “the commodification of things related to LGBT culture, especially the concept of gay pride”.
Rainbow capitalism is essentially the exploitation of pride by big companies to garner more profits during this time specifically.
While it is possible that some of them have good intentions, and I’m sure some of them do, our wonderful forefronts of capitalism most certainly do not. We see McDonald’s, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato, Lego, Target, Walgreens and SO MANY OTHER companies come out with a rainbow spread across their logos and “rainbow-themed” merchandise (apparently not meant for your nine years old’s pool party?)
However, is changing display pictures to the colours of the pride flag all it takes to prove one’s allegiance to the cause? Will a rainbow-tinted brand logo be enough to create awareness among the masses and end discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community? Is a picture of a rainbow cake with a one-liner about love enough to end years of intersecting oppression of an entire community that until a few days ago was labelled as criminals? Probably not. But it sure is a good PR move.
The symbolic support for the LGBTQ community is ubiquitous, particularly during Pride Month. The list of causes with more visible support is short.
To grasp the dilemma of the commercialization of pride events, it’s worth examining a very similar case: the “pinkwashing” of Breast Cancer Awareness. The phenomenon of any kind of pink object coming to represent “awareness” of breast cancer created a situation where purchasing pink anything and everything allowed people to feel like they were contributing somehow to a cure for the disease. However, the entire deal with breast cancer awareness didn’t yield any real results, besides selling an INSANE amount of pink ribbons. There wasn’t much to show for it.
This is the problem with commodifying “awareness”: While it may serve to raise money for a cause, there’s no guarantee that money will result in any sort of tangible outcome. It’s nominal activism divorced from the real action.
“Adding a rainbow to their logo is only beneficial to companies. Companies only show support to the LGBTQIA+ community only when it is easy to do so and helps in their marketing. “, said one student.
Essentially, none of these big brands is ‘taking a stand’ for the LGBTQIA+ community, so to speak. They’re not rebels who want to see the systems change and who dream of a better, more inclusive and compassionate society. They are just companies that are using a societal cause for their betterment. Many will argue that the fact that brands are voicing their support for LGBTQIA+ rights is a good thing and it positively impacts the movement, that the gay rights movement needs to be backed up by powerful organisations that can lend their voices to influence several sections of the society and possibly curb homophobia with campaigns that spread strong messages. But the message that is being spread here is a false one that is deeply rooted in consumer politics. This doesn’t mean that they don’t do anything though.
“Companies, including H&M, donate a portion of what their customers spend on pride merchandise to LGBTQ charities. The amount going to charity varies by the company and product: J.Crew donates 50 per cent of the purchase price of its pride T-shirts; H&M only donates 10 per cent of the sales from its “Pride Out Loud” collection. Nike’s website doesn’t say how much of the proceeds from its Be True campaign the company donates, but it does say that Nike has donated almost $2.7 million since 2012.”
So money going to LGBTQ charities is a good thing, right? In the abstract, yes, but taken in aggregate, this consumerist donation structure creates a situation of so-called slacktivism, giving brands and consumers alike a low-effort way to support social and political causes.
They may be raising their voice against grave injustices in society, but let us not forget that it is in their economic interest to do so. This sort of hijacking of the community’s struggles completely erases the problems of caste, gender, race, religion and economic class that also intersect with those relating to their sexual orientation. It paints a false picture of branded inclusivity that seems to be within everyone’s grasp but is far from it in reality.
It’s also important to look at this phenomenon from the consumer perspective. If consumers who want to do more to help the LGBTQ community scrutinize and talk about what companies do with that money (e.g. the percentage given to charity versus what’s kept), or those companies’ inconsistent policies, it could help change the way companies choose to “support” LGBTQ issues. Or consumers could do the work to research and seek out organizations themselves, making their donations directly and bypassing the retail element entirely.
But that raises what is perhaps the most complex problem with supporting the LGBTQ community: knowing where to lend support. The ideal goal of Breast Cancer Awareness is to find a cure; all that pink stuff is bought with that goal in mind. But the “goal” for the LGBTQ community isn’t one central thing, it’s a lot of different things. Supporting the LGBTQ community is more complicated, since it’s not a monolithic entity, and many issues affect different cross-sections of LGBTQ people.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about showing support during Pride is that there isn’t one cause to support — blurring all these different issues under a one-size-fits-all rainbow means some are inevitably going to be overlooked.
The commercialization of Pride Month adds another complicating layer to that, further flattening out the complex landscape of LGBTQ issues into an easier-to-support — and therefore easier to sell — the concept of “awareness.”
But it’s hard to shake the feeling that this commercialized mass appeal has helped further dampen Pride Month’s fiery political roots, and helped muddle the less-pleasant, less-talked-about issues that matter for many people in the LGBTQ community — and will continue to matter long after the rainbow T-shirts, socks, water bottles, and cute retail disappear from store windows.
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