"Advertising and the Political Economy of Lesbian/Gay Identity"

In Fred Fejes' article "Advertising and the Political Economy of Lesbian/Gay Identity" he develops the stages and ways in which gays and lesbians have in recent years emerged as economic subjects. Fejes also explains how gays and lesbians, unlike other marginalized groups, gained their sense of equality and political power not by controlling capitalism or production, but rather through their consumerism. According to the recent studies presented by Fejes in this article, readers of gay magazines and thus gay men in general, tend to have higher incomes. In turn these studies also show that they typically use their higher earnings to purchase high end products, clothing, alcohol, and vacations, for themselves because many of these men don't have families to support. These studies also revealed that fact that in many urban communities gay men, in particular, act as trendsetters not only among themselves but also for "straight" men. As a result, the producers of high end products and services have quickly came to realize that these men are the ideal consumers of the upscale world. At first, these companies just started by advertising in gay/lesbian magazines and other media outlets. However, more and more these companies are beginning to alter their advertisements in order to appeal to gay and lesbian consumers specifically. For example, this "Dolce and Gabbana" advertisement makes use of blatant gay sexuality in order to attract a gay consumer, similarly to the way heterosexual sexuality is developed in other mainstream advertising to attract a specific consumer.