CEU eTD Collection In partial fulfillment for the degree of Masters of Arts in Gender Studies ‘Gaydar’ and thePoliticsofQueerIntelligibility ‘Gaydar’ and Second Supervisor: Eszter Timar Central European University Gender Studies Department Studies Gender Supervisor: Erzsebet Barat Erzsebet Supervisor: Visibly Marked: Budapest, Hungary Budapest, Katherine Mottola 2009 By CEU eTD Collection intelligibility to be intricately linked to processes of processes of belinked to commodification. intricately to intelligibility codes of normalcy, while simultaneously revealing the complex politics of queer and identity, of notions significations, intelligible culturally deconstructs visibility of issues identity by paralleling and exploitinglabor of the unacknowledged ‘others’. My analysis of individuals as and well groups as functions toconceal inseparability the determinants of of foregrounding of a homo-normative gay renderssubject invisible queer non-dominant inextricable from the operations of capitalism, consumption, and commodity culture. The thesis attempts to explain the contemporary usages of ‘gaydar’ and expose its practices as subsequently problematizing the appropriation of ‘gay for styles’ mainstream audiences, this Abstract By tracing the historical and social formation of a dominant queer subjectivity and ii CEU eTD Collection This project isThis project dedicated CEUgenderto the kids of 2009... for understandingandencouragingmy excitement. supervisorforZsazsa helping Barat, me guide through this difficult and process, Ezster Timar I wouldlike toextendmy to my Gendersincere gratitude the Department; especially Studies Acknowledgments iii CEU eTD Collection Chapter 6: Lesbian 43 Subjectivities ...... and Consumer Culture Chapter 33 5: Consumption and ...... Exploitation Chapter 4: ‘Gaydar’ 28 and Commodification...... Chapter 3: (Queer) Lifestyles 21 and Identities...... Chapter 2: Commodity Capitalism and its 10 Relationship toQueer ...... Intelligibility Chapter 1: Contemporary Understandings and 4 Employment of ‘Gaydar’...... 1 ...... Introduction Acknowledgments...... iii ii ...... Abstract 6.3 ‘Lesbian 47 Chic’ vs. ‘Butch Dyke’...... 46 6.2 Visible vs. Imaginary...... 43 6.1 Marketing ...... the ‘Lesbian’ Commodity 5.3 37 Queer Visibility ...... in Mainstream Culture 5.2 ‘Gaydar’ and Privileging 36 the ‘Seeable’...... 5.1 33 Invisibility and Exclusions...... 4.3 A Contemporary 31 Example of ‘Gay Window ...... Advertising’ 4.2 Dual Marketing and the (Un)Conscious 29 Appropriations ...... of Gay Styles 28 4.1 Chasing Gay Dollars...... 25 3.2 (Life)Style Appropriations ...... 21 3.1 Exchanging Consumer Goods...... 2.2 Critiques of the ‘Theory 16 of Gay History’...... 2.1 Historical 10 Progression: A ...... ‘Theory of Gay History’ 1.3 Deconstructing 8 Scholarly Research...... 5 1.2 ...... Scholarly Research 4 1.1 Usages ...... and Assumptions .. aesadAkoldmns...... 42 5.3.2 Labels and ...... Acknowledgments 5.3.1 A Contemporary Example of 39 Gay (Life)Style Appropriation...... 24 ...... 3.1.2 ‘The Gaze’ 3.1.1 22 ‘Gaydar’ and its Larger ...... Implications iv CEU eTD Collection ilorpy...... 64 ...... Bibliography 62 Conclusion...... Chapter 7: ‘Passing’ and the 56 Politics of Visibility...... Psig...... 58 7.2 ‘Passing’...... 56 7.1 Consumer ...... vs. Social Subjects 6.6 ‘Lesbian 54 Chic’ vs. Queer Androgyny...... 52 6.5 Androgyny...... 6.4 Marketing 50 Consumable ...... Lesbians and Gay Men v CEU eTD Collection in mainstream culture similar to that of ‘gaydar’ depicting the natural ‘read’ identity in of natural that mainstream ‘gaydar’depicting the ability similar to culture to ‘gaydar’ politicsand the of intelligibility. queer D’Emilio’s text as a lens through which to analyze my arguments involving the uses of “the family” as well as “heterosexual relations” were radically transformed. Iwill use severalillustrates ways in whichboth ideological the materialand andstructure meaning of as well as a gay subculture to be forged. By tracing the development of free market labor, he for a possible made thenecessary of conditions capital expansion eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West. Specifically, the rise of waged labor and the gay argues that history asaproductemerged of evolutionthe industrial incapitalism of the bringing about a modern ‘gay identity’. John D’Emilio, in “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” important tounderstand how the historical development of capitalism wasinstrumental in culturally intelligible notions significations, of identity, and codesof normalcy. reveal howaparticular gay tobea comes subjectivity ‘recognizable’ person through intelligibility. It is crucial to problematize common understandings of ‘gaydar’ so as to queer of modes non-normative and non-dominant of expense the at functions formation operationsthe of capitalism in United States commodity culture andidentify how such a articulate historicalthe andsocial formation a dominantqueer subjectivityof engendered by foundational assumptions. By engaging with the contemporary notion of ‘gaydar’ I will analyzed,in to, attended explore questioned and order to its andproblematic disclose normalizing effects of its employment and implications for and within queer cultures must be functioning within a Western, First World context; despite its colloquial usage, the Introduction ‘Gaydar’ is considered to be a non-academic, mainstream slang term understood and There seems to be no dominant practice explicitly named and in dominant circulation in dominant and named explicitly practice dominant be no to seems There In order to address the links between consumer culture and queer visibility,it is 1 visible homosexual identity CEU eTD Collection 1 historically contingent meanings and interpretations. Both terms should also come with the exclusively), aboutstylistic presumptions qualities andfashion indicators, aswell as (men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women, although not and ‘lesbian’areused here with knowledgethe that they incorporate sexual implications in the field of social science and psychology. bodieson contemporary by andimages,researchstudies and conducted scholarly academics representations of complex strategies,advertising popular gay lesbianand modeledsignifiers situated discourse analysis. To substantiate my claims, Iwill be analyzing media in are located for this project My arguments and research easily separated. or paralleled and the politics of visibility in racial, class, and sexual identities cannot be uncritically foreground a similar term as such. However, it will be shown in later chapters that ‘gaydar’ remain incirculation dominant in popular culture, while otheridentity categories donot unknown and beyond the scope of this thesis, ‘gaydar’andits normative markersof sexuality depending on the specificity of the context), “blackness,” or “femaleness,” for reasons ‘gayness’ (which will be shown beto both “notionally andintelligiblydiscreet” ‘obvious’, Black, old, a wheelchair user, or fat.” urbanized society much more intelligibly than one could typically come out as, say female, his membership in the group,” and one could “come out as a Jew, in a heterogeneous, that, “the Jew has at least notionally some discretion over other people’s knowledge of her or the ‘process’ of ‘coming out’ as gay is different from that of “a Jew or Gypsy” in the sense independent from to‘gaydar’,attachments not do surface. Eve Sedgwick for accounts how mainstream linguistic termin dealing with sexuality whereas foropportunities similar terms, formations, for instance one’s religious orethnic identity. ‘Gaydar’ isforegrounded as a Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Epistomology of the Closet.” In The ways in which I engage with ‘gay,’ ‘lesbian,’ and ‘queer’ must be clarified. ‘Gay’ 1993, p. 50. London, and New York Routledge: (eds.) Halperin M. David Barale, Aina Michele Abelove, 1 Despite visual markers signifying individual’san 2 The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader , Henry CEU eTD Collection 3 2 in contexts. experiences certain indiscussed paper,this my analysis intelligibilityqueer of can be applied totransgender the politics of transsexuality and transgender theory are not explicitly problematized or sexualities and remain inseparable from termsthe ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’. Additionally, although and scopeof this paper,‘queer’willbe usedtodiscussanddescribe non-normative itself when any attempt is made to pin down a clear and stable definition. For the purposes meanings of ‘queer’ are constantly shifting, which therefore render the term contradictory to specific awareness given to elements of space and time. It must be understood that the dependrather upon speaker,the whom is being addressed, andin consideration of and with The meanings,implications, uses, and consequences of ‘queer’ are never self-evident, but be used when referring both to gay men lesbians,and unless otherwise qualified in text. the toin areandcongruence ‘Gay’ explained appropriately contexts. attended will specific also shouldbe taken as orassumedbe to parallel toany and analogous unless other points of from other identity categories such as race, class, ethnicity, and nationality; although none sexuality understanding and recognition that function and sexualorientation inseparable as maintained norms of intelligibility” that produce specific gay subjectivities. gay specific produce that intelligibility” of norms maintained operations of consumer capitalism in order to expose the processes of “socially instituted and In my analysis to come, I shall critically engage with the usages of ‘gaydar’ and the mechanisms of usages. the shapes aseachsocial totality culture andcommodity consumption, foundational assumptions of ‘gaydar’ are inextricable from the operations of capitalism, and practices The society. heterosexual peopleas mainstream aswell of queer experiences definitions, functions, and useshave material ideologicaland consequenceson livedthe Hennessey, Rosemary. “Queer Visibility in Commodity Culture.” In Shelp 2003, p. 2 Although is‘gaydar’ as understood slang andoften discussed informally, 147. Politics , Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman (eds.) Cambridge University Press: 1995, p. 3 Social Postmoderism: Beyond Identity Beyond Postmoderism: Social 3 AsRosemary 2 its CEU eTD Collection a lesbian; stipulations of heterosexuality included long versus fingernails,short high-heeled crewcuts) aresupposedly butches.” that styles or among popular (punk haircuts certain look “warn[ing]jacket against butch,” of aswell as the leather and like abutch lesbian.” Such include “dress[ing]tips preppy as to opposed standardjeansthe look man notto must by be carethat taken the transsexual on the obsessively “focus almost 6 series, advertising spaces. For example in the second episode of the first season of the Showtime and movies, television, in media representations, mainstream ‘gaydar’ canbe witnessed itself” visibility “make visiblethepractices of 7 5 4 Halberstam’s, in Judith of visual indicators. “sense” or “feel gayness” in another in addition to being able ‘read’ one’s sexuality based off can usually possess ‘gaydar’ who those “UrbanDictionary,” the to According characteristics. refers to one’s “ability” read recognize to or anindividual’s sexual orientation ‘gay’and/or by understood dominantculture to be acombination of ‘gay’ ‘radar’ and and commonly 1.1 Chapter 1: Contemporary Understandings and Employment of‘Gaydar’ and consumption of queer identities in mainstream culture. and to commodity power andexchange.”production, consumption, knowledge bind that ties the as well as intelligible made is sexuality in which situations local the both acknowledges that visibility understanding of way a need “we asserts, Hennessey Halberstam, Judith. Alcoff, Linda Martin. Hennessey 1995, 177 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gaydar Usages and Assumptions Usages The LWord The meaning and practices of ‘gaydar,’ carry itself term The many is carry The meaningof andpractices implications. ‘gaydar,’ Female Masculinity , the popular lesbian characters discussed “rules” for telling if for telling is a woman “rules” discussed lesbian characters , thepopular 6 Visible Identities: Race, Gender, and the Self An example of visibly signifying one’s sexual orientation can be found be can orientation sexual one’s signifying visibly of Anexample Female Masculinity . Duke University Press: Durham, NC, 1998, p. 156. , where she refers to a description of “tips” that 5 by examining complexities in productionthe 4 . Oxford University Press,2006, p. 194. 7 Similarly, practices of 4 It is my intention to my intention is It CEU eTD Collection ‘gaydar’; that of “generic gaydar,” that is seen as “the general notion of being able to look Orientation Among Gay and Straight Men,” Scott Shelp distinguishes between two types of among gay and lesbian people.” as offer a “theory of gaydar” to explain “the motivation behind the development of the skill accuracy grasp the of in “skill” one’s anindividual’s sexual determining as well orientation 1.2 capitalism. commodity by promoted normalcy visibly clear through assumed modes of white, middle-class, bourgeois significations of figure of The standards‘otherness.’ from measured made which ‘others’ are againstare upa fromnorm sets and a binary deterrence heterosexual immediately ‘Gaydar’posits secret. culturedominant butpurport toreveal ‘truths’ wouldthat stay otherwise hidden bekept or in fact universal and monolithic standards of gay intelligibility notonlythat function in assumption mutual of recognition ‘gayness’ andof its limitations presupposes therethat are the implications and/or social conditions of using ‘identity’ as a concept itself. Finally, the posits sexuality a as necessarily bounded andidentity stable sameness,of attending without to inherently assumes and advocates a binary division of both gender and sexuality. Secondly,it alignment between sexuality and gender makes several problematic assumptions. First, it indicative of sexual identity will be explained at length in the chapters to follow. 9 8 femininity. normative markers andsignifying shoes, other Shelp 2003, 1-2 http://www.sho.com/site/lword/previous_episodes.do?episodeid=119236 Scholarly Research In2003,the The linguistic term describe‘gaydar’ used of phenomenon the to of symmetrical Journal ofHomosexuality 9 In this study, namely “Gaydar: Visual Detection of Sexual published an academic study purporting to 5 8 Visual signifiers assumed to be to assumed signifiers Visual CEU eTD Collection 14 13 12 11 concluded made judgments that participants “accurate from multiple facial features” that into the processes intuitive predictions andunderlying intuitive judgments.” awareness insight basedcues provides judgments of on controllability and perceivers' targets' “differences from and in admitfaces of accuracy facial that, features,” the orientation and to, “examine individuals' actual and self-assessed accuracy judgingwhen male sexual sexual orientation of gay and straight men. The researchers describe their tests as attempting Nalini Ambady Ruleand Nicholas gauge attempted to the ability individualsjudgeof to the importance of social bonds as “fundamental and pervasive.” the stresses as need,”and human belonging a basic “characterizes which hypothesis,” “belongingness the on research psychological referencing by claims his substantiates Shelp definition” including 10 University were publishedin the survival. matter mechanism”ability/coping asa experience of)of theemergence “auniqueperceptual for association, struggle isolation and “gay andbecause experience people” because theneedtoform thatbondsmaintain is“adetermines and social basic need,” human “thegay ofisolation” experience that feel “from purportedly people being and stigmatized,” and tell iswho gay,” Ambady, Nalini; Rule, Nicholas O.; Adams Jr., Reginald B.; Macrae, C. Neil. Shelp“Accuracy 2003, 5-6 and Awareness in Shelp 2003, 5 Shelp 2003, 2 Shelp, Scott G. “Gaydar: Visual Detection of Sexual Orientation Among Gay and Straight Men.” desire to remove feelings of isolation many have experienced growing up gay, and the basic the and human gay, up need for associationgrowing with likeothers. experienced have many ofisolation feelings remove to desire identifying characteristics inother gay people, the development of which is motivated by the a special intuitive or perceptual sensibility (sense-ability) of gay people to detect subtle More More recently in toa 2008,results series of five research studies by conducted Tufts 13 Social Psychology Orientation.” Sexual ofMale Categorization and Perception the Homosexuality 10 versus “adaptive gaydar,” which is viewed as “a more specific , Vol. 44(1), 2003, p. 2. . Volume 95, Issue 5(Nov.),2008, pp. 1019-1028, abstract. Journal ofPersonality andSocial Psychology 11 6 12 Shelplinks this hypothesis to Journal of Personality and 14 they Theresearch whereby develop (or Journal of CEU eTD Collection perpetuated. ‘works’ rather than problematizing rather ‘works’ ‘truth’ arises in reference to ‘gaydar,’ there is a tendency to explore how and why ‘gaydar’ can people? How straight work and is it accurate? Do gay people have a ‘better’ and more skilled perception of it than accuracy of ‘gaydar’ rests on the assumption that ‘gaydar’ actually does exist. If so, does it oppressive mechanisms used in the its deployment. For example, examining the ‘truth’ or and necessary migration, when itis more useful to question normalizingthe and often loneliness, isolation, gay of narrative mythical a in constructing as aswell in ‘gaydar’ “skills” understanding also results in an emphasis on measuring the accuracy and precision of one’s In addition his (homophobic) Shelp’sto the hierarchy creates, that us/them discourse me’ andme’ strategies adaptive the 18 17 16 15 yielded necessity the for “intuitivejudgments.” from eyes andmouth the area)” cues(information “nonobvious However, information.” and“obvious“controllable,” cuesforwere considered extracting social category experience of gay experience of people, existence, and often desirability for the purposes of, as Shelp makes clear, “understanding the their shared assumptions about its circulation and usages that rest on questions of truth, visual orother markers. influenced by hairstyles certain “superimposing male faces awhiteonto background” soas to negate possibilities beingof Rule andAmbady thefaces” “standardized Shelp 2003,14, emphasis mine Bering, Jesse. “There’s Something Queer about that Face.” Ambady and Rule 2008, abstract http://www.tuftsdaily.com/gay-and-straight-ph-d-student-learns-rules-1.744926 The main concerns of research studies on the practices of ‘gaydar’ have to do with I their acquire or improve my own ‘gaydar’? When the question of need for association, they for use to help whom it ‘works’ and 16 of people whose pictures were being tested by werebeing tested pictures whose of people 7 15 them Taking the experiment one step further, step one experiment Taking the Scientific American meet their 17 struggles finding with like ‘others their by whom its mechanisms get mechanisms its whom basic need for association.” . February 23, 2009. , September 12, 2008. 18 CEU eTD Collection exclusions by only offering a certain from possible variation this foreclosed. norm Theiroperates through are abruptly research what they choose to exclude, while at the same time (the threat of) any spaces that may reveal arguments putforth by andShelp, Rule, Ambady implicitly present a desirable norm through intelligibility by commodity culture, which will be elaborated in the following chapter. The ‘natural instinct’ inherent in all gay people rather than to the production of codes of sexuality existence the judgments” about of inborn“intuitive credibility to gives some pointwhich will be explained further in chapter two. Their referencesindividuals’ to a identities, sexual and ingender continuity for need the about anxieties) (and assumptions Rulework. andAmbady’s research both reinforcesis and contingentupon heteronormative what they how they are and into lack acritical analysis of “processes” such acknowledgment their“predictions” orientation; sexual passive about to contribute processes” yet subjects; define they neglect features such to whosearebeing standards measured against. their of faces” by“standardizing cues these to“control” attempt and facial expression considered “obvious cues” of one’s sexual orientation; they refer to hairstyle, jewelry, and (read: white) gay subjectivity. For instance, Rule and Ambady take for granted what are andintertwined ininseparable favor from sexuality, of forth a putting racially unmarked be to for identity categories disallow methodsand conclusions research The culture. imaginary gay monolith of some a producing differences, erasure of class the and racial and canbe perceived visualthrough markers. The research studies simultaneously reinforce manifested indeedpeople’ andthatsuchdifferences are have ‘natural outwardly differences’, 1.3 while nevermaking explicitly isclear who able intoto be incorporated ambiguousthe but Deconstructing Scholarly Research Similarly, although Rule andAmbady offer certain recognition that “underlying of Research reinforceand common ‘gaydar’ serve ideaunderstandings the ‘gay to that kind of gay person as either desirable or undesirable 8 CEU eTD Collection and subsequently lacked “the basic human need for association with like others,” which like needfor association human lacked “the basic with others,” and subsequently history throughout “they”us)have marginalized been gay asherefers to (or “most people” activity.” of absence sexual the formation is historically located), but also how “lesbian and gay identity could be claimed in identity sexual with preference of conflation sexual section where the two two, chapter andpartners the construction of a lesbian or gay identity” (which is further explained in lesbians come to be designated as “a people” by being “bound up with the search for sexual 21 20 Science. Sexuality andSocial of pregiven desires within the self,” as disputed by Kath Weston in 19 inas indicative a taken of“participation gay homosexual activity guarantee was no feeling of part of a larger but group,” rather should be center urban homosexuality is“discovering” followed usually by belief inthe a necessary migration to an ideaof The andcommunity. struggle, marginalization, isolation, of and experience linear history acollective, all people”“gay belief share that popular and concomitantly the narratives. For instance, the myth of an “isolated” gay identity that is in need of discovery homo-normative Western in people” “gay of experiences about circulative myths universal people apart. andstraight tell gay to aspecific with capacity gay areborn that people on assumption the definitive term “gay.”more tothepoint, But and reinforcementthis homogenization hinges Weston1998, 34 Weston 1998, 34, emphasis in text Weston, Kath. “Get Thee to a Big City.” In Weston offers her conception of a “gay imaginary” to reveal not only how gays and Finally, the conclusions of the research studies on ‘gaydar’ also reinforce several 19 in search of, as Shelp argues, “like others.” However, “finding a partner for York and London, 1998, p. 30. 20 21 Shelp’s definition typifies this point when he argues that Long, Slow Burn: Sexuality and Social Science imaginary 9 ” and not “some empirical ‘discovery’ empirical “some not ” and Long, Slow Long, Slow Burn: . Routledge: New Routledge: . CEU eTD Collection 23 22 wife, and children as family unit. He also argues these family units were “self-sufficient, sense of the words, following the Judeo-Christian tradition of man as husband, woman as 2.1 Historical Progression: A ‘Theory of Gay History’ Chapter 2: Commodity Capitalism Relationshipand its toQueer Intelligibility invisiblerendering and the complexities inseparability such identity of categories. racial, class,the by that gounacknowledged andsocial its thus ethnic, differences operations, andunderscore mechanismsattest to ‘gaydar’ of problematic serveto the also ‘Gay History’) gay histories (which consequently advance reductive and generalizing aboutgay conclusions people. The perpetuation mythsof about works therefore to support his claims identity of queer discovery precisely the through lesbians [have always been] the victims” of oppression, policies, and cultural beliefs into“an image of the abysmal past” where all “gay men and This illustrates complicitythe gaysof andlesbians in those projecting oppressive laws, men and taken as “the essential characteristics of gay life in the past as well as the present.” they felt,”myths of “silence,invisibility, and isolation” were by constructed lesbians and gay in isolation, unaware of andothers, without resourcesfor naming andunderstanding what because, “most lesbians and gaymen in 1960’sfirstthe discovered theirhomosexual desires differentiating and effects disproportionate onindividual John groups. D’Emilioexplains that eachhas andhow beliefs in andcultural policies, laws, of oppression actual experiences sexual activity (and apparently, according to Shelp, any other form of intimacy as well). D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.” In D’Emilio 1993, 468 D’Emilio’s use of “family” and “family life” refers to the formation of the normative Likewise, the idea of a shared history of seclusion promoted by Shelp mystifies the 468. Michele Aina Barale, David M.Halperin (eds.) Routledge: New York and London, 1993, p. a The Lesbian andGay Studies Reader bounded and equalizingdominantnarrative of 10 23 as well as contributes to Shelp’s , Henry Abelove, , Henry lack of 22 CEU eTD Collection 27 26 25 24 relationships from and disconnected “publicthe worldof andwork production.” family anindependentas unitof production to the family theprimaryas for affectiveunit in from life.” life,ashe of familial wasashift There gay a collective appearance argues,the “heterosexual relations.” in of foruse his granted uncritical takes D’Emilio that acts sexual of thought normatively of naturalization the de-colonize to precisely inEngland, century eighteenth late the during intercourse,” genital “cross-sex terms he that kindexpression” of increasesexual a “particular the of regarding an offers argument Henry Abelove By contrast, acts. heterosexual andcodified familiar normatively outside of not does allowheterosexual intercourse of“sexual perceptions for toexistintercourse” 25 reproduction.” natal in results that sex of technology “that means he relations,” “heterosexual andpatriarchal,”independent, significance, in oppositionstructural “production as to male)(coded and social reproduction While the family was thus “stripped of one kind of economic justification,” it gained others. projected as the ideological space of intimacy, sexual pleasure, and emotional private life. possibleimagine to “sex” its devoid of previous sole purpose of procreation. The family was continued laborandsurvival. However, ascapitalism it production,socialized became With the heterosexual family as the unit of production, procreation was necessary for came about through the socialization of the production of consumer goods by capitalism. D’Emilio 1993, 469 Abelove, Henry.“Some Speculations on theHistory of ‘Sexual Intercourse’ during the ‘Long Eighteenth Pellegrini, Ann. “Consuming Lifestyle: Commodity Capitalism and Transformations in Gay Identity.” In D’Emilio 1993, 469 Unfortunately,it must be taken intoconsideration that D’Emilio’s definition of However, D’Emilio argues that “changes D’EmilioHowever, argues that in family the most linked directly to are the For instance, it was now firmly established within the private sphere of emotive and London:and Routledge, 1992, p. 337. Century’ in England. In Andrew Parker, et.al., eds., the Afterlife of Colonialism. Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé Martinand F. Manalansan IV, 24 before the development of industrial capitalism. By New York : New York University Press, 2002, pp. 135-136. 11 Nationalisms and Sexualities Queer globalizations :Citizenshipand 27 This shift . New York 26 CEU eTD Collection conceivable that any man or woman might engage in the unnatural act of sodomy, as part of a in same-sex sexual behavior. Ragan points out that, “Before the eighteenth century,it was engaged who in those fundamental differences idea were there the that signaled morality and of discourses facilitated preference same-sex sexual theshiftto However, masculinity. and femininity of notions traditional challenge they did nor individual in an inherent identity). as (homosexuality preference France by focusing on conceptualthe from shift sexual behavior (sodomy as sin), sexualto in sexuality same-sex and sodomy of tracing historical in his point this elaborates Ragan 33 identities possible. Such assumptions also “make possible the construction and public display of assuming anindividual’s “natural and obvious” sexual orientation as heterosexual became outsidemotives.located of reproductive ‘heterosexual’ was used as a labeling term not only identityof but also of perversion,if it was when century mid-nineteenth in the shift historical important this locate Kulick Don another. toone opposition homosexuality of invention the for allowed also heterosexual couple” and the focus of the family primarily as the site of consumption, but 32 31 30 29 28 family,” nuclear of heterosexual the “boundaries asfemale).” (coded women hadwomen a“social space” tobe gay. Cameron and Kulick 2003, 21,emphasis mine Cameron, Deborah; Kulick Don. Kulick Deborah; Cameron, D’Emilio 1993, 470 D’Emilio 1993, 474 Pellegrini 2002, 137 Pellegrini 2002, 136 Until the eighteenth century, constructions of homosexuality were not considered not were homosexuality of constructions century, eighteenth the Until that arebased on sexual orientation, suchas‘gay man’ andlesbian’.” 28 This not only created the emergence of middle-class idealized of “a newly emergence Thisthe only not created 29 Now it was no longer anecessity to stay confined to the Language and Sexuality 31 32 In It was not until the rise of psychoanalysis that Language andSexuality 12 and 30 . Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003, p.21. because according to D’Emilio, men and heterosexuality existheterosexuality in to binary , Deborah Cameron and Cameron , Deborah 33 Bryant social CEU eTD Collection 37 36 35 restricted realm of family; “a personal life based on attraction to one’s own sex,” comes to be to one’s lifebasedto sex,” comes own family;“a realm attraction on personal of restricted waged labor provided the basis for individuals to“make aliving” outside the previously and permitted, latter separated the once procreation pleasureargument, and sexual were office, playing watching TV,or with children.”the inthe homosexual a remains but sex, having while a homosexual just not was homosexual “a that, out point who Kulick, by and asargued Cameron culture contemporary extended to and socially (the person is constructed as a gay man or lesbian to society). This concept has toindividualattachments both manifested identities genetically personis (the “born” gay) meet the eyes of other men who were standing alone.” men in their networks would recognize,” as well as “visual connection” where men “tried to codes of visibility articulated operated through subculture be“to gay;” as Ragan’s locatesargument practicing sodomites during the 1700’s whose which asserts that it was capitalism which allowed for the “social space” for men and women posited as the ‘norm’ (albeit “perverse”). This argument is in conflict with D’Emilio’s logic, eighteenththe century, which, after in beginningsthe of industrial capitalism, lattergot the kindwrong of) gay men represent. gender and sex in heteronormative culture as well as to the stigma of effeminacy that (the attests conflation of manly,to the men both asless are stigmatized which who desire other men forged; gets masculinity which through way the be) to continues (and was preference “remain that unclear.” reasons 34 more generalized ‘bisexual’ behavior.” Ragan 1996, 12-13 Cameron andKulick 2003, 20 Ragan 1996, 12 Ragan, Bryant T. Jr. “The Enlightenment Confronts Homosexuality.” In Jeffrey Marrick and Bryant T. Ragan So, both homosexual and heterosexual non-procreative behaviors were tolerated until tolerated were behaviors non-procreative heterosexual and homosexual both So, (eds.), Homosexuality in Modern France 35 What was once relegated as only behavior, now finds 34 However, “this sexual model began to change” for 13 (Oxford UP: New York andOxford), 1996, p. 12. 36 In addition to personal identity, sexual 37 However, following D’Emilio’s following However, in “words and signs that only other only that signs and in “words CEU eTD Collection 42 41 “towns and small cities,” the War provided opportunities for individualsexplore to their relations, where women and men were thrown into sex-segregated situations away from “rudimentary, unstable, and difficult tofind.” flourish into “a complex and well-developed gay community” thathad previously been World War War.The made where same-sex desires possible spaces could and relationships gay collective. about an individual’s notion of sexual identity, and subsequently the emergence of a larger 40 lesbians.” preference made them different, led to the formation of an urban subculture of gay men and their erotic emotional preference for the same sex, along with the new consciousness that this economics.” invention of the bourgeois class and “was the result of a complex interplay of culture and the mid-twentieth century for political movements. This “species,” argues Foucault, was an isolationof and homosexuality’, ‘eternal as inreferred to firstthe chapter, gotperpetuated in addition to being a type of life..” was now a species,” and had become “a personage, apast, a case history, and a childhood, in 39 38 middle-class. the by sexuality of deployment the control ideological response to a new way of organizing one’s personal life,” and an attempt to pathologizing discourses surrounding homosexuality (as inherentin nature) becameone’s “an a structural possibility, it is seen as a “trait” divergent from “the majority.” D’Emilio 1993, 472 D’Emilio 1993, 471 As quoted in Gluckman, Amy; Reed, Betsy. Foucault, Michel. D’Emilio 1993, 469 The rise of this subculture was alsomutually reinforced and enabled by the Second Michel Foucault’s, Michel 41 The shift from away independentthe family unit wasinstrumental in bringing 40 As D’Emilio explains, “the decisions of particular men and women to act on Life p. 123. The History of Sexuality, Volume One, An Introduction . Routledge:. New York London,and 1997, History of Sexuality: History of Volume One 39 This is helpful in understanding how mythical narratives mythical how inunderstanding is helpful This Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, andLesbian and Gay 42 14 By disrupting traditional of patterns gender p. xxi. , explains that “the homosexual . New York: Random House, 1978, 38 And thus, the thus, And CEU eTD Collection 45 44 43 sexuality as well as places for gay people to “find others like themselves.” Pellegrini calls, “the profitable ignorance of heterosexuality,” whose blindness“the heterosexuality,”Pellegrini dual tothe profitablecalls, whose of ignorance to buy while product), the on the companiesother, continue benefit to from Ann what “readbetween lines”in the toreceivemessageorder spend its tempting (and money therefore adverts put forth an image that relies on and calls attention to queer consumers’ ability to supports mystifyingthe strategies of certain marketing on advertisements: one hand the for the disenfranchisement of gay men and women. The logic of this contradiction also allowed for amodern gay identity to take root, while simultaneously reproducing conditions the social instability of the system.” for have feminists scapegoats the gay become men, andheterosexual while“lesbians, life” affection. and security production which consequently relegated the family as the privatized source of emotional family as an inherent necessity, capitalism commodified goods and services and socialized expect happiness and emotional security.” kept families together so that members face a growing instability in the place they come to thebonds once that weakens capitalism “materially, while families,” heterosexual into people larger urban,gay communities. D’Emiliorecognizes that“ideologically, drives capitalism family values,made possible the emergence of a gay identity and the parallel creation of capitalist economy, whilesimultaneously reinforcing heterosexist andhomophobic traditional capitalism, regarding the formation of the heterosexual family unit. The processes of the century. twentieth the of movement gay modern the of backbone Worldfomenta gay Warhelped to providelater would that subculture historical the D’Emilio 1993, 473 D’Emilio 1993, 473 D’Emilio 1993, 472 As D’Emilio argues, “capitalism knocked the material foundation away from family away from material foundation the knocked “capitalism As D’Emilioargues, in inconsistency the out points argumentation D’Emilio’s importantly, Most 45 Soparadoxically, the development of capitalism 44 In taking away the economic functions of the 15 43 TheSecord CEU eTD Collection bourgeois) gay community contrary to the “difficultfind” to (read: survival. Additionally,in Worlddescribing War IIas productive of a “well-developed” (read: self-sufficientunits rather than a mutual reliance of cooperation and exchangefor purposesof other from isolation implies relies argument his which on unit family productive the Also, political discourse, as made evident by his neglect of ‘other’ family units (non-bourgeoisie). its and of bourgeoisie formation butthe anideological rather concept a stablehistorical migration. and necessary disconnection also disallows space for family units to be sites of connection and solidarity rather than individuals, he the but not experiencestherefore disadvantaged of only neglects economically individuals” are confined to only those who can afford to “make a living” as such, and construct a personal life based on attraction to one’s own sex.” wage labor” could consequently “remain outside ofheterosexual family relations and individuals whorecognized their same sex interest” and“were able tomake aliving through as the dominant template for visible and recognizable homosexuality. He explains that “those man gay urban white middle-class, the of animage forth puts implicitly describes D’Emilio the elaboration of lesbian identities as distinct from gay men. The “gay and lesbian identity” mask the experiences many of gays andlesbians and alsoneglect theprocesses intrinsic to as a result of the operations of capitalism. However, it has significant oversights that serve to 2.2 Critiques of the ‘Theory of Gay History’ 47 46 and straight consumer. marketing strategy allows for a“hermeneutics of plausible deniability” for both companythe D’Emilio 1993, 470 Pellegrini 2002, 138 Furthermore, it should be noted that D’Emilio’s idea of a self-sufficient family is not D’Emilio’s theory can be useful for the explanation of the emergence of a gay identity 46 This is a point towhich I will return in the next chapter. 16 47 However, “those not white) community of CEU eTD Collection 51 50 ‘gaydar.’ of processes normalizing by the reinforced culture queer dominant of a recognizable foregrounding the to due (gay) communitiesdifferent in as well as circulation inthe are that signifiers visible and patterns non-dominant how reveal and argue to intend discount to Imean do nor theidentities, experiences such of about gay subjectivitiesopinions offer or that for do not fit speak to into the mean dominant, not I do homo-normativemarkers; mold. bourgeois On the contrary, I 49 48 negotiable infavor of migrating toand pursuing alarger urban gay “family” collective. white family units; serving to solidify the myth of (biological) family sacrifice as non- option to pursue,” adifficult “made gayness consequently which andan family ethic of networks solidarity” simultaneously blacksthat argues and “working-class immigrants” have closely “kin tied visible ‘gay identity’ and collectivity as primarily occupied by whitethe middle-class. He “vast majority of blacks” and many women as well, D’Emilio understands the formation of a men and women in the world of capitalist consumption. through non-acknowledgmentthe of their presence in an “visible”otherwise landscape of gay middle-class,and(i.e. male)queerculture, white atworst torendersuch“queers” invisible working-class queers” experiences or the “racialized of queer collective. dominant foregrounded recognizable unequal through the as such visibility of cultural and the capital a distribution of the 1930’s, D’Emilio’s argument again offers a specific gay community that becomes settingfor a‘personal was life,’” from disconnected that labor production. class other kinds of domestic production.” However, he goes on to point out that “the well as many “women continued togrowand process food, make clothing, and engagein economy,”as lived in of freelabor century outside the blacks early majority of the twentieth D’Emilio 1993, 471 D’Emilio 1993, 469, emphasis mine Here I intend to point out the lack of acknowledgment and space for gay identities Pellegrini 2002, 139 that lay outside of visible formed satisfying,mutually enhancing and relationships,” the family “became the By using a heteronormative understanding of family life, atbest he seems to reduce 51 and thus negates possibilities for “gayness” tofind sanctuary non-within non -desirability for identification with the dominant gay subject get neglected 17 48 49 against the backdrop of a dominant a of backdrop the against D’Emilio mentions that the “vast the that mentions D’Emilio 50 By omitting the white middle CEU eTD Collection thrive outside of economic relations, within family units. By asserting that wage labor helped they also discount possibilities for both white and non-white gay and lesbian lifestyles to 55 54 53 52 cases].” and that “sexism in the labor market hurts just lesbians [in comparison to gay men, in most segregation and discrimination,” shouldbe out pointed while that “openly men gay andlesbians still face occupational visibility of white gay men also reflected their larger numbers.” and reinforces the assumption that visibility causally correlates with size; so that “the greater economic independence, that paved that economic the wayfor independence, modern lesbian life.” sexual division of labor in the twentieth century, and the resulting increase in women’s and LesbianGayLife opportunities where knowledge the of ‘others’ could begained. exposing the denial of space (and thus visibility) to“minorities,” thus foreclosing to the visibility of some in privileged spaces (i.e. large numbers of white gay men) while arguing that, “the (in)visibility of class divisions continues to be spatially regulated,” attesting to be gained from the “margins.” Rosemary Hennessey more clearly emphasizes this point in justifies a disregard of “minorities” and ideologically ininvests precluding any insightcritical inherently correlation D’Emilio’s size, imply should relevance by assuming Additionally, possibility of “large numbers” of gay men who are non-white as well as all lesbians. capitalism that contributes to their uneven distribution, but also inherently discounts for the an lacks of experiences industrialof andraceduringgender differentiated explanation the Gluckman andReed 1997,xxii, brackets mine Pellegrini 2002, 137 Gluckman and Reed 1997,xxii D’Emilio 1993, 471 He asserts further that “gay “gay lesbians” further beenmoremen visible than that He asserts have traditionally As recognized by Gluckman and Reedin 55 Although Gluckman and Reed highlight some of what D’Emilio’s argument lacks, , “it was not the rise of wage labor per se but the breakdown of the 54 maythis “hitlesbians and gaymen colorof more heavily,” 18 Homo Economics:Homo Capitalism,Community, 52 Thisoversightnot only 53 Furthermore, it CEU eTD Collection be written for ahomo-normative gay subject. For instance, as Warner makes clear, institutionalized material and cultural conditions thatallowed for D’Emilio’s gay history to of evil intent, personal discrimination, or willed exclusion.” result the simply not is all, after organizing, ingay men middle-class white, of predominance measurable norm. To illustrate this point further, Michael Warner argues that “the marginalized despair, D’Emilio also reinforces a specific type of gay subject as the In offering an alternate history of homosexuality that eschews myths of isolation and of processes capitalism. of the account by renderedvisible D’Emilio’s gets that subjectivity which is still maintained and flourishing in present-day consumer culture. subculture grewand that stabilized through industrial capitalism, akind and of gay identity kinship, D’Emilio’s logic foregrounds growththe of and life” family “heterosexual of abandonment the namely move, that of corollary the mainly by highlighted individual(specific) growth in capital, collective migration, urban and mutual processes of industrial and commodity capitalism. straight and gay audiences,” as asserted by Rosemary Hennessey, engendered through the both for subjectivity gay class-specific imaginary, an “consolidate[es] lesbians and men and dependent upon upon emergencethe and of a dependent family, andwhosefamily, values family recognition of such assumptions serves as remindera constantalways to question 59 58 57 56 families (heterosexual,bourgeois) over ‘others’ (non-white, orhomosexual). hetero- privilegeof somekinds authors family life,”the from an heterosexual to create “escape route Warner1993, xvi Hennessey 1995, 143 Pellegrini 2002, 137 Pellegrini 2002, 139 The assumptions in‘gaydar’ are predicated on such a middle-class, white gay D’Emilio’s language carries inherent exclusions that he fails to elaborate ascentral he fails elaborate to that exclusions to inherent language carries D’Emilio’s are being undermined by the paradox of capitalism. recognizable 19 a particular kindof gayidentity. The description of gay 58 By fashioning a gay history 59 Rather, there are there Rather, gay identity and whose 57 56 The CEU eTD Collection set as the expansion of set astheexpansion money capital; thepurpose usedfor of moreof and resources acquiring goal its ultimate always measurewith theindividual for of andautonomy” some exploitation “passing” hasits own politics which bewill problematized in six,chapter section two). queers, queerpeopleand of any color, individual “passing” as(although straight actof the Also,in using ‘non-normative’ modes of queer subjectivities, Iam referringworking-class to and culturewhichfunction upholdto material heteronormativeand ideological institutions. tomean individualsunderstandcapitalism. practices ‘homo-normative’ the HereI of queer ‘other’ non-normativeindividuals queer and communities veiledremain by operationsthe of foregrounded as foregrounded operations of commodification and consumerism. by the fortified is continuously and in ‘gaydar,’ assumptions the for model the as serves contributing to the come to dominate and define a specific gay lifestyle. Such a lifestyle is instrumental in have that institutions cultural “market-mediated” amongearner of move capital the thus and beman to white primary the theof emergence for a middle-class allowing spectrums, social many across of discrimination of experiences practices history, different andthe throughout disempowerment of women, the unequal alignment of race, class, gender, and sexuality the his family,for granted of notion gay takes formation of heteronormative the capitalist conception of the falls dominant inlinewith the in far argue critique that so asD’Emilio’s newspapers, magazines, phone lines, resorts, urban commercial districts.” I would like to gay cultural foundation has been “market-mediated,” “bars,through discos, special services, “institutions of queer culture have been dominated by those with capital,” as the lesbian and According to D’Emilio, capitalism maintains a “constant interplay between interplay a“constant maintains capitalism D’Emilio, to According D’Emilio articulates the ways in which a homo-normative gay subject has been gay ahomo-normative subject in ways the which articulates D’Emilio the visible figure of a visible dominant queer culture, which helps to explain how representation of dominant queer intelligibility, which in turn which intelligibility, queer dominant of representation 20 CEU eTD Collection appropriation dominated by commodification,” specifically, the commodification and commodification the specifically, by commodification,” dominated appropriation of ‘production’ and ‘consumption’ are “tobe understood in to acyclerelation of my usage that mustbe noted It understandings. materialistic toonly be restricted not should functionprocesses that promote dominantto queer intelligibility consist of layersseveral and assumptions in ‘gaydar’, thus exposing its underlying mechanisms and cultural Theanxieties. visible processesthe through of commodification tosupportchallengeand work or the structures.” all pervade of commodification material “the rather, butprocesses to theeconomic realm 63 62 61 60 3.1 Exchanging Consumer Goods capital;” been articulated through racializing and patriarchal logics and not simply the logic of “quest for capital.” its of itsever-increasing shallowmainstream pretense crumbles against audiences;” approval a growing ofhomosexuality for of than of appropriation acceptance gay “styles” capitalism’s of are“less indicative such marketing tactics by Clark, asobserved Danae policies. However, by heterosexuality promoting of non- an image “acceptance” forand andproject of equality to falsely advocate resources. and money Chapter 3: (Queer) Lifestyles andIdentities Lifestyles 3:(Queer) Chapter toinlater sections.will be attended Pellegrini 2002, 136 Hennessey 1995, 143 Clark 1993, 195 D’Emilio 1993, 468 I will now turn to illustrating to turn now will I 63 the links in race, gender,and sexuality manifestedas they ‘gaydar’are through 62 Likewise, the variability in the meanings of “family and sexual identity have 61 It is also important to note that the effects of capitalism are not restricted 60 This cycle of exploitative wealth is refashioned in consumer culture in consumer is refashioned wealth exploitative of cycle This particular how “gay styles” and progressive economic and business a dominant ‘gay’ style and subjectivity are made 21 CEU eTD Collection 65 64 appropriation of ‘gay’ in culture.particular styles dominant those goods” andthose Iwould such add,how aspects interact with consumers. isconsumer goods by increasingly structured perceivedthe characterized byits increasing stylization,” “the and production, anduse exchange of culture. consumer for mainstream strategy practices of visibility itself,” as well as trace the connection of gay visibility as a marketing how a subject becomes intelligible as gay, or as Linda Alcoff states, how to “make visible the which represents gay visibility ‘in general’ functionsand tomake queers intelligible in those into that get goods translated those in and context, a certain a specific moment ‘gay style’ at are fashion (literally) andexpressive symbolic aspects a of that goods the ‘gaydar’. Whatever community is based on practices of visibility that are exemplified in the assumptions of commodified goods. expressive visibly of symbolic ingets constructed through or aspects gay subjectivity the that in is than lessgay culture subject interested the consumer similarly, in multiplies production; in in interested product than Capitalism the and isless it money of the circulates gay subjects. money makeused to money, morejust asgoods make that upgay styles signify existence the logic of self-evident visibility attests to capitalism’s effect on the consumption of such styles: of nature this Thecircuitous a“gay style.” of availability and consumption widespreadof the therefore also part of a larger (imagined) community that is shown to exist precisely because expressive aspects of makegoods that upagay style signify individualan be “gay”to and Lury 1996, 80, emphasis mine Lury, Celia. In The idea of visibly recognizing an individual gayas as well alargeras gay 3.1.1 ‘Gaydar’ and its Larger Implications Consumer Culture Consumer Culture . Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1996, p. 93. , Celia Lury notes that, “the emergence of consumer culture is 22 64 expressive orsymbolicexpressive aspects This section will problematize will section This 65 Symbolic and Symbolic of CEU eTD Collection to do so. do to not wish to engage in orsupport specific identity-based discourses unless I expressly make clear my intentionsmy argument and this thesis, I will refer to men and women “being” gay out of necessity to make a point, but do 67 66 white men.” on dominantgay which culture, makesWarnerisas clear, made up of mostly “middle-class operations of capitalism. Soa specific kind of style gets commodified and that style is based the from inextricable is creation whose culture homo-normative and byhetero- forth certain in gay mainstream subjects movements. A queer particular kind of gay style is put necessary address to Michael Warner’s earlierexplaining point the visible predominance of of ‘gaydar’ cultural reflects anxieties, contemporary andtrends, historical circumstances. commodification and the operations of consumer capitalism. Thus, the existence and success isorientation dependentupon politicsthe of queer intelligibility, whichis in shapedturn by in contexts. formations specific normative culture, and how such productions are a result of particular historical and social ‘abilities’ in reading‘gaydar’ and are produced by constructed dominanthetero- and homo- so-called in one’s involved markers the how expose to fail and overlook both one, chapter and its function in contemporary culture. Literature and scholarly research, as presented in ‘gaydar’ of practices of the to arbitrariness attests This in certain spaces. times and at certain terms as normative; inwhich isturn indicative of instances when and why ‘gaydar’ “works” expanded on in on expanded four. chapter ‘gaydar’ necessarily fail. invisible or “pass” as straight, and consequently signify a moment where the perceptions of commodification, are not always recognized as gay. Rather, those individuals get rendered by culture andput forth dominantprocesses the through consumer capitalism of Here Ido not mean toassert that an identity can be fully disclosedfully nor adopted, rather for the purposes of Warner1993, xvii In understanding what consists of a recognizable ‘gay style’ and what does not, it is 66 Therefore, those who are gay who are those Therefore, Contemporary examples of “readably gay” styles and images will The success of being able to read a person’s sexual 67 (at certain times) but fail conformto to the style 23 CEU eTD Collection by largerfield.one’s socio-cultural be explained below, what is thought to be one’s ‘intuitive’ choice is always already affected depending upon the specificity of both the context and the audience. Furthermore, as it will For instance, the androgynous dyke can be read as a gay man, straightman, or gay woman; a or person's sexual identity genderand/or can be misinterpreted, misunderstood, misread.or ‘success’ in gaze’isproblematic ‘the in queer recognition, both sensethat ‘thegaze’itselfthe to the same uncertainties as the material indicators in ‘gaydar’. Also, despite its possible intuitive gaze’is of ‘the manifests recognition that eye contact quality.this subject Therefore on predicated once knowledgethe of party; other the is asit only the through shared gay history, community, and/or commonality. However, using 'the gaze' is always at refers to the meeting of one's eyes with another’s in mutual recognition of an imaginary practical usages depend on the specificity of those involved in the act. What I term, 'the gaze', 69 68 intuition,” the“special recognize “tried to meet the eyes of other men,” men where connections” “visual to pointed France century in eighteenth men homosexual being pinned down,quantified, measured. or Ragan’s Brytant historical of tracing “senses” gauge anindividual’s incapable “feelings” or thatasubjectiveof sexuality, feature iswhat off-putting its about reception in of society. Descriptions include‘gaydar’ inherent to contributes quality ‘intuitive’ this merely evaluative; than rather isinter-subjective that Shelp 2003, 2 Ragan 1996, 12-13 It is my intention to reinvest 'gaydar' with positionality in order to show that its Common understandings and research on Common presence‘gaydar’ suggestthe andresearch on of understandings a quality 3.1.2 ‘The Gaze’ 69 implied in the practices of ‘gaydar’. 68 and Shelp’sand RuleandAmbady’s studies research 24 mutual CEU eTD Collection 72 71 70 middle class and their cultural formation.” new the of functions economic the between connection the structures that equivalences argues that, “the concept of identity as ‘lifestyle’ serves to manipulate a system of and isinextricable from bourgeoisie identity formations. For example, Rosemary Hennessey argument will elucidate as referring to one or both. The use of ‘lifestyle’ also resonates with gay social identities as well as tastes in fashion, which the surrounding context of the well as capture its multiple meanings, Iuse the expression gay ‘(life)style’ to refer to both fashion trends by the processes of commodification. In order to make this (visibly) clearer as text, and gay ‘style’ is taken to mean both sexual ‘identity’ as well as to refer to modern gayness. Homosexual identity as gay ‘lifestyle’ will be used interchangeably thisthroughout Appropriations (Life)Style 3.2 consumer capitalism, sexuality became a site of cultural consumption of of fashioning, as Hennessey argues, “new urbanidentities,” which subsequently “conceal the ‘queer’. Thisimplies how easily visibility the gay of fetishizedidentities gets for purposethe shed, adopt,and discardidentities (gay) lifestyles through andcommodified labeled goods an effort and curious phenomenon in late modernity and consumer culture to attempt to buy, avant-garde trends,” Sexuality as persistence model (asdiscusseda disciplinary in above power of Foucault’s becoming “thebecoming definitive mode of consumption.” identity. gay Lury Lury 1996, 80 Pellegrini 2002, 141 Hennessey 1995, 165 Before going further, it is important to address my concept of ‘style’ in reference to Celia Lury Celiafurther out Lury points “the emergencethat oflifestyle” isincreasingly ). Thus, sexual coded‘lifestyle’ indicators as gay began tobe “picked upand sold as 71 exemplifying both the commodification and promotion of a normalized 70 With the shift from industrial capitalism to 25 72 Using Lury’s points Iargue Using thatthereis Lury’spoints in additionto History of its CEU eTD Collection household items, and bodily dispositions.” bodily and items, household “announcethatstylespractices oflife can inleisurebe purchased activities, clothes, such practices;” identity by way of consumer of ade-centering promise lifestyles new urban increasingly beenhas individual not displaced, that, “whilethecoherent Hennessey argues live, relyinggeneral on ofvalueddefinitions that traits take a rule-likeon status.” “ subjectivity, serving to conceal ‘other’ gay styles that are not in dominant circulation (and here.discussed merely ofexchange.” matter economic a are not consumption factors that the consumer is most likely unaware of, but testifies to the fact that “practices of whichparticular tastes, influencedare by and is from seen inextricable underlying social 78 77 76 75 74 73 bodily dispositions they design together intoa lifestyle.” particularity of the assemblage of goods, clothes, practices, experiences, appearance and becomes “a project” where people “display their individuality and sense of style in the identity which to according consumerism in tendency the signal to meant is ‘identity’ markers. visible style with its howidentity,” “indicatorsindividuality andacknowledges of and canbe style acquired of self a‘fashioned’ as “amore porousconception the “lifestyle” as Hennessey understands social relations” such new identities depend on; pointwillthis be further explained in borrow Hennessey 1995, 166 Lury 1996, 108, emphasis mine Hennessey 1995, 166 Lury 1996, 100 Hennessey 1995, 165, emphasis mine Hennessey 1995, 146 a few a few purchases The first is that traits labeled as ‘gay’ reflect a homo-normative definition of a gay According to MikeAccording asquotedin to Featherstone, “adopting text, alifestyle”Lury’s for from the general cultural repertoires supplied to them by the society in which they ,” 74 furtherimplying the ease to which identities can be adopted through 78 There are several important points to be to points important several are There 26 75 This is linked toan individual’s 76 For instance, individuals instance, For 77 73 CEU eTD Collection 80 79 fragility and construction identity normative especially of from as inseparable categories, to be incredibly butrathercomplex), serves toacknowledge surrounding anxieties the shown been have behavior/preference sexual and choice identity of politics the (as reductive performingthrough its depth a personalthat identity a‘life’)(and can get constructed. Hennessey alsoindicates the ability to acquire a lifestyle through “a few purchases,” it is only group.” members markersintegration of class asstatus dominant andintothe facilitate act this of tastes distinctive “the that suggests distinctions economic hierarchical into research renowned Using Bourdieu’s andexperiences. classimplications by broader and areaffected desireperhaps not be do in indicate to anindividual’scirculation). Second, dominant “tastes” need not be further identified because weknow whoandbecause we are)has lives.” what be not identified need further discourse of heteronormativity, gays have lifestyles, everyone else (an everyone else that to straightaudiences).Ann Pellegrini pointby this demonstrates “in stressing that, the remove as one pleases (which is also how gay (life)styles are marketed in mainstream culture wear to or available entity acommodifiable to gay of people lived the experiences reduce reflecting on the effects or implications of this trend, his argument is complicitin serving to articulate phenomenonthe of appropriating and“borrowing” gayidentities, by criticallynot positioning. and individual tastes will be expanded on later with references to Bourdieu’s theory of social of a ‘straight’ person signifies gay (life)style codes). Connections between markers of class intelligibility, andwhich consequently confuse the success of (when‘gaydar’ appearancethe markers”dominant queer contribute communities) that gay as “status for to and straight Pellegrini 2002, 142 Lury 1996, 109 It is important to point out that my usage of ‘(life)style’ does not intend to be Third, although there are instances where Featherstone’s assertions do well do to where thereareinstances Featherstone’s assertions Third,although 79 Thissupports predominancethe andpopularity of specific commodities (whichact 27 80 Although CEU eTD Collection Pellegrini makes clear, makes Pellegrini “more andmore companies have adcampaigns that developed and straight) magazines, façades of clothing stores, and highway billboard signs. And as groups andgroups their constituents.” pitchinggay to lesbianand consumers may outweigh risksthe of enraging conservative campaigns].” community as a prosperous eliteis now so prevalent as to be politically dangerous [to antigay occupied by queer culture.dominant As Gluckman and Reed argue,“the image of gay the itis a marketmarket; untappedthan consumer a homosexuality of realization a broadly of acceptance of a growing thisislessindicative that Clark Danae asserts above, mentioned 84 83 82 81 heralded a “new willingness of some companies to chase gay dollars.” to heterosexuals, gay women, and gay men. The development of consumer capitalism has mainstream for and politicsaudiences, the of andadvertising marketconscious unconscious 4.1 Chasing Gay Dollars Chapter 4: ‘Gaydar’and Commodification within issues of recognition. widespread the to thecomplexentangled ofvisibility anxieties processes and acknowledge value to either normative or non-normative gay subjectivities. Instead, I mean to call attention doImean attach nor to intelligibility, modes of queer non-normative victimize potentially consumer capitalism. And asmentioned earlier,it is important to stress that I do not intend to Pellegrini 2002, 139 Gluckman and Reed 1997,xii Pellegrini 2002, 139 Alcoff 2006, 197 Here I will examine the ways in which heterosexual culture appropriates queer styles “Vision is useful in perpetrating the illusion of transparent cognition.” 83 They go on to mention that “corporations have calculated that the benefits of benefits the that calculated have “corporations that mention to on go They -Linda Martin Alcoff -Linda Martin 84 Gay men and women now grace the covers of popular (gay 81 28 82 However, as CEU eTD Collection audience and the straightconsumer will denyable to any to ‘dress attempts conscious gay’. so that companythe havewill the power of denial if itsopenly questioned about target recognition of gay codes. This strategy allows for a“hermeneutics of plausible deniability,” consumers straight which describes ofheterosexuality,” ignorance profitable gay styles; as well as to heterosexual audiences, through what Pellegrini has called, “the audiences through mutual was gay-friendly product the that recognition modeled off or of notice.” would “speak to the homosexual consumer in a way that the straight consumer will not reach means”“discreetgay by consumers through using adualmarketing approach that of gay audiencesstrategic through means. This “especiallyshift, for gay men,” soughtto companies’ hesitancy and refusal to speak to homosexual consumers to an implicit embrace 4.2 Dual Marketing and the (Un)Conscious Appropriations of Gay Styles Mart. versus the conventional (conservative) approaches upheld by Proctor and Gamble or Wal- called “risks” taken by Vodka (explainedAbsolut below), whoreaches outtogay consumers, for gay likely reachouttoand dollars;”to that, “companies who do not serve a conservative, family-oriented constituency, are more out point does she However images. visible dominate of influence the and intelligibility queer images how problematizing become readable assuch, takingfor politics granted thus the of Pellegrini the assumes “readable”transparency gay lesbian imagesof and without 88 87 86 85 represent Pellegrini 2002, 138 Clark 1993, 187 Pellegrini 2002, 139 Pellegrini 2002, 138, emphasis mine In the late twentieth century there was a (visible) shift in marketing strategies from in marketing strategies wasa(visible)shiftlatethere century In the twentieth 87 By using this ‘codedbehavior’capitalized advertisers onappealing gay to readably gayorlesbian images .” 86 85 which supports the praise and success of so- This statement warrants critique in critique that warrants This statement 29 lack of 88 CEU eTD Collection 91 90 89 thatsex insistence gender,” equals from “heteronormativity’s desire stems and the subsequent anxiety that follows if they do not remain parallel and stable. This anxious identity an and body the between a continuity for wish the both exposing of Second, culture. (which are coded as such through processes of capitalism) tobe consumed by mainstream First,factors. thesuccess of dual marketing toappropriate strategies styles as coded gay unconsciously by heterosexuals or homosexuals. If this is the case, it is telling of several a straight man or woman is read ‘wrongly’ as having a gay style. [masculinity, and constructions of normative gender presentations].” [homosexuality or queerness] were signs of nonconformity to sexist standards of femininity, Politics.” She recognizes that what mainstream culture sees as “signs of lesbianism assumptions about sexual orientation in her essay, “(Be)Coming Out: Lesbian Identity and normative understandings of gender (in terms of masculinity and femininity) with conflate to tendency the explains further Phelan Shane former. the from follow must because of one’s non-heteronormative style); or an instance where ‘gaydar’ may ‘gaydar’ where instance an or style); non-heteronormative one’s of because man or woman is read as having a ‘gay style’ (one can still be intelligible as gay precisely identity. And finally, itillustrates an instance where ‘gaydar’ may work in so far as a gay ‘naturalness’, of connotations that sex should be understood as a sign and symbolic, attempting to dislocateit from of each other, gender can be unhinged from its necessity followto from sex. Delphy argues independent as gender and sex for arguing By male. as masculinity and female as femininity by Christine Delphy in,“Rethinking Sex and Gender,” where she attempts to displace Delphy, Christine. “Rethinking Sex and Gender.” In Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott (eds.) Phelan, Shane. “(Be)Coming Out: Lesbian Identity and Politics.” Hennessey 1995, 151 Plausible deniability is usually employed when a gay (life)style is “worn” is (life)style agay when employed isusually deniability Plausible Sociological Reader Experience (Summer, 1993), p.774. 91 which allow space for the body to be incongruous to an . Routledge, 2002, p. 54. 30 Signs , Vol. 18, No. 4, Theorizing Lesbian 90 This is elaborated on 89 Gender: A Gender: and that the latter not work, if CEU eTD Collection operations of the unconscious and of signification, can never be fully disclosed.” homosexual is ever entirely because‘out’ identity, always by undermined disruptivethe 94 93 92 (gay male) consumer tofinish: optimistic worldview that speaks directly gayto men and women.” release thecompany “Absolut challengesstated, quo by thestatus presenting abold and “progressive” company gay supports who issues and gayfriendly policies. In a recentnews specifically address a gay audience. For example, Absolut Vodka is a well-known 4.3 A Contemporary Example of ‘Gay Window Advertising’ embedded incontemporary usages of ‘gaydar’. capitalism, the commodification of homo-normative styles, and the presuppositions be extractedcannot from of intelligibility politics isthe queer and shapedby consumer subject comes to be continuously caught in the process of “outing” oneself; a process which homosexuality,” and actof ‘coming the Gender“making visibleone’s out’ Insubordination,” make the necessary distinctions. As Judith Butler makes clear in her essay,“Imitation and assumed to be straight until ‘proven’ otherwise; which is when ‘gaydar’ is called upon to is considered to be the norm in dominant culture and therefore an individual is almost always is it incongruous, torealize important of heterosexuality mechanisms areoften ‘gaydar’ that company commented that the ad takes, “a adtakes, that the commented company written: was which over ruler, inch an ad campaign specifically directed at gay men with one of their billboards bearing an eight- As quoted in Hennessy 1995, 150 Hennessey 1995, 150 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61039 Although I am trying tomake clear that the “reader/being read” dichotomy in the Marketing strategies may notalwaysMarketing strategies refertoappearancebutinstead aim to 92 is a process one can never wholly achieve. According to Butler, “no In anAbsolutWorld In anAbsolut World 31 …all gay men have eight-inch dicks. The dicks. eight-inch have men gay …all ; leaving the sentence open for the for open sentence the leaving ; 94 They wenton to launch 93 Thus a gay CEU eTD Collection with or representations of gay and lesbian cultures. These companies have capitalized on on “the havecapitalized companies These lesbian cultures. of and representations gay with or 97 http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/adlibrary/adprintdetails.cfm?QID=3701&ClientID=11064 96 95 straight consumers realizing,is often referred to as “gay window advertising,” strategy discussed above, by which advertisers try to appeal to gay consumers without include often marketingadvertisements speak to or dominant The dual gay audiences. measurements.” lookhumorous at gaymen and theirfascination with perfect,eight-inch 'member' subtextual elements of of to adcorrespond the subtextual elements for capital. quest bymainstream for theever-increasing (life)styles culture of gay commodification the than of of homosexuality acceptance of a growing indicative less is this true: ring still points Pellegrini’s and Clark policies, and campaigns progressive quo in homosexual Furthermore,stereotypes. although Absolutis praisedfor their in male littleas saturated homosexuality “challenge”does which promiscuity to status the Clark 1993, 188 MediaProgram: GLAADAdvertising http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61039 Calvin Klein, Benetton, and the GAP are well-known corporations whose 95 However the underlying assumptions of underlyingimages assumptions the reinforceHowever advertthe of dominant 32 (white, middle-upper class) experiences 96 97 where the where CEU eTD Collection Chapter 5: Consumption andExploitation ininherent production the of commodified goods will be discussed below. significance. Lury significance. Lury summarizes Arjun Appadurai’s theory “thethat, ways in which goods ascultural aswell have to thecommodity comes economic structures,” “pervade all commodity comes to have several levels of significance. Just as the operations of capitalism Mart,” Neiman suchas“Bloomingdale’s K- as relatively companies “upscale” or Marcus opposed to queer intelligibility likelyare more be circulatedto and used by“chic brandnames” and relationship to the formation of a(n exclusive) community. For instance, codes of dominant exposes the class distinctions that serve to underpin the links in taste and class and their 101 100 99 98 social relationships of labor and power commodity capitalism is premised on.” 5.1 Invisibility and Exclusions directly queer culturestatement speak todominant (addressedas “ ability gay of idols toset fortrends straightshoppers;” that asserted, “We try to appeal, period. With healthy, beautiful people. If there’s an awareness in accusations of purposefully togays.appealing Asquotedin Clark’s article, Calvin Klein appropriation. Calvin Klein alsoengaged in useof the “plausible deniability” torefute consumers as well as appropriates a gay (life)style, usually without acknowledgment of this Clark 1993, 188,emphasis mine Gluckman and Reed 1997,5 Hennessey, Rosemary. Hennessey, Rosemary. Hennessey 1995, 166 community healthof and grooming, they’ll respond to the ads.” 100 Consumer culture is Consumer culture deeply in ofmeanings embedded systems whereby the “Perception “Perception - ahistorically cultural produced isknowledge - from inseparable the as Hennessey points out. Class distinctions and the subsequent social relations Routledge: New York and London, 2000, p. 96. Hennessey -Rosemary 101 Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism 33 98 this strategy both addresses gay that 99 Not only does this community”), it also it community”), . CEU eTD Collection help explain growingthe popularity andof investment in ‘gay styles’ for both mainstream to shore up symbolic capital through stylized marks of distinction.” scrambled consumers “middle-class and specific,” class are lifestyle to by appeals promoted the social field.” social the improve their social by position manipulating the cultural representation of their in situation connections to wider social and class implications. He claims that “individuals struggle to patterned.” is socially but choices, individualistic of result “the always not is which positioning positioning.” Anindividual’s preferred “lifestyle” isindicative of desired)(real or class Bourdeiu, these consumption practices can be understood as “a struggle over social areusedGoods to make distinctions ofindividuals, between groups and by asasserted shown to be by dominated gaysubjectivity.a homo-normative identity [gay (life)style] through its construction in commodity culture, which has been 107 106 105 104 103 102 forms. cultural through identity” and value social signs, and information bits;” these work to make ‘style’ an “increasingly crucial marker of out, “advertising permeates the fabric of daily life with infinityan of visual spectacles, codes, complicitin both producing meanings those and being affectedby them. AsHennessey points “meaning status” and lives”individuals of whopurchase/consume the goods. andsignify in to come culture material “social the importance gain influence,” interpersonal as carriers of inthey act andthe “ways ‘lifestyle’]” which social identity [i.e. create Hennessey 1995, 166 Lury 1996, 83 Lury 1996, 83 Hennessey 1995, 165 Lury 1996, 20 Lury 1996, 19 The politics of queer intelligibility in consumer capitalism is defined by exclusions. by isdefined capitalism inconsumer intelligibility queer of politics The 105 I have mentioned Bourdeiu’s argument above that “tastes” help reveal 106 Hennessey supports Hennessey supports claimthis by arguing “hyperconsumption that, 103 as they circulate in everyday culture and marketing strategies are 34 104 So a ‘gay’ style can become a social 102 Thus, objects come to have 107 This can be applied to CEU eTD Collection of image-making” when the commodity merely with is “dealtof commodity as amatter when the signification, image-making” of subjectivities relies on “the exploitation of human labor,” and only makes visible the “process neglected by the operations of capitalism. The commodification of dominant queer and object in the concealed remains labor(er)] invisible [the visibility” of “historicity andappropriated ‘worn’ “awith few purchases” by mainstream itsthe consumer while than in the social relations between individuals and objects.” and individuals between relations social in the than Commodity fetishism is the idea, or rather “the illusion, that value resides in objects rather queer subjectivities), “the hasthat labor goneinto production its isinvisible.” rendered fetishism,” which explains that when a “commodity is fetishized” (i.e. the style of bourgeois working-class). imaginary’” by labor production perpetrated “class-specificthe ‘bourgeois homosexual/queer organized.” 111 110 109 108 recognizing thewaysin “sexual which certain identities wentinto the production of the object rather than its consumer. She illustrates this point by invisible the social relations makes clear the exploitative ways in which objects are consumed that function to render “social lives,” which pertains more to the consumer of a particular good. Rather, Hennessey more centrally upon exploitation and differs from Appadurai’s theory of havingobjects images of properhigher social or class positioning. project in in ‘gay to order aresought that styles’ audiences, homosexual and heterosexual Hennessey 1995, 161-162 Hennessey 1995, 162 Hennessey 1995, 176 Hennessey 1995, 177, emphasis mine Hennessey explicates this point further in her discussion of Marx’s “commodity of Marx’s discussion in her further point this explicates Hennessey There is another layer of exclusion within the politics of queer visibility that hinges 108 109 For instance, she reveals that “the invisible social relations” of exploitative maintains the relegation of certain populations to the margins (i.e. non-white, of theobject’sproduction 35 ; this calls attention to the labor that we cansee 111 So, the commodity gets aresystemically 110 CEU eTD Collection attempting to critique. is one that ‘othering’ of aprocess into enter and subjects onEastern ideals of Western enforcement the in that stringing together local and global logics should be done so with critical reflectionand care, as it may result 115 114 113 112 meaning, oridentities.” hour, remain largely invisible.” largely remain hour, gays,” but “Levi-Strauss’s workers in the sweatshops of Saipan, who earn as little as $2.15 an window-dressing strategies that boast of their progressive corporate policies for lesbians and her Hennessey point, “gay-friendlyexplains that, likecorporations gay Levi-Strauss promote exemplify visibility” To remains the unseen. “historicity Therefore, object’s production. of material object but we do not understand the social relations of labor that have gone intoits Because of our historically learned modes of perception, we see the value of “a sneaker,” as a In themselves. in objects than rather object and individual between relations social in the resides actually ofthecommodity value the where fetishism”) “commodity Marx’s of concept the “visible” versus “seeable.” ‘Visibility’ has attachments to historical effects (as mentioned in ‘Seeable’ the and Privileging ‘Gaydar’ 5.2 visibility. identity-regulated of commodification the to links its and intelligibility lesbian profits.” – line bottom company’s the of interest in the on depend they labor of division international exploitative the from attention deflects often corporations US ‘progressive’ of policies Hennessey 1995, 174-175: Hennessey makes a valid and significant point here, although itshould be noted Hennessey 1995, 174 Hennessey, Rosemary. Hennessey, Rosemary. Hennessey 1995, 162 Profit andPleasure: SexualIdentitiesin Late Capitalism One’s (in)visibility isOne’s and marginalization linked(in)visibility towhat Hennessey as differentiates 115 historically available ways of seeing we bring to knowing this thing. commodity like a sneaker is not seeable in itself; a of reality it only empirical the becomes seems What seeable seeable. is what becauseand visible of is what the between created to the products of laboras soonas they are produced. In the process, adistinctionWhen is commodity fetishism erases the material basis of value, it does so by attaching itself This logic can be related to my analysis of Calvin Klein, Benetton, the GAP, and Routledge: New York and London, 2000, p. 96. 112 Thefollowing chapterwillspeak about politicsthe of gay and 114 Thus, she concludes that, “Displaying the gay-friendly Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism 36 , Hennessey explains that 113 . CEU eTD Collection a normalized gay (life)style as a desirable image. Likewise, the symbolic or expressive symbolic or the image.Likewise, as adesirable gay a normalized (life)style by venues andmediated” with dominated further therefore foregroundcapital)those served to successcapitalist the history, modern of gay struggles (beginning in“market-civil rights 5.3 Queer Visibility in Mainstream Culture desired. is already always visibility existto as well as implicitly assumes that queer identification in mainstream culture of spacefordisallows other patterns tonotethat Hennessey’sgay is argument important inpresence of invisible getsrendered such populations certain itprivileged spaces. However, 117 production. of labor modes unfair in engage necessarily also culture and politics queer 116 consciousness.” from may altogether visible andclear bemadedisappear “whatcannot totally argues, for asAlcoff markers; identity of other erase visibility the serve to andmay also practices, erase subject) ‘visibility’the of both non-dominant gay subjectivities and exploitativelabor produced dominantthe gay (life)styles. Thus, specificmodes normalizing of ‘seeing’ gay (the that labor the alienate to work simultaneously which consumers mainstream heterosexual and gay areforegrounded relations by whenhomo-normative appropriated styles its class-regulated visibility. Gay subjects get abstracted away from social and cultural marketing niche that profits consumer capitalism economically as well as culturally through “historically cultural produced gayknowledge.” So, and signification of matters in simply based identity one’s judging when forefront the engagingin exploitation both of gay (life)styles labor production.and many companiesother purportingadvertise to their“progressive” policies andpolitics while Alcoff 2006, 198 However,I do not mean to present the implication that all companies who proclaim their open-mindedness to In addition consumptionto the of gay identities trends” as “avant-garde throughout In a more colloquial sense, the “seeable” can be understood as what ‘gaydar’ brings to 117 Due lackto the intelligibility of certain of visiblequeer populations,the 37 seeability integrates gay gay integrates people intoa 116 CEU eTD Collection 118 and desires rework byinviting them take to formsthe by dictated commoditythe market.” rapidthe imagesflow and of myriad thatsaturate signs everyday continuously work activities intensified integration of cultural and commodity production underlate capitalism by way of politics of queer intelligibility are notmerely materialistic. As Hennessey emphasizes, “the are alwaysindividual lifestyle tastes by andaffected influenced largerthe patterns; social dress/disposition for a‘woman’ andmasculine for a‘man’). Second, asasserted by Bourdieu, expectations of gender‘proper’ and codes lifestyle in culturedominant (i.e. feminine recognized asyet gay, this is due to individual’sthe failure toparticipate in normativethe sexual orientation. An explanation for this is twofold. First, the individual may still be visibly can be read as ‘gay’ but may notbe done explicitly for the purposes of disclosing his or her “wear” styles coded as gay; rather an individual’s “tastes” in goods and choices in lifestyle community.of a particular recognized aspart as a visual marker for other gay people for the purposes of attracting a partner, or to be picked up on). Actively choosing to be intelligible may be used for political reasons, and also arereadand thecodes as them gay will(when distinguish goods theusageof these that by consciously gay lesbians or men,itis instance whenan individualsgroups of are aware “worn” is style gay arecognizable When maleness. and femaleness with masculinity backlash in mainstream culture due to anxieties and beliefs in the conflation of femininity and ahomophobic that concomitantly receives acceptance andpopularity gay the of (life)styles enough avoidof what to never or recognize atall. this However, isa argumentdual-sided in tobe tolerated) (read: is “right” itways legitimized as “representing what it means to be ‘whatit is right tobe’,” which delineatesare (life)style this of maintenance and construction the to contribute that goods the of aspects Hennessey 1995, 165 Though itis important tonote notthat all lesbians and gaymen consciously to decide visibly gay, using what is notvisible as symbolic 38 118 CEU eTD Collection orientation and (life)style identity. and (life)style orientation desirability and recognition of specific markers come beto linked toexpressions of sexual norms rather than shifting trends. As explained above and to be expanded on below, the revealing aremore goods Often,orientation. heterosexist representative such of assumed femininestereotypes and such thus colors are usedoften to signify undesirable) sexual(an by with Gay men have longand been stigmatized associated exemplary [hetero]sexism). of solid,lightcolors), and subsequently passivity represent and gentility is(which also (such as pinkor culture byheteronormative as“female” and“feminine” coded systematically the shifting nature of fashion and social trends suggest. For example, several colors have been make asgay aspects” expressive that coded upparticular goods havebeen more stable than conflate gender tendency culture’s andsexuality,“symbolic heteronormative to and some circumstances surrounding theories of gay histories andand the attachment anxiety around illustrate exploitationthe of gay byheterosexual (life)styles Due culture. historicalto the behaviors. and choices life’style’ their particular have affected andlook a people act certain way unawarealthough that remain operations of underlying the and the subsequent commodification and consumption of goods coded as gay), many gay possible through the processes of capitalism, the successes of modern gay rights movements, well as in flawsthe ‘gaydar’ and the normalizing tendency conflateto gender andsexuality. sellsboth to gay and straight.” about everyone dresses alittle gay these days...it is now a marketing given that gay sensibility 119 So, with increasingthe visibility and popularity of Hennessey 1995, 168 Rosemary Hennessey quotes an from article quotes Rosemary Hennessey 5.3.1 A Contemporary Example of Gay (Life)Style Appropriation When bea style acknowledged to gayis by appropriated itheterosexuals serves to 119 Popular hip hop artist Kanyeexemplifies West pointthis as 39 a particular kind of Esquire Magazine that boasts, “Just boasts, that Magazine gay (life)style (made CEU eTD Collection 121 120 hypervisible, articulate: tospecifically refuses bywhom “blatantly gay” he necessarily assumes theaudience’s natural understanding and of, anxiety over, bodies considered tobe rather category,should what “blatant” or undesirable beavoided. his Instead language this into fall to is required what explains never but machismo), of level self-acknowledged are “people who from, himself differentiates further West intelligibility. of norms gender constructed on serves to “display the arbitrariness of bourgeois patriarchy’s gender system,” and its reliance “the appropriation of gay cultural in codes cosmopolitan the revamping of gender” which allowsmanhood” him dressinto ‘recognizably’ gay styles fashionand attend events. as discussed earlier in Ragan’s text. The fact that West insists he is “secure with his masculinity, of notions normative construct and influence profoundly to continues preference presumptions of homosexuality. This is exemplary of the way in which same-sex sexual behavior, and lifestyle, Westmust reconcile his fashion and lifestyle choices against gender-deviant withspeech, Because ‘homosexual’or is equated often gender-inappropriate styles coded as gay, which causes West to verbally insist that he is no less of a ‘man’. defends his sense of style. In a February 2009 interview with MTV, West stated rumors circulate that he is in fact gay). West vehemently denies these rumors and also is (and of several his choices gay years.He being past “accused” stylistic the often due to West is universally knownfor his fashion sense andwasin attendance at Paris fashion week sexual orientation. The stereotypical “markers of machismo” of “markers stereotypical The orientation. sexual Here he measures a ideaofmasculinity normative ‘manliness’or about assumptions against Hennessey 1995, 169 Shaheem. Reid, The popularity of gay styles, especially when modeled on celebrity bodies, attests to are blatantly gay. blatantly are And that's the reason why I cango to Paris, why I can have conversations with peoplewanna label who me and throw that on me all the time, but I'm so secure with a my manhood.like you man.not Thinkor about actors whether that away straight give dressdon't up dress like a womanYour ... orsomething like likedress that. Peoplecan't you gay" “Dressing http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604620/20090209/west_kanye.jhtml blatantly 120 gay” (with whom he is able to converse precisely because of his 40 121 are absent when dealing with CEU eTD Collection six colors of the rainbow as a symbol of gay and lesbian community pride. Slowly the flag took hold, and today and hold, took flag the Slowly pride. community lesbian and of gay symbol a as rainbow of the colors six 125 124 123 122 referring to the popular gay signifier, the rainbow, and said that was taken with him and several others dressed in “a lot of colors.” society. effeminate, ‘unmanly’ and therefore often undesirable, gay men in mainstream heterosexual wish to “take” it back (if it was even “theirs” to begin with? preference. sexual through masculinity forges again once which orientation, “blatantly undesirable lifestylegay” by between a straightversusdifferentiating gay sexual mostly men). However, it seems as if a desirable style coded as gay can be separated from an West equates “good style” with “stereotypical gaypeople” (read:white, affluent/middle-class FunFact: In 1978, Gilbert Baker of San Francisco designed and made a flag withShaheem. six Reid, stripes representing the Shaheem. Reid, Rolling Stone. Later in the interview West is asked about a picture from apicture from is Westweek (above) ininterview fashion Paris askedabout Later the He also points out an appropriation of the rainbow by gay people and expresses a and colorsand stuff,and I mean how agay is that thing? theirs. But I was like "Man I think we need to have the rainbow" — the idea of colorswere smart , life enough to take a fresh-ass logo like the rainbow and say that it's gonnafresh. be I just think that because stereotypically gay people got such good like ManstyleI think thatas theystraight menwe need to take the rainbow back because it's fresh. It looks Kanye West Kanye http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kanyewest/photos/collection/photo/72 http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604620/20090209/west_kanye.jhtml http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604620/20090209/west_kanye.jhtml 122 41 Paris: Kanye in centerwith briefcase 124 125 ). He is confused (and 123 Heresponded by CEU eTD Collection 25. The Rainbow Flag worldwide. marches gaypride and lesbian in flown is and Makers, of Flag Congress International by the recognized is it lesbian and gayidentities have always beenin way some marked by capitalism, andso too lesbian and gayidentities unmarked by capitalism,commodity if what we acknowledged that for yearning nostalgically than “rather that, point important an makes Pellegrini consumption. politics of queerintelligibility as more intricately tied to the processes of capitalism and always already within embedded a certain politics andimportantly, hierarchy; andmore the considered political and subversive. My here ispurpose to expose issues of visibility as be can appropriation many spaceswhere are there rather, andhomophobic, be exploitative (life)styles. gay of ‘manly’, profits are still made from both gay and straight dollars due to the commodification popularity of gay styles. Despite whether the style is embraced as gay or defended as the to contributing simultaneously while gayness, from distance and homosexuality non- masculine his by emphasizing homophobia implicit more a practices West women; identity whilereproducing also conditions for the disenfranchisement of gay men and paradox forthe of operationsmodern theemergenceits allowed capitalism, gay a of whereby exposing an implicit anxiety and discomfortabout ‘being’, orbeing read as, gay. Similar to homophobic, in that he uses such style to emphasize his comfort with straight sexuality, thus His adoption of gay (life)style signifiers can be interpreted as exploitative and also trendy gay style, symbolizing its desirability butdistancing himself with its significations. a purchase is to willing West wear suchstyles. if heis to his masculinity assert constantly frustrated) as to why bright colors must be coded as symbolically gay, and feels compelled to In my analysis, Ido not mean to imply that all appropriations of ‘gay styles’ must also Acknowledgments Labelsand 5.3.2 by AndersonStevenW. appeared in GAZE Magazine (Minneapolis), #191, 42 28May 1993, p CEU eTD Collection not abnormal.” influence of madearguments by Freud and to others effectthe having that sexfor pleasure is the “reflected as this shift centuries in early late nineteenth twentieth and as aperversion” the Chapter 6: Lesbian Subjectivities and Consumer Culture point. of this theusual acknowledges significant recognition oversight and disavowing its abject, interiorized, and ghostly other, homosexuality.” “its coherence is by callingattention to only secured once in text, Dianaat Fuss Hennessey’s reproduce.” perversion – having sexwith someone of otherthe genderfor pleasure rather inthan to order asa denoted “originally and century mid-nineteenth in the coined identity of term labeling a unacknowledgedaswell. goes often capitalism 126 of lesbiandiffering carry many styles within lesbian and heterosexual significations cultures. text. D’Emilio’s in out fleshed sufficiently not was which styles, female gay unacknowledged visual codes and which signifiers, subsequently non-normativerender queers invisible and 6.1 Marketing the ‘Lesbian’ Commodity culture because all)?” that heterosexuality is Pellegrini norm takenasthe inrecognizes dominant we as anyidentity as of rarely heterosexuality speak (though identities have heterosexual 130 129 128 127 As pointed out by Adrienne Rich in her essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality.” In ButIdo not mean imply to that non-dominant queers Hennessey 1995, 155 Cameron andKulick 2003, 21 Cameron andKulick 2003, 21 126 As discussed earlier, Cameron and Kulick reveal that ‘heterosexual’ was also used as My argument here will function to reveal how dominant gay ‘styles’ are manifested in , it is often left out of discourses on ‘identity’ and therefore its tie tocommodity 127 It functioned as the antonym of ‘homosexual’, but subsequently “lost its status 128 New York and London, 1993, p. 227-254. Studies Reader 130 So while “heterosexuality is notan original or pure identity,” as asserted by . To further explain my points, itis important to complexify the politics of , Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin (eds.) Routledge: 43 wish to be either visible or acknowledged. visible either be to The Lesbian and Gay and Lesbian The 129 The intricacies Pellegrini’s CEU eTD Collection “Womenandchildren: making feminist sense of the Persian Gulf Crisis,” 132 131 phantasmic even or invisible rendered often so are still and were that experiences lesbian including of intent the with and gender, sexuality. of race, intersections the thatgetsubjectivities foregrounded inmainstream andculture shown to be inseparable from markers in heteropatriarchy. My analysis below will discuss the politics of lesbian another, doing sowould only serve tomystify disproportionatethe effects carried by identity However, I do not mean to position all women or lesbians as the same in relation to one ‘gaysandlesbians’ This not only forth anputs image of ‘gays andlesbians’ as a bounded entity like(more well as present alesbian subject as monolithic and as the constant companion to gay men. languageis in it problematic actuallythat toconflateserves gaymale and female lives as gay advertisement campaigns take advantage take campaigns of advertisement fora homo-normative gaysubjectivity the perspective, Clark’s “Commodity Lesbianism,” demonstrates how marketing strategies and formed communities and identities differently than gay men. From a contemporary consumer have lesbians in which ways the and disenfranchised been have women, gay particular in and women, in which ways the in articulating lacked history throughout men and women continuously being and constituted defined by present-day their usages. subcultures, and toreveal how dominantlesbian subjectivities function in andare particular getconstructed and made intelligible in both mainstream culture andwithin lesbian in subjectivities lesbian in which ways the discuss to nexus asa visibility of politics the use histories and commonalities among gay communities themselves. It is my intention here to This is a reference to Cynthia Enloe’s useful phrase/framing “womenandchildren;” originally from originally “womenandchildren;” phrase/framing useful Enloe’s Cynthia to a reference is This Castle, Terry. The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture. Columbia University D’Emilio’s argumenthinged on a discourse relying on phrase,the ‘gays andlesbians,’ As I have pointed out above, D’Emilio’s account of the different experiences of Press: New York, 1993. 132 ); it also serves to reinforce mythical narratives of shared (and imagined) (and shared of narratives mythical reinforce to serves also it ); 131 in hetero- and homo-normative narratives. However, this 44 The Village Voice (1990). CEU eTD Collection specifically addresses lesbian consumers. This was in growingresponse tothe popularity a of toengageadvertisers in dualmarketingthe strategy advertising,”“lesbian which window of predominantly middle-class,childless, educated lesbian with disposable income,” capitalize”“one on of segment lesbianthe population– predominantlythe white, lesbian subjectivity. Inthelate 1980’s into the 1990’s, “fashion the industry to [began] warmer if not a hot commodity,” “gay” togay “a hasbecome consumers, their advertisements directing specifically companies 137 136 outside the scope of paper.this 135 134 133 ‘measure’ the quantity of gay men,i.e. Kinsey and others to of attempts plethora to the measuredbe (as opposed cannot they And therefore, access. with one or more of those determinants, lesbians are more difficult toboth identify and ethnicity, and many identity-carryingother significations, identifying often more strongly profitable.” consumer group, group must that be“(1) identifiable, accessible, (2) measurable, (3) and (4) have lesbians been “economically powerful.” For advertisers to develop and attend to a several historical reasons, lesbians have not been easily identifiable as a social group,” nor as wellmarketappeal visible to to market tobeappealing.“fornotices that as for Clark that, representations lesbianism. of through (dominant) asconsumingspectator subject,” intertwined with the politics of queer intelligibility. Clark examines “the role of the lesbian purpose of bringing in both gay and straight dollars. Such strategies of consumption are Clark 1993, 190 Hennessey 1995, 168 The obsessionwith ‘measuring’ the quantities of gay men in the US carries many implications that fall Clark 1993, 187 Clark, Danae. “Commodity Lesbianism.” In However, with the shift todual marketing strategies in the twentieth century and In order for companies to profit off of gay styles and gay dollars,it is crucial to have a 134 Because lesbians (and all gay people) exist across determinants of race, class, Aina Barale, David M. Halperin (eds.) Routledge: New York and London, 1993, p. 186. 133 136 as well as the relationship of lesbians to consumer culture especially the visibility given to aparticular kind of The Lesbian and GayStudies Reader 45 135 ) ormade profitable. , Henry Abelove, Michele Abelove, , Henry 137 causing CEU eTD Collection lack of presence on cultural lack on of presence underscore the distinction between the butch’s presence in presence cultural between butch’s distinction the the the underscore Lebianism and the Lesbian Body in the 1990’s,” Ann Ciasullo asserts that it is important “to these two representations further,in “Making her (In)Visible: Cultural Representations of androgynous orsexual (life)style,indeterminate image, and/or identity. help To demonstrate both representations to stand alone, mix unevenly with one another, or conflate to embody an representation of ‘lesbian’ promised in ‘lesbian chic’; society, from the material and social image produced by consumer culture - the “vanilla” imagination as the quintessential, and negatively associated, ‘butch dyke’ in mainstream forth in lesbian - brought imageofone’s between a stereotypical ideological the discontinuity 6.2 Visible vs. Imaginary companies capitalized on as an opportunity both to targetlesbian dollars. and straight 141 140 139 138 spectacular,” exotic, new,the the the towards gravitation commodity’s the nourishes “ultimately approach politics.” lesbian than consumers in lesbian interested lesbian image; particular Clark a supports this point in arguingcommodify that, “contemporaryto did it advertisers than are more aspirations political promote to less did identity public and political life.” middle-class “lesbian chic” that “held the promise of putting lesbians front and center in both Schorb Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 260 Hennessey 1995, 161 Clark 1993, 196-197 Schorb, Jodi R.; Hammidi, Tania N. “Sho-Lo Showdown: The Do’s and Don’ts of Lesbian Chic.” In my analysis of the construction of lesbian identities it is important to pull apart a apart pull to important is it identities lesbian of construction the of myanalysis In 140 Studies Women’sin Literature which was embodied in the emergence of ‘lesbian chic’ and which 138 However, making visibleand marketing a bourgeois lesbian landscapes ;” thus exposing the incongruity between ideological , Vol., 19,No. 2 (Autumn,2000), p.259. 46 141 139 keeping inmind thatit is possible for Hennessey also claims that such an imagination and her Tulsa CEU eTD Collection having normatively masculine and feminine characteristics and appearance. and characteristics feminine and masculine normatively having stereotypes of lesbians in the US mainstream cultural imagination, namely that ‘butch’ and ‘femme’ follow as 143 142 imagination and material image in that the “butch who is so closely aligned with the complexity of lesbian (life)style images. Schorb and Hammidi point out that “discourses of “discourses that out andHammidi point Schorb images. lesbian (life)style complexity of the attests which beauty;” of regimes lesbian but standards, beauty female mainstream only Lesbian lesbian Chic,” standards of beauty “are both influenced by againstand negotiated not Jodi Schorb and Tania Hammidi insist in, “Sho-Lo Showdown: The Do’s and Don’ts of 6.3 ‘Lesbian Chic’ vs. ‘Butch Dyke’ intelligibility. lesbian colludein meanings that politics of isthe of reveal intersections complex to purpose the implications nor is itmy intention to pin down their contemporary usages. Rather, my terms ‘butch’ and ‘femme’, Ido not intend toconstrain their historical meanings or by dichotomies of normative masculinity and femininity. Soas my analysis deals with the both lifestyles, and should notbe subjected to limiting binary definitions nor easily paralleled of fluidfrom tothe ranges that campy conflation role-playing lifestyle] specificconstruct” as existing alongside an abundance of styles as well as “a historically [community, and as inferiorman/woman) (butch/femme analogy presuppositions the to andrather understood Also, the categories of ‘butch’ and ‘femme’ should be unhinged from theirheteronormative visible queer identities made intelligible through the operations of commodity capitalism. lesbianaspects Rather, withof fashioned together styles into‘butchness’ coalesce ‘femme’ as cleanlyare not as theirmainstream separable would andimaginations depictions suggest. lesbianism is curiouslyfrom absent cultural It is important to note that stereotypes areculturally and socially specific and I am addressing dominant Ciasullo, Ann M. “Making Her (In)Visible: Cultural Representations of Lesbianism and the Lesbian Body in Lesbian invisibility mainstream culture is inextricable from discourses on beauty. As Before goingfurther, itis important tonote stereotypesthat lesbian of subjectivities the the 1990’s.” Feminist Studies Feminist , Vol.27, No. 3(Autumn, 2001), p. 579. representation 47 ,” in mainstream portrayals. mainstream in ,” idea 142 of 143 CEU eTD Collection and ‘butch/femme’ purported the group.” lesbian of “vanilla representation culture visibility,” patriarchy. in hegemonic implications its and ‘lesbianism’ of fear tothe due in part imaginations, cultural bourgeois queer styles) while theirimage stigmatizing getssimultaneously in proliferated of ‘butch (duetothelack visible stereotypeslandscapes dyke’ onmainstream of non- having toworking-class attachments identities significations.and This helps explain the lack we are,aswhatare by what asmuch define ourselves formations, systems of value, and class implications. ‘butch in stereotypical dyke’ arelayered culture overidentity popular with anxieties social positioning of multiple lesbian subjectivities. Reasons for the absence of the experiences; experiences that are often used as terms of abjection as well as to signify the and (life)styles lesbian real on predicated is also imaginations cultural in lesbian’ ‘butch the of representation the that be overlooked not should it images, lesbian of representations material and ideological discontinuity between animportant Ciasullo articulates beauty ‘acceptable’ and what standardsare being measuredthose against?WhileAnn measurementstandards of are being usedandput proliferated forthto a paradigm of judgments of worth. Recognizing this significant connection also begs the question, whose category of ‘woman’) and risks toppling foundationalthe elements of heteropatriarchy.I also argue that heterosexuality), also refuses the economic, political, and ideological powerofwho, man ‘lesbian’ the of 148 147 146 145 144 beauty necessarily in engage on value,”discourses By this I am referring to claims made by Monique Wittig in heressay Hennessey 1995, 173 Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 260, emphasis mine Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 257, emphasis in text Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 255 For instance, as in “most communal identity-formation projects, lesbians tend to 147 148 applies to the image of the ‘butch lesbian,’ who gets historically posited as The contemporary middle-class, predominantly The andmiddle-class, predominantly contemporary childless, white, educated by refusing sexual and social relationships with man (and thereby refusing thereby (and man with relationships social and sexual refusing 146 made possible by What Hennessey refers to as, “class-regulated 48 144 which connect standards of beauty to not the difference from ‘bulldykes’ , .” “The Straight Mind;” namely 145 Thus, ‘lesbian chic’ offers a (thus falling outside the the fear the CEU eTD Collection 150 149 Essays Other and Mind Straight The Monique. Wittig, society. heterosexual inmainstream anxieties calm to serving straight) (read: us” like “just of capitalist culture promotes a middle-class, non-threatening image of lesbianism that advances equalizing logics via “normalized andheterosexualized femmethe making body,” contexts. Its image, as argued by Ciasullo, puts forth a version of lesbianism thatis inmainstream problematic are often style of trendy ‘lesbian chic’ the representations community-specific. rather its currency as a status of identification should be understood as individual- and (life)style; undesirable an already always as discounted be uncritically not should and within it circulates on whatcommunity depends gaystyle popularity a ‘butch’ the of noted bethat specific exclusions, namely of those who do not model popular lesbian codes. It should also exiles;” the foregrounding of a middle-class lesbian subjectivity both carries and relies on Hammidi support this pointby that, asserting dominant“lesbian style ismade possible by its styles of lesbiansworking-class (read:bulldaggers)are rendered undesirable. bourgeois lesbian higher(life)styles degreesof,Bourdieu what calls, cultural capital; while landscapes]” negatively with of representations dykes,’‘butch which consequently gives [rural places and‘peripheral’ working-class) bodies (the ‘peripheral’ “associates necessarily “upwardthe mobility success embodied”and material by chic’persona ‘lesbian the status that parallels dynamics of power. What Imean to assert is that discourses celebrating image of the lesbian generated by capitalist consumption sets up a value system of class Ciasullo 2001, 578 Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 261 As noted above, politics of visibility are intertwined with discourses on beauty and usually usually suppressed inthese images, she is de-homosexualized. is women two between of desire representation the because hand, other onthe women; thus, formainstream audiences, as looking ‘just like’ conventionally attractive straight and femininity a hegemonic embodying as lesbian the representing by achieved process made into objectan for ofdesire straight audiences through herheterosexualization, a is she one hand, the on desexualized: and sexualized once body at lesbian mainstream the . Beacon. Press,1992, pp. 1-32. 49 150 149 Schorb and Schorb CEU eTD Collection 153 152 151 constituency” family-oriented is beingmarketed. Companies‘lesbian-as-consumable-object’ serving a “conservative, 6.4 Marketing Consumable Lesbians and Gay Men heterosexual culture. suchmarginalizedTherefore, getmarked queerbodies asundesirable in mainstream those who are not white, upper-middle class) as “invisible in media representations.” simultaneously positions those lesbians who do not fall into the femme body as such (i.e. position the body of ‘lesbian chic’ as “nearly always white, upper-middle class;” which “alignment of her femininity with specific racial and socioeconomic attributes,” which furtherCiasullo arguesthat heterosexualizationthe of femmethe body also enables an mainstream “strippedpublic, ofits sexual and political sting” as “Lesbianism Lite.” desires. Pellegrini refers to watered-downversionthis lesbianism of gets marketed that to the upholding a‘straight-looking’ imagenon-threatening while alsoconcealing homo-erotic ‘femme’ body as ‘lesbian chic’ is also in a constant state disempowerment, simultaneously So, in addition beingto measured normatively against feminine of standards beauty, the feminizing, in order to “assure mainstream mainstream is to“assurefeminizing, in thatthere about order audiences ‘different’ nothing mainstream to consumers consume,” because itsanitizes lesbian visibility her through and experiences. ‘Lesbian chic’ is the “palatable” representation of lesbianism allowed “for by marking ‘otherness’ magazines, butalsopopular of sexual in the lesbianimplications lives bourgeois, straight-looking), which notsuggest only an airbrushing of physical blemishes “justdepict look “non-threatening”likeairbrushed who scenesthat women you” white, (read: Pellegrini 2002, 139 Ciasullo 2001, 578 Pellegrini 2002, 143 In the politics of queer intelligibility,it is important to recognize for whom the 153 distance themselves from sexualized images in favor of 50 151 152 CEU eTD Collection lesbian style. lesbian that of a bourgeois objects,” consumable “marketable, secondsells men) whilethe gay” toas“blatantly referred whatKanyeWest (i.e. men, orpossibly gay “badsubjects” represents Pellegrini’s of shedescription what names modesas “two ofhypervisibility;” first where the representations of gay men and lesbians in contemporary media culture is by articulated Ann malestyles. The of gay that lesbian styles with of my of consumption the contrast argument androgyny. of my analysis in below beelaborated will point This identities. rather emphasizes the profitable exploitation of a style historically attached to lesbian attests lesbian of subjectivities and wellin society. Forexample, proliferation the of popular androgynousstyles modeled off create a space for companies to “plausibly deny” the existence of homophobia that is alive Absolut Vodka, AbsolutVodka, “Ruler”the runs advertisementcounter todominantright-wing, homophobic asin such; caseof the as constructions the aswellinterprets as culture who by dominant assubjects “bad” is dependent upon waysthe in which a gaymale (life)style getsconstructed taking intoconsideration the specificity of the audience. For instance, positing gay male Pellegrini’s analysis reveals an important distinction,itneeds beto complexified further by portraying (implicitly or explicitly) male-male sex as both rampant and perverse. Although ‘other’,” to the rule where visibility functions to foreground the presence of a “representative exceptions always are there However, politics.” lesbian than consumers in “lesbian interested does to benefit capitalist economies. As Clark has demonstrated above, companies are more down images of purported lesbian (life)styles works less to advocate for gay rights than it 156 155 154 lesbians.” Pellegrini 2002, 142-143 Ciasullo 2001, 588 Ciasullo 2001, 585 Before going on to discuss representations of lesbian styles further, it is important to 155 154 specifically The language of equality, orrather sameness, that gets advanced in the watered- 156 Gaymen “bad”are deemed duetodominanthomophobic discourses allowing not for ‘other’s’the visibility in mainstream inculture to order to a growing acceptance of non-heteronormativity but non-heteronormativity of acceptance a growing to 51 CEU eTD Collection attending to the subtle, but crucial, difference between the two. What I mean to say is that interchanges theterms ‘androgyny’ and ‘sexualindeterminancy’ her throughout without text, tactic.marketing 159 158 157 commodity,” profitable within mainstream culture. Clark alsorecognizes that “androgyny is afashionable and modes of intelligibility are able to read several kinds of lesbian styles that the ad represents exist “that sets of by readings formulated homosexuals heterosexuals,” and butalso tointerpretations “not onmultiplelayers:marketing dual only refers the advertising” the takes strategy two to “lesbianClark’s of representations. bourgeoisappearance on dominant window description popularity androgynous stylesof for women incorporate a which normatively masculine consistentsubject positions. The rise of ‘lesbian chic’ in 1990’sthe yielded also the chic’ and ‘butch dyke’), neither shouldbeas a understood bounded entity as occupyingor 6.5 Androgyny thepublic.sold to Commodified gay male styles stand in out contrast to stark de-sexualizedthe lesbian styles an speak are ataudience andexplicitly and to both who once purposefully consumed.created that events) Pride Gay during and before Hollywood West in example (for times particular Absolutor Calvin Klein strategically ad campaignsrun in gay urban, areas populated and at also depend on how they intoaccountspatialtake awareness andtemporal conditions. So, for Thetargeted success gaymen suggestiveadverts discourses. of sexualized andsexually Clark 1993, 194 Clark 1993, 192 Clark 1993, 194,emphasis in text However, Clark’s analysis of androgyny bears a significant oversight. Clark Although I have been discussing two visibly different lesbian styles (that of ‘lesbian within lesbian reading formations.” reading lesbian 158 and as such companies “capitalize upon sexual ambiguity,” 157 52 So, lesbiansare ‘tuned-in’ who togay 159 as a CEU eTD Collection culture to, “link gender rebellion to lesbianism and thus replicate the binary lesbianism “link binary the of to, to replicate culture opposition and thus rebellion gender heteronormative of assumption (stigmatizing) the out points Phelan ‘homosexuality’. and assumptions about sexual orientation; this also marks the slide made between non-conformity compliance with normative genderpresentation behaviorand consequently provokes continuity in mainstream society relates to Phelan’s arguments above, that a lack of onlooker” and sometimes “prompting adegree of hostility.” “inconsistent, incongruous, and indecisive produces a kind of ‘category crisis’, confusing the transgress identity borders, anxieties abound. As Schorband Hammidi out, being point communities. non-normative and normative both in located fear even sometimes and anxiety, confusion, precisely because the known sex of the subjectis consciously of subjectthe (whichmay not always fallinto alignment). Thus, androgyny is popular is genderprevious or knowledge abletotell (genital) constructed) sex and ‘true’ the (socially has consumer or audience the that extent the to only culture mainstream in popular is reliable knowledge of its opposite, of a as such. The androgynous style that gets marketed is one that is always predicated on a purposefully appear without attachments to any one specific sexgender or assignment. sexual ambiguity indeterminancy,or when individuals (forexample many gay transgenderand people) 161 160 the where indeterminancy sexual of boundaries gender of cannot subjectthe be ‘properly’ (read:normatively) enteringthus established, the or sex the when problematic becomes androgyny Concomitantly, presentation. non-specific mustthat remain within the confines of sexual although she recognizes androgyny beto a “fashionable and profitable commodity,” it is one Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 262: Although it is important to note that ‘indecisiveness’ may not apply to Halberstam 1998, 147 When “bodies that fail to integrate,” non -androgynous subject. Inother -androgynous words, androgyny subject. 160 using Halberstam’s Judith phrase,and thus non 53 too -ambiguity -ambiguity beto fashionable and profitable -convincing androgynoussubjectbreeds 161 trying The anxious desire for to put forth a gender CEU eTD Collection 163 162 “ marketing strategies that assertion straight and gay, and male and female styles. Her character’s style also supports Clark’s between boundaries crossing audiences, homosexual and heterosexual both on modeled ‘Shane’s’ style in the early 2000’s disputes Ciasullo’s point. ‘Shane’s’ style is visibly of proliferation the inmainstream society, heterosexual lang’s style sawno“imitators” seasons from 2004-2009. fashionable ‘queer androgyny’, from the Showtime series, “The L Word,” which aired six discuss the popular androgynous lesbian character, “Shane,” whois exemplary of a cultural media representations of the new millennium. To better exemplify my point, I will in present-day up hold not do assertions her century, twentieth late in the phenomenon with imitators.” crowded mayappearance] be, her popularity has certainly not producedamainstream landscape unfemme” and who uses gender as a “game.” Ciasullo argues that “however butch [her k.d. lang, apopularlesbian musician in 1990’s the whose appearance she explains as “highly presentations visible on our cultural landscapes. For instance, Ciasullo uses the example of of ‘soft’ androgynous lesbian chic styles, there are also representations of more ‘butch’ ‘Lesbian6.6 Chic’ vs.Queer Androgyny androgyny’ fashion to without facing problems thatsexual indeterminancy may produce. embodiment of ‘lesbian chic’ promotes a more stable lesbian identity that offers a ‘safe ‘woman’ (= heterosexual) vs. ‘lesbian’.” Ciasullo 2001, 588 Phelan 1993, 775 Both k.d. lang and the character of where lesbians,however, lang canbereadas of ‘Shane’ k.d. character Both the and rule”in and to the always case are the “exceptions there As Ihavementioned above, 163 Iwould argue that although Ciasullo recognizes a tenable create 162 consumer lifestyles that are profitable to Due to the “hostility” that ambiguity breeds, the breeds, ambiguity that “hostility” the to Due 54 CEU eTD Collection 167 166 165 164 desire.” public of experience collective the into tap individuals which by may become manifest. power existencefor whereoppositional of the disallow spaces potential for resistance should notbe automatically disqualified nor should its appropriation ‘Shane’s’ style is often a trendy appropriation of lesbian androgyny by normative culture, its any space for queer empowerment, agency, and politics. Rather, although the use of a homo-normative subjectivity always negativeas connoting as disallowing associations or mainstream society. One the other hand, it is important to clarify that I do not mean to present promising a “vanilla” visibility lesbianof identity but lacking to break material boundaries in normativity,forth a putting (life)style similar tothatoffered bythe‘lesbian chic’ persona, mainstream for audiences. sites intervention” “political of commodity remains securely fetishized,” which works more to promote gay sensibilities than icon,”ideological “disrupting thus queers remainwithin located frameworks wherecultural “the is commodity an reduced to that out points Hennessey sells, fashion profits‘Shane’s’ of advantage the take advertisers than their political motivations or promotion of gay rights discourses. Furthermore, while commodification of ‘Shane’s’ style are also telling of advertisers’ economic interests rather gender-queer ambiguities. However, this shiftand subsequent appropriation and century welcomes twenty-first morewas lessdesirable)the androgynous’ noticeable which to advertisers,” representation.” are able of tobreakout of “the cultural arena that of resistance strategies material As quoted in Hennessey 1995, 160 Hennessey 1995, 160-161 Hennessey 1995, 161, emphasis in text Clark 1993, 189,emphasis in text As Lauren Berlant and Elizabeth Freeman argue, “the commodity is a central means ofhomo- a representation isalso of ‘Shane’ character hand,the one on Therefore 164 165 and advertisers capitalized on the stylistic shift from (when‘butch from 1990’s the stylisticshift on the capitalized and advertisers Therefore ‘Shane’s’ style gets “condensed intoa cultural signifier, the semiotic boundaries between gay and straight” but lacking but straight” and gay between boundaries 55 166 167 In some cases, the CEU eTD Collection always already againststruggling it. and cultural ambivalences,” be of “mightpractices as politicized understood visibility ofnegotiating processes personal 169 168 7.1 Consumer vs. Social Subjects Chapter 7: ‘Passing’ and the Politics of Visibility “redefinework beauty”to standards. butch,femme, or androgynous styles; race, space, and class,” and how such negotiations femininity; masculinity and messages about cultural negotiate wayslesbians for “thediverse functioning mainstream within andculture. Schorb Hammidi pointsupport this by arguing they because are already precisely of resistance offering arecapable which subjectivities, presupposition desiredof heterosexuality is challenged through visibilitythe of gay Schorb Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 264 Schorb and Hammidi 2000, 264 169 working 168 They also suggest that capitalist consumption and consumption capitalist that suggest also They with Shane, “The L Word” “The Shane, commodification rather than presumed to be to presumed than rather commodification 56 CEU eTD Collection into anew marketing niche.” 173 172 171 170 “How in, Walker Lisa argues visibility,” “Privileging visibility. of practices through identity illustrative of the ways in which a particular body comes to be emblematic of a privileged embedded within those markers are often rendered invisible or powerless. These are signify social, economic,and cultural positioning, while historicalthe relations andmeanings subjects.” social Hennessey and Clark argue, gays are “welcome to be visible as consumer subjects but not as identity between politics intelligibility the of categories. different queer resonate how asdiscuss as well visibility of issues problematize hereto It ismyintention cost? whose ask andboth recognize from whoprofits capitalizing on visible and at gaysubjectivities definition gay of identity amarketingas tool andhelp tointegrate gay people “cultivate anarrow freespendingwealthy gay helpto widelybut consumers,” accepted assumptions about class and race. As Gluckman and Reed point out, “these stereotypes of culture and thereflection queer intelligibilityof dominant is by produced and based on organize human kinds,” identity Markers of waysare paramount tothe inwhich,visual demarcateand “learned cues from their enabling routes, activist space fordiscourses of resistance shift to and change. gay away in landscape States, discourses United and arebeingthe queerrights abstracted aremoreand mainstream becomingqueer (life)styles a general partof cultural Alcoff 2006, 198 Clark as quoted in Hennessey 143 1995, Quoted in Hennessey 1995, 173, emphasis in text Alcoff 2006, 5-6 The multi-layered activity appropriation gay by mainstream of heterosexual (life)style “Secular, commodity-driven society is dominated by the realm of the visible.” With capitalism’s appropriation of gay ‘styles’ for mainstream audiences, as both -Linda Martin -LindaAlcoff Martin 172 Thus while gays are consumable, but not wholly social and while 173 as argued by Alcoff. Visual markers and politics of intelligibility of politics and markers Visual Alcoff. by asargued 171 However, as constantly reminded above, it is important to 170 57 as gay gay people CEU eTD Collection understanding of understanding of marginalization,” the to as“peripheral regarded then are identity,” establish visibility that of categories the “exceed andtherefore who“pass” Likewise, subjects neglected. areoften signifiers ‘proper’ and race relations and implications, and as it has been argued, subjects who do not present ‘passes’ as straight in specific contexts. As Celia Lury points out, “the circulation and man gay masculine normatively the likewise, styles; lesbian coded stereotypical of lack sexual orientation. For example, the femme lesbian may not be recognized as gay due to her individual’s an interpellating wrongly by fails necessarily ‘gaydar’ one’s where instances of significations and codesthatpurport to establish identity meaning.and ‘Passing’is indicative ability (which does not have tobe either conscious or desired) to fall outside of visible 7.2 ‘Passing’ discrimination. Marjorie Garber’s, Marjorie 176 175 174 question,” into position own one’s of identity the put otherwise might guard againstadifference see andthat otherness inorder to interpret to desire imaginary’s Walker on state goes to “thethat privileging visibility,” of on“the plays hegemonic cultural discrimination,” havefor them visible historically that signifiersof celebratingdifference targeted identity politics in “participants which symbolize their demands for social justice by to Recognize a Lesbian: The Cultural Politics of Looking Like What You Are,” is a tactic of Walker, 1993, 868 Walker 1993, 868 Walker, Lisa. “How to Recognize a Lesbian: The Cultural Politics of Looking Like What You Are.” ‘Passing’ is a socially and culturally specific phenomena that refers to an individual’s However, the politics of visibility do not always work for purposes of social justice. Vol.18,No. 4,Theorizing Lesbian Experience (Summer, 1993), p.868. 174 in and by dominantculture. Vested Interests Vested 176 . So, politics of visibility come invested with power, class, as such individuals are assumed to forego practices of 58 175 as quoted from Signs , CEU eTD Collection 179 178 177 information, and ignorance;” exchange of commodity”the ischaracterized by knowledge, problems “involving power. Howeveritispower. toacknowledge who important defines membership the codes of and at those who are ‘included’ improve their social position (or ‘pass’) also receive a degree of This can be linked to Bourdieu’s theory of social positioning discussed earlier. For example, which automatically reduces power (of those who have it) toa formalism of membership. subjectivity. ‘Passing’ from centereither the or fringethe islinked politics to of exclusion, signifier;” privileged single which, as Katie King points out, creates “the reduction of whole systems of signifiers to a embodiment” of style “marginalized a By adopting subject. privileged by the ‘embodied’ which serves tofurther disempower and exploit marginalizedthe population gets that “’race’, ‘gender’, or ‘sexuality’,now interpreted as signs of inclusion and authenticity,” practices representative of that ofdiscrimination can arbitrariness bethe hinged upon. remain invisible in Slidesothers. made from to privileged peripheral identity positions are yet simultaneously of visible in contexts become an individual aspects certain which certain waysin to the aswell as categories identity of inseparability to the attests of politics ‘passing’ subject and the wider community than does ‘passing’ from the margins to the center. The a and both implications for stigmatized to politics different privileged the position carries subjects. Thus, although straight men can ‘pass’ as gay, Iwould argue that ‘passing’ from a ‘pass’always cannot be equalizedeasily or paralleled with experiencesthe of ‘passing’other identity formations. ability the underscores andanxieties in ‘passing’ toexposeassumptions of constructed As quoted in Walker1993, 869 Alcoff 2006, 197 Lury 1996, 53 Alcoff argues that, “marginal styles of embodiment” tend to represent an entire torepresent tend of embodiment” “marginal styles that, Alcoff argues Additionally,it is critical to understand that the different ways in which subjects 179 177 the subject reinforces an undifferentiated understandingof reinforces an subject the undifferentiated this is indicative of the complexities of commodification and commodification of complexities the of indicative is this 59 178 CEU eTD Collection shared meaning. Ido not intend to list all instances, as my efforts would be in no way inarguing that momentsparticular and/or spaces, itis possiblefor determinants to take on While I am notadvocating for the uncritical equivalency of determinants of identity, Iam linksexperience also‘passing’ both either figures historically in circumstances. future or similar experience of identity displacement; however I do not mean to argue that such an ‘passing’ lesbian, and thelight-skinned ‘passing’African-American may be able toshare a from the idiom of race passing,” comparisons with other “movements.” 182 181 180 mean queerculture andpoliticsup spaceforopen instancesto where particular canbeone by assumed and appropriated another.” alignment,” and by using “race, class, and gender” as such “implies the tactics and values of movements. “minority” existence of sharedmeaning,queer Diasporas, or the translatability queer to of other systems ofvalue. This argumentruns counter to Michael Warner’s claims denyingthe ofidentities is transcendence andcultural upon contingenttemporality, context, spatial automatically discounting possibility the Iwouldof traits, analogous the arguethat commonalities along racial and queerdeterminants identity of exist. of Instead to comparisons to be made, logics of member/non-member rationalities to be obeyed and shared categories, I would also like to argue that in particular times and spaces itis possible for commodifiable. and unstable, fragile, are intelligibility of modes whose expense; while additionally recognizing the volatility membershipof as shiftingthe argument, namely that “queerness, race, and can gender race, “queerness, namely that argument, Walker 1993, 11 Warner1993, xviii, emphasis mine Warner1993, xvii For instance, Walker asserts “theFor instance, Walker feminine that asserts lesbiancannotbestudiedin isolation While the variability I acknowledge inseparability andidentity and subjectivities of 180 By these assertions I do not mean to misinterpret Warner’s 182 which resonates in a context where both the feminine 60 181 Rather I agree with Warner, but I also never be brought into parallel into be brought can find CEU eTD Collection categories of identity. Rather, it is important to recognize, as Trinh T. Minh-ha argues, “the concept of ‘passing’ I do not mean to assume that all people can easily fit and slide between 187 186 185 184 183 informing crucial experience the of to perception. overlook intimatethe linksmarkers identity and between which commodity culture, are of gender and race while underestimating the politics of visibility in sexuality. She tends to ‘passing’ inHowever, Alcoff contexts. focusesmainly certain on and perceptions privileges always important to ask at whose cost and with what implications do individuals benefitfrom sexuality. As Alcoff argues, because “visual differences ensure a social disparity,” identity that may work to both deconstruct and strengthen assumptions about race, class, and of visibility ‘passing’ bereveal to adeeply complex intertwinedprocess with determinants of sexual identity is also considered tobe interpretable through visual markers. However, issues race arewidely thought tobevisibly manifest.” points out in, “ can comparisons be madeand valued immediately than rather foreclosed. itexistis spacesdowhere rather suggestthat exhaustive, my nor aim to representative [embedded within] word the can pass as a man, as straight, as white, etc. which attests to “the diverse meanings a lesbian instance, for multiple; be can ‘pass’ may individuals in which context the that fact invisible street,” on the rendered degrees of existdegrees of variability that operations? Walker 1993, 879,emphasis in text Alcoff 2006, 7 Alcoff 2006, 196 Alcoff 2006, 196 Alcoff 2006, 7 Questions of ‘passing’ are also inextricable from discourses on truth. As Linda Alcoff As Linda truth. on discourses from inextricable also are ‘passing’ of Questions Alcoff seems to understand gay and takes for thegranted understandgay monolithically Alcoff to subjects seems Visible Identities: Race, Gender, andtheSelf Race, Visible Identities: passing within 186 but neglects to ask by whom and through what .” queer identities queer and Shealso cultures. overlooks the 187 It is also important to note that by explaining the 61 183 185 Similarly, the ‘truth’ of one’s inherent She states that “homosexuality can be ,” the “ truth of one’s gender and 184 it is it CEU eTD Collection 189 188 animage manufacture of a certain in States United the commodity-culture Capitalism and styles. be)gay certain due to thevisibility of to continue will (and in culture popular circumstances. social and historical Conclusion may‘their’ exclusion be desired asmuch as itmay be forced. historical positioning of those who cannotadopt the mask of either ‘self’ or ‘other’” account foridentities theinvisibility account queer ‘othered’ of also must analysis andsuchreflexive beand on capitalized appropriated; to resistance manifested in queer intelligibility that allows for the uses of oppositional power and critical reflection and analysis of the politics of visibility and how such politics are manifesting unity and resistance.” means of segregating and human oppressing butalso,groups,” Alcoff adds, “the meansof culture. Iam supportingAlcoff both inand Walker claiming that “visibility” isnot “theonly heteronormative by forth put are that ‘gaydar’ in assumptions granted for taken the expose complex practices of visibility and their attachments to commodification in an effort to advocate for the abolition of identity categories; rather, it was my intention to make clear the ever beingfully visually if disclosed, indeed isthat possible. subject toexclusions, codes, politics, and assumptions, renderingthus identities incapable of therefore and visibility of realm the to limited narrowly as identity of notions intelligible alonghierarchies of oppression. is It important toexpose the representations of culturally well beas to cognizant of way the in which constructions identity of often privilege visibility Alcoff 2006, 7 As quoted in Walker1993, 870 We cannot escapemodesWe of cannotculturally-produced the hinged upon our perception By problematizing the politics of visibility through ‘passing’, Ido not mean to 189 The practices of The practicesof ‘gaydar’ are widely andfunctional used However, it must be recognized that it is only through 62 as well as the acknowledgment that acknowledgment the 188 as CEU eTD Collection 192 191 190 anxiety.” produce identity can open doors or shut them,yield credibility or withhold it, create comfort or developmentitsof appropriations and complex, contemporary usages in present-day settings. explored excesses the meaning of in term the ‘queer’ as well and traced historicalthe queers intelligible. With less time constraints and abroader scope of analysis, Iwould have inmaking instrumental politics the analyze asto aswell sexuality individual’s an ‘read’ class differences. It was my intention to elucidate the foundational assumptions necessary to of race and invisibility specific tothe due andintelligible becomes recognizable that center as ‘the’produced dominantgay subjectivity. This inturn produces a dominant, standardized class-specific queer subjecttoheterosexual and gay consumer populations which then gets contingent upon contingentupon positionality and socio-cultural historical specificities. existence ofmultiple experiences of struggle, recognition, and identity formation as “we learn need simply to queer(life)styles, equalize and parallel that presumptions dominant maintaining of Instead orientation. sexual ‘reading’ politicsthe of queer intelligibility in order to understand the arbitrariness involved in theacknowledge production, exploitation, andinseparable factors identity of complexify that orabruptly mystified Itiscrucial than andperpetually rather dismissed. acknowledged; to well as to suggest that, “the messiness of the present might be something to be valued,” as consumption, has capitalist to intelligibility ties and complex queer intricate the underscore bourgeoisunmarked,My queer(life)style inmainstream culture. inaim sowas doing to a pre-given,racially assertion of problematic andthe identification, larger communal anxieties thatexist within issues of andsex genderalignmentand the subsequentwish for Alcoff 2006, 204 Pellegrini 2002, 143-144 Alcoff 2006, ix It was my intention for this thesis, as Linda Alcoff describes, to illustrate “the ways 190 My analysis queer visibilityof was crucial in underlyingexposing 63 to see to better,” 192 and to admit the 191 CEU eTD Collection Foucault, Michel. Foucault, Gluckman, Amy; Reed, Betsy. Enloe, Cynthia. “Womenandchildren:makingfeminist sense of Persianthe Gulf Crisis.” D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.” In Delphy,“Rethinking Christine. Sex and Gender.”In Stevi Jackson andSueScott(eds.) In Lesbianism.” Danae. “Commodity Clark, Ciasullo, Ann M. “Making Her (In)Visible: Cultural Representations of Lesbianism and the Terry. Castle, Kulick Don. Deborah; Cameron, Bering, Jesse. “There’s Something Queer about that Face.” Queer aboutthat Something Jesse. “There’s Bering, Anderson, Steven W. Steven Anderson, Ambady, Nalini; Rule, Nicholas O.; Adams Jr., Reginald B.; Macrae, C. Neil.“Accuracy and Alcoff, Linda Martin. Alcoff, Linda Abelove, Henry. “Some Speculations on the History of ‘Sexual Intercourse’ during the ‘Long The ApparitionalLesbian: Female Homosexuality andModernCulture Random 1978. House, Village Voice New York and London,1993. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin (eds.) Routledge: Gay Life Gender: A Sociological Reader Gender: A andYork London,1993. Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin (eds.) Routledge: New pp.577-608.2001), Lesbian inBody 1990’s.” the Columbia University 1993. New York, Press: 2009. York, 2003.York, #191, 2008, pp.1019-1028. Journal ofPersonality andSocial Psychology Awareness in the Perception and Categorization of Male Sexual Orientation.” 2006. and Sexualities Eighteenth Century’ in England. In Andrew Parker, et.al., eds., The HistorySexuality, of Volume One, AnIntroduction 28 May 1993, p25. “ Visible Identities:Race,Gender, andtheSelf The RainbowFlag . Routledge: and NewYork London,1997. , Sept. 25, 1990. . New York and London: Routledge, 1992. Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community,andLesbian and Language and Sexuality Bibliography , ” appearedin The Lesbian andGayStudiesReader Feminist Studies . Routledge, 2002. 64 The LesbianandGayStudies Reader GAZE Magazine(Minneapolis), . Cambridge University Press, New Scientific American Scientific . Volume 95, Issue 5(Nov.), , Vol. 27, No. 3 (Autumn, . Oxford University Press, . New York: Nationalisms . February 23, , Henry . , The CEU eTD Collection Weston, Kath. “Get Thee to a Big City.” In Michael. Warner, Walker, Lisa. “How to Recognize a Lesbian: The Cultural Politics of Looking Like What Schorb, Jodi R.; Hammidi, Tania N. “Sho-Lo Showdown: The Do’s and Don’ts of Lesbian Shelp, Scott G. “Gaydar: Visual Detection of Sexual Orientation Among Gay and Straight Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Epistomology of the Closet.” In Phelan, Shane. “(Be)Coming Out: Lesbian Identity and Politics.” in Gay Transformations and Capitalism Commodity Lifestyle: “Consuming Ann. Pellegrini, Hennessey, Rosemary. “Queer Visibility in Commodity Culture.” In Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality.” In Ragan, Bryant T.Jr. “The Enlightenment Confronts Homosexuality.” In Jeffrey Marrick and Lury, Celia. Judith. Halberstam, 866-890. You Are.” York andYork London,1993. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin (eds.) Routledge: New Consumer Consumer Culture Routledge: and New York London, 1998. Press,1993. Minnesota Chic.” pp. 255-268 Men.” Routledge: and NewYork London,1993. Reader New York University Press, 2002. globalizations :Citizenship andthe Afterlife of Colonialism. Identity.” In Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé and Martin F. Manalansan IV 1996. Cambridge University 1995. Press: Politics Beyond Identity York andYork 1996. Oxford), Bryant T.Ragan (eds.), Theorizing Lesbian Experience pp.765-790. (Summer, 1993), New York New York and London,2000. Fear ofaQueerFear Planet: QueerPolitics andSocialTheory Signs Female Masculinity Journal of HomosexualityJournal of . Tulsa StudiesinWomen’s Literature , Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin (eds.) Profit and Pleasure: SexualIdentities in Late Capitalism , Vol.No. 4, 18, Theorizing Lesbian Experience (Summer, pp. 1993), . Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, New Jersey, , Linda Nicholson and Steven Seidman (eds.) Homosexuality inModern France . DukeUniversity Press: Durham, NC,1998. Long, Slow Long, Slow Burn: SexualityandSocialScience 65 , Vol. 2003, 44(1), pp. 1-14. The Lesbianand Gay Studies Reader , Vol. 19, No. 2 , Vol. 19,(Autumn, 2000), The LesbianandGay Studies Signs Social Postmoderism: , Vol. 18, No. 4, (Oxford UP: New New York: . University of , . Routledge: Queer , . CEU eTD Collection References to Interviews andImages References toInterviews http://www.tuftsdaily.com/gay-and-straight-ph-d-student-learns-rules-1.744926 AmbadySummary Rule and http://www.sho.com/site/lword/previous_episodes.do?episodeid=119236 The LWord Rolling Stone. Shaheem. Reid, Kanye West http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61039 D=11064 http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/adlibrary/adprintdetails.cfm?QID=3701&ClientI GLAAD Advertising Media Program: Absolut Vodka Wittig, Monique. : : : http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kanyewest/photos/collection/photo/72 http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604620/20090209/west_kanye.jhtml The StraightMindandOther Essays : 66 . BeaconPress,pp. 1992, 1-32.