Alfred Romero
10/25/2022
Professor Frank
Introduction to Literary Theory & Criticism
Applications #4
This applications assignment is based on the excerpt “Commodity Lesbianism” by author Danae Clark. This excerpt can be found on pages 484-89 and 496-98 within the book titled Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays on Popular Culture, which was edited by authors Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty. In her essay, Clark identifies the main problem regarding the relationship between lesbians and consumer culture. From this relationship, a question forms revolving around the role lesbians play within consumer culture. Clark points out that lesbians enjoy “a certain pleasure as consumers that was not available to them in the past” (Clark 485). From “an analysis of these pleasures,” (Clark 485) the role that lesbians play within consumer culture could be identified, as well as “the identificatory processes involved in lesbian reading formations” (Clark 485).
In approaching this topic, Clark starts off by first mentioning that, historically, lesbians are a social group of people that aren’t “attractive to advertisers” (Clark 485). As they originally didn’t meet the criteria for what made an advertisable social group, this trend recently “has undergone a visible shift” (Clark 485). This shift takes place through a particular form of discretion, where advertisements would “speak to the homosexual consumer in a way that the straight consumer will not notice” (Clark 486). From this shift paved the way for lesbians to start rebelling against social norms regarding fashion sense. And of course, when a social movement occurs, advertisers would then follow by adapting to the movement, just as Clark mentions (Clark 489). Clark then uses a specific example from the issue Elle, where “a fashion layout entitled ‘Male Order’ shows” a model depicting characteristics of a stereotypical lesbian (Clark 489). The emergence of advertisements containing this content exposes the idea that lesbianism can be “treated as merely a sexual style that can be chosen,” (Clark 494) leading to the concept of choice. As lesbians “have developed strategies of selection, (re)appropriation, resistance, and subversion in order to realign consumer culture,” (Clark 497) feminist would avoid the issue of lesbian consumerism as they would pose a challenge towards the heterosexual economy. Viewing advertisements through this lens provides greater context around the politics and social movement behind what’s being promoted. Readers would be able to gain a better understanding of the relationship between a social group and consumer culture. By perceiving advertisements through this lens, a social group’s relations, not only with consumer culture, but with other social groups can be analyzed through how consumer culture could apply to both of them within specific advertisements.
Throughout reading the article, I found that Clark’s explanation of the dual marketing strategy of “gay window advertising” was made very clear (Clark 486). This along with the relationship lesbians have with this strategy was explained well by Clark. But if I’m being honest, I still don’t understand the full picture of this article. Is the fact that lesbians pose a challenge to the heterosexual economy Clark’s main point here? Is that the role that lesbians play in their relationship with consumer culture? And on terms of gay window advertising, I understand that the perception of an advertisement being thought of as “too deep” would further support this notion that the heterosexual community is purposefully shutting down any public representation of the homosexual community, but wouldn’t that also be the case of just overanalyzing something that doesn’t necessarily need that level of analyzation? Like, this isn’t in reference to the article, but take the online advertisements from class for example. Yes, the car one could be more understandable from the content of their license plates, but what about the two men driving around? They could possibly be gay, but they could also just as well be two friends who live together simply looking for a couch. By saying that they’re just two straight friends, this wouldn’t necessarily have to be brushing off the possibility that they’re gay through a homophobic tone. But it can be seen that way, so the answer to the question is left at a stalemate, which really just leaves the reader with an idea, but not exactly an answer. Regardless, I’d want to see this analysis taken towards maybe movies and TV shows to see if any particular ones have references to this idea of dual marketing strategy. This would further visualize the concept, although it may not provide an answer just as the advertisements didn’t.
Works Cited:
Danae Clark, 1995. “Commodity Lesbianism”, Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays
on Popular Culture, Corey K. Creekmur, Alexander Doty
