I was online shopping the other day and this really vibrant pair of rainbow shorts caught my attention. That led me to a whole catalogue of rainbow apparel or what would better be dubbed as ‘Pride’ Collection for that particular e-commerce website. Seeing this multitude of accessories and apparels curated especially around the LGBTQIA+ community really had me thinking, how could something that was almost non existent and spoken about in hushed voices (still is, for a large part) till only a few years ago, gained enough momentum to be publicized and branded so openly? How is it possible that the same people who thought that the only genders were ‘male’ and ‘female’ and the only sexualities possible were ‘straight’ and ‘black sheep of the family’ came around to the concept of ‘Pride’ and ‘Queerness’ so easily that they were not just accepting it, but celebrating it?
All these questions opened up a can of worms in the form of the corporate hegemony that is Rainbow Capitalism.
If l,ke me up until a few days ago, you too are unaware of what rainbow capitalism means and is, let me explain it to you. Rainbow Capitalism or Pink Capitalism or Pinkwashing is basically a corporate maneuver that allows companies and brands to profit off the queer community by producing ‘rainbow’ printed goods and ‘pride themed’ merchandise, especially during the month of June, that is celebrated as the Pride Month. And while at the first glance you (again, like me), might think that, “Oh, that’s good, right? They’re supporting the queer minority and helping in their upliftment.”, here’s where you’d be completely misdirected. While Rainbow Capitalism at it’s face value might look like a wholesome and progressive movement, in actuality, it’s just a tool that is directed towards the gentrification of the ‘queer market’ and generating loads of profit off of it.
Slapping a rainbow print on a product and calling it a contribution towards the LGBTQIA+ movement has not just created a major case of slacktivism, where consumers think that they are actually contributing something to the cause by purchasing said goods, but also created a vast lack of awareness among the general public as to what the Queer Agenda really is. Rainbow Capitalism’s oversimplification and flattening of Pride has made the month of June more about dripping in flashy rainbow colors and being sucked into this consumeristic quicksand of showing allyship through Pride merchandise rather than about paying homage to the history that brought us where we are today and showing support that is rooted in activism rather than in consumerism. Reality is, most of the companies that so wholeheartedly push Pride down the consumer’s throat, don’t really care if there is indeed any improvement made to the cause.
Biggest case in point : Disneyland Florida.
Disneyland is one of the largest franchises that mass produces Pride merchandise and practices rainbow capitalism. However, Disneyland Florida’s recent debacle has led to fans boycotting Disney in every way possible and even unsubscribing from streaming platforms associated with them. Florida is one of the most notoriously anti-LGBTQ US states and #BoycottDisney started trending on Twitter when it came to light that despite putting on a front of being pro LGBTQ, Disney actually funded each and every one of the sponsors of Florida’s ‘ Don’t Say Gay‘ bill. Dennis Baxley, who is the Senate sponsor of this Bill compared same sex parents to ‘abusers’ and yet Disney continued to fund his campaign in 2015 and again in 2021. Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out about this and said that while they haven’t released any official statement, they would like to contribute to the cause by producing “inspiring constant” which basically translates to finding more ways to generate revenue for them by implementing rainbow capitalism.
However, Disney isn’t the two faced company in this regard. American telecommunications company AT&T launched Trevor Project which was a queer suicide prevention initiative, yet it has donated money to politicians that describe gay marriage as a ‘breakdown of family‘. Amazon, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart are all companies that have played a huge role in commodifying Pride over the past few years, and at the same time these companies have collectively donated over 1 million US dollars to the politicians who voted against The Equality Act, which sought to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity, sexuality and sex.
This whole commodification of Pride may be reaping the big-double-standard corporates hefty benefits, but in the process, not just the spirit of Pride is being lost, but nothing is actually being done to further the cause. People with a rainbow slapped across their tee think that they’re supporting the cause, but at the same time, no one bothers to talk about health benefits of the queer people, of the basic rights they are denied, of the constant fear of being subjected to hate crimes that they survive through each day. The Middle Eastern and African countries are happy to sell you rainbow colored French fries during Pride, but at the same time they are passing laws making transgenderism a criminal offense and liable to discrimination. A Bud Light ad saying “Let’s get beers tonight, queens’’ in no way contributes to the social stigma that queer people face each day and the lack of legal protection that they suffer from.
Medusa, a non-binary musician and an LGBT advocate’s take on rainbow capitalism perhaps describes it the best- “Pride month gives corporations the delicious opportunity to disguise their capitalism as activism; when else is blatant exploitation rewarded with praise? An abundance of colorful products might foster the illusion of acceptance, but this support is conditional. Is your identity marketable enough to exploit? If not, can it be reduced to something that is?” they asked recently.
“The success of a rainbow campaign is not measured by the progress it affects, but by the profit it yields,” they continued. “And, like seasonal allergies, this interest in LGBTQ+ issues fades by late summer. When dangerous legislation is introduced, or when people die, these companies — and their money — are nowhere to be found.”
While rainbow capitalism does help in bridging the gap that is there in terms of queer representation, what we need the most is queer awareness and queer education. Instead of letting rainbow capitalism misguide the consumers into thinking that they actually contributed to a cause, it’s high time actual efforts are made to deal with first hand issues like queer protection and healthcare. In a world where practicing homosexuality is a crime in more than 70 countries, conglomerates not supporting but using queer struggles as their cash cow is just a deplorable state of affairs.