June is regarded as Pride Month. While the LGBTQ+ community remains stunted in many societies and continues to live in the shadows in others, the West uses this month to march and renew their vigor to continue their fight for their rightful place in mainstream society. During this time, rainbow colors and queer themes are embraced through fashion, food, and other merchandise.
The term which is used particularly for industries rebranding themselves during Pride Month is ‘Rainbow Capitalism’. On one side, rainbow capitalism surfaces as promoting the social movement and attempts to normalize the rainbow identity. However, as a form of capitalism and a marketing tactic, it also raises the question of rainbow capitalism possibly doing more harm than actual good.
What exactly is Rainbow Capitalism?
Karen Tongson, author and professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Southern California, defines ‘Rainbow Capitalism’ as commodifying the defining traits of the LGBTQ+ culture, specifically the concept of gay pride. This commodification might occur in product design, advertisement and promotions, special vouchers and discounts, and so on.
For a better understanding, think of the pink tax. It is the extra money women have to pay for the same products men buy at lower prices. This extra amount of money comes from the products being specifically catered towards women either in design or packaging where in reality, the functionality of the products for both genders is likely to be the same. Rainbow capitalism has a similar concept but it is more amplified during Pride Month. Since the Pride movement gains extra traction during this time, companies are more inclined to rebrand their products to fit the narrative and simultaneously, put their name forwards as allies.
Rainbow capitalism is also known as gay capitalism or pink capitalism. In simple words, it is when businesses incorporate themes of queerness and reflect the LGBTQ+ movements in their products and marketing campaigns.
How did it come about?
Rainbow capitalism is a niche concept. As it is mostly acknowledged and celebrated in the western society like that of The United States, it originated from here as well. In the mid-1960s, America’s market witnessed a shift in mindset where instead of only targeting the mainstream audience or the mass market, companies began to include more specialized and niche audiences. Keeping with this trend, many non-profit-driven businesses began exploring and searching for a potential alternative customer base like minority groups and people of color. This eventually gave rise to the popularity of niche markets such as the Latino market, Asian-American market, and the gay/lesbian market. Although this started off as a marketing practice, it also made companies more inclusive of other groups of people.
While the social movements, including that of the LGBTQ+ community, began spreading to western societies outside of the United States, the awareness and visibility of non-heterosexual communities began increasing gradually. Under these circumstances, pink capitalism came into existence. This consciously created market space for consumers consisting of members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Where do we see rainbow capitalism today?
Marketing targeted toward the LGBTQ+ community is one of the major forms of pink capitalism. Considering this community as the primary clientele, pink capitalism or rainbow capitalism can be traced through a variety of economic activities and advertising campaigns today. Rainbow-themed clothes, food, and other commodities are seen quite frequently during the Pride Month of June.
Starting from Pride flags and rainbow-themed fashion to queer nightclubs and tourism, the rainbow becomes a dominant theme of marketing campaigns with various taglines of “love”, “equality”, and “freedom”.
Every year, reactions to rainbow capitalism range from open contempt to enthusiastic applause. The rainbow-themed campaigns undoubtedly add to the movement’s vigor and bring to attention LGBTQ+ struggles. Even if for a short time, the rainbow-themed commodities, food, campaigns etc. increase the visibility of this community and give them more space to speak against dogmatic social norms.
Whether or not advocating for this social movement is the primary cause for these corporations still remains open to debate.
Other than representing the community and tapping into an economically beneficial and niche audience, rainbow capitalism intends to represent companies as queer-friendly institutions and to motivate members of the LGBTQ+ community to buy the products being advertised uniquely for and to them.
Is rainbow capitalism a good thing or bad?
During the start of Canada’s Pride Month in 2021, Lego launched the 346-piece LGBTQ+-themed set Everyone is Awesome. This was an obvious reference to the incredibly well-known song created for the 2014 Lego Movie.
One indication that June 1 has evolved into the beginning of a commercial bombardment with a rainbow theme from every nook and cranny of the capitalist system is this. Businesses of all shapes and sizes use Pride Month to promote products with pride-themed packaging, deck out their establishments with rainbow decorations, and bombard clients with trite catchphrases before packing it all away after June 30.
Instead of being specifically and uniquely designed, advertisements and products are rebranded and diverted to meet rainbow themes.
Products are frequently “pinkwashed” to have a queer-friendly appearance while simultaneously illuminating the companies’ progressivism, tolerance, and support for the LGBTQ+ community and their cause. This inclusion is viewed as a sign of development and acceptance by members of the LGBTQ+ community, allies and non-members. Others, on the other hand, object to the way major corporations, the media, and popular culture have begun to commercialize the LGBTQ+ community and have turned Pride into yet another pink-hued manifestation of capitalism.
Every June, rainbow-related concepts proliferate. Almost everyone begins to embrace the rainbow-themed fashion fads and other products being marketed by large corporations, and they fervently support them on social media. Pink capitalism, like all other types of capitalism, may be exploitative despite the obvious good intentions of inclusivity and normalizing the presence of the rainbow in society. Instead of assisting the LGBTQ+ community, these businesses most likely seek to win their support.
The idea that businesses benefit from the existence and exploitation of queers, frequently without offering the queer community any type of assistance, is fiercely contested. These companies thereby encourage prejudice and inequity. For many, capitalism has been a means of advancing unfavorable ideologies like neo-colonialism, gentrification, and maintaining institutions of white supremacy. The kinds and degrees of oppression and injustice that people encounter both within their own groups and in society at large depend on how different identities coexist.
It is important to acknowledge that as soon as Pride month ends, these brands and companies are unlikely to do as much in preserving and campaigning for the equality, acceptance, and inclusivity they had preached.
So, the question arises; are these companies fighting the oppression and stigma surrounding the LGBQT+ community and supporting their fight or are they profiting off of their movements?