Gay is Okay*

[Mycroft]

*Buy our stuff.


Since last week, it's been seen everywhere. That ubiquitous rainbow that hails one's support of same sex marriage and the LGBTQ community at large. You'll see it on people's FB profiles, buildings, shop windows (as well as the #GayIsOkay hashtag)...

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But I can't help but feel there's a subtext here: Capitalism. It seems that Capitalism has hijacked the LGBTQ community, and the issue of marriage equality. That someone, somewhere, decided that the aforementioned rainbow and hashtag was a good way to get people to buy their stuff.

Now at the individual level some businesses may genuinely support what they claim to. But on the institutional level this is all about getting you to like those businesses so you'll buy their products and services.

All this leaves one with a sense of wondering how much of it is actually genuine. Certainly individuals are sincere, but when one sees these motifs plasters in shop windows, business and entertainment pages on Facebook and other website you have to wonder whether this may be just another marketing scheme. The words 'Gay is Okay' themselves seem to be the work of a marketing department: catchy, rhymes, no more than four syllables. All of the benchmarks that a marketing department would look for in a slogan.

Maybe we ought to think more closely about who actually supports LGBTQ and who just wants you to buy their things.

 

[psychoslice]

All I can say is that, yea gay is OK, and anyone who is against it needs help.

 

[Willamena]

All this leaves one with a sense of wondering how much of it is actually genuine. Certainly individuals are sincere, but when one sees these motifs plasters in shop windows, business and entertainment pages on Facebook and other website you have to wonder whether this may be just another marketing scheme. The words 'Gay is Okay' themselves seem to be the work of a marketing department: catchy, rhymes, no more than four syllables. All of the benchmarks that a marketing department would look for in a slogan.

Maybe we ought to think more closely about who actually supports LGBTQ and who just wants you to buy their things.

If it was Coca-Cola, I might agree with you. But as it is, as much as a company exists to make money it's also the case in the modern world that individual employees exist to be the company's values. It's a strange new world.

 

[te_lanus]

I thought to "be cheerful" = gay

 

[BSM1]

I thought to "be cheerful" = gay

So what's your flag look like?

 

[Revoltingest]

Here's my flag...

Here's an interesting flag.....

 

[McBell]

Hells bells, my facebook news feed looks like a battle broke out between the Confederates and a Skittles factory...

 

[NewGuyOnTheBlock]

Corporations will hijack anything that will bring in the money. Sadly, most consumers don't realize when and how they are being manipulated.

 

[columbus]

Corporations will hijack anything that will bring in the money. Sadly, most consumers don't realize when and how they are being manipulated.

Normally I hate this. But at the moment I can't help but think "Nothing says mainstream acceptance like being targeted by an insurance company".

Tom

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Unfortunately, capitalism has conditioned us to think that buying and displaying junk is a legitimate way to support a cause. Just look back to after 9/11 and all the Americana paraphernalia that sprouted up everywhere, for a fee, of course. With everyone turning their FB profile picture to a rainbow color over, what better way to make it easier to be tracked for marketing purposes?
I'd rather support a cause through words and actions, rather than buying some cheap piece of junk to do the talking for me.

 

[Revoltingest]

Unfortunately, capitalism has conditioned us to think that buying and displaying junk is a legitimate way to support a cause. Just look back to after 9/11 and all the Americana paraphernalia that sprouted up everywhere, for a fee, of course. With everyone turning their FB profile picture to a rainbow color over, what better way to make it easier to be tracked for marketing purposes?
I'd rather support a cause through words and actions, rather than buying some cheap piece of junk to do the talking for me.

I want the souvenirs.
We can express pride & liberty with money....

 

[NewGuyOnTheBlock]

Being gay, I don't like the term "gay pride". I am proud of positive decisions and accomplishments I have achieved in my life. I am proud of the virtues I possess that I have nurtured. But having "gay pride" is the same as having "white pride" or "black pride" or "blond pride". It just makes no sense to me to take "pride" in something over which I had no influence. I'm gay because I'm gay; that's nothing to be "proud" of or "ashamed" of. It just is.

 

[fantome profane]

In this case I have to ask who hijacked who? Who is manipulating who? Corporations have a great ability to manipulate people through advertizing campaigns, to get people to believe anything. But every once and a while people wake up to the reality that it is the people who have power over the corporations, and sometimes the corporations are forced to realize this as well. And I think that is what happened here. We the people have used our considerable power to force corporations to accept diversity. We did that to them, we manipulated them, we used our power over them to force them to make changes, and then used them as a tool to make real political changes. That is the way it is suppose to be.

 

[columbus]

Here's an interesting flag.....

That one put me in mind of a Halloween costume I planned many years ago.

I was going to get a white bedsheet and pillowcase set. I would sew the sheet into a robe and the case into a pointed hood. Then I would tie-dye them in bright rainbow colors. I would stencil "RAINBOW KLAN" and a logo on the front.
Since I was the only openly gay member of the local branch of NAACP, I thought people would get it. Not so.
Merely describing it nearly got me killed by a white lesbian.

Tom

 

[Shadow Wolf]

That one put me in mind of a Halloween costume I planned many years ago.

I was going to get a white bedsheet and pillowcase set. I would sew the sheet into a robe and the case into a pointed hood. Then I would tie-dye them in bright rainbow colors. I would stencil "RAINBOW KLAN" and a logo on the front.
Since I was the only openly gay member of the local branch of NAACP, I thought people would get it. Not so.
Merely describing it nearly got me killed by a white lesbian.

Tom

I think I would laugh hysterically if I saw something like that.

 

[BSM1]

That one put me in mind of a Halloween costume I planned many years ago.

I was going to get a white bedsheet and pillowcase set. I would sew the sheet into a robe and the case into a pointed hood. Then I would tie-dye them in bright rainbow colors. I would stencil "RAINBOW KLAN" and a logo on the front.
Since I was the only openly gay member of the local branch of NAACP, I thought people would get it. Not so.
Merely describing it nearly got me killed by a white lesbian.

Tom

Duhhh!!

 

[Revoltingest]

That one put me in mind of a Halloween costume I planned many years ago.

I was going to get a white bedsheet and pillowcase set. I would sew the sheet into a robe and the case into a pointed hood. Then I would tie-dye them in bright rainbow colors. I would stencil "RAINBOW KLAN" and a logo on the front.
Since I was the only openly gay member of the local branch of NAACP, I thought people would get it. Not so.
Merely describing it nearly got me killed by a white lesbian.

Tom

Lesbians lack the humor gene.
It's a scientific fact!

Note:
This makes Lily Tomlin a scientific wonder.

 

[jojom]

*Buy our stuff.


Since last week, it's been seen everywhere. That ubiquitous rainbow that hails one's support of same sex marriage and the LGBTQ community at large. You'll see it on people's FB profiles, buildings, shop windows (as well as the #GayIsOkay hashtag)...

View attachment 10109​

But I can't help but feel there's a subtext here: Capitalism. It seems that Capitalism has hijacked the LGBTQ community, and the issue of marriage equality. That someone, somewhere, decided that the aforementioned rainbow and hashtag was a good way to get people to buy their stuff.

Now at the individual level some businesses may genuinely support what they claim to. But on the institutional level this is all about getting you to like those businesses so you'll buy their products and services.

All this leaves one with a sense of wondering how much of it is actually genuine. Certainly individuals are sincere, but when one sees these motifs plasters in shop windows, business and entertainment pages on Facebook and other website you have to wonder whether this may be just another marketing scheme. The words 'Gay is Okay' themselves seem to be the work of a marketing department: catchy, rhymes, no more than four syllables. All of the benchmarks that a marketing department would look for in a slogan.

Maybe we ought to think more closely about who actually supports LGBTQ and who just wants you to buy their things.

Why should the GLBT success be immune from capitalism? It seems as natural peaches and cream, and sin and salvation.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Why should the GLBT success be immune from capitalism? It seems as natural peaches and cream, and sin and salvation.

Because capitalism degrades everything to making a buck off of everything.

 

[psychoslice]

Because capitalism degrades everything to making a buck off of everything.

So true, but communism takes away everything from you.........both have their own problems.