Neither Fish nor Fowl: Feminism, Desire, and the Lesbian Consumer Market

Abstract

This artide addresses gay marketers' tardy and ambivalent attempts to imagine and organize lesbians as a viable target marketing niche. Practical considerations make lesbians less attractive as a market: They have a lower average household income than gay male and heterosexual couples and they are hard to reach for market research purposes and with advertising. But the lesbian market is also dogged by the popular image of lesbians as lacking both erotic and acquisitive desire, embodied in the stereotype of anticonsumption, parsimonious, unsexy feminists who resist marketers' interest in them as consumers.

Identification with lesbian characters: Reception processes of heterosexual and homosexual audiences from a mixed method approach

“…Therefore reinforcing traditional values such as family, monogamy and stability. In addition, the particularly erotic connotations of homosexuality are generally removed (Moore, 2007;Sender, 2004). Research also notes that lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender audiences are not…”

Past, Present, and Future of Gay and Lesbian Consumer Research: Critical Review of the Quest for the Queer Dollar

“…Although useful for attracting lucrative, mainstream companies to advertise in gay press, Fejes and Lennon () caution against the reliance of such data in academia; they argue that not only are these data skewed but they have also been misused by conservative organizations to suggest that the gay and lesbian community is relatively privileged in terms of education and income and, therefore, is a minority in no need of protection against discrimination such as that which ENDA would provide. Furthermore, as explored by numerous scholars (e.g., Fejes & Lennon, ; Kates, ; Penaloza, ; Sender, , , ), the resultant construction of the gay market, which typically neglects lesbians and ethnic minorities, has functioned to define and perpetuate—at times to the detriment of the gay social movement—what it means to be gay, both to those within mainstream society and to those within the gay community itself.…”

“…Furthermore, the dearth of ethnic diversity within the imagery featured in gay/lesbian press proliferates the myth of gay‐whiteness, while the lack of female representation continues to propagate patriarchal dominance and a history of lesbian invisibility within the marketplace. Many scholars argue that gay and lesbian media have produced a normalized image of what it means and looks like to be gay; yet, this market‐mediated image is largely superficial and lacks the inherent diversity of the gay and lesbian community (Kates, ; Sender, , , ). Sender's interdisciplinary analyses derived from interviews with gay and lesbian media and marketing professionals reveal the complex dynamics of the creation and perpetuation of what constitutes the gay and lesbian market.…”

“…However, as indicated by Tsai's () exploration of gay‐vague imagery, this strategy comes with risks. Echoing concerns voiced by Sender (, , ) and Kates (), Tsai () cautions that the use of gay window advertising mirrors the history of gay and lesbian invisibility and that through this heterosexualization of gayness, the stigmatized status quo may actually be perpetuated and institutionalized homophobia reinforced.…”

La identificación con personajes de lesbianas: Recepción de audiencias heterosexuales y homosexuales desde una aproximación metodológica mixta

“…Por ello, refuerzan valores tradicionales, como la familia, la monogamia y la estabilidad. También por eso, las connotaciones eróticas particulares de la homosexualidad se suelen eliminar (Moore, 2007;Sender, 2004). Las investigaciones también observan que las audiencias de lesbianas, gais, bisexuales o transexuales son poco consultadas sobre la satisfacción de la representación de personajes homosexuales en los medios (Freymiller, 2010).…”