Ah Christmas...lights, warm cozy insides, chilly brisk outsides, cocoa, decorated trees, cookies, food food food, presents, and FAMILY. A time to be welcomed and feared--usually both at once for many of us. Like the snowy landscape pictured above, Christmas tends to be associated in Euromerican cultures with whiteness. No, I don't just mean the white stuff on the ground, I mean white culture, like we OWN Christianity. As a recovering Catholic of about 30 years, I don't intend to get into a religious argument here, and while I am Atheistic, I have abundant respect for people of faith from all different traditions and spiritualities. But, Christmas is always a time of ethical struggle for me--both as I try each year to negotiate traditions that are a part of my personal and familial history that I think of with fondness, but often, upon even surface examination, reveal problematic complications---religion aside--from rapey songs like "Baby it's cold outside" to the gendered expectations of ramped up domestic tasks as you prepare for the holiday, to the way (a la Lee Edelman) the holiday in the US tends, since the 1950s when many of this holiday's traditions come from, to center children in very heteronormative ways. Queer? Single? Childless? Are you sure this is the holiday for you? Are you a 30 something child or an adult? What does Santa say, lol? Amidst an already extra fraught holiday season (my partner and I got Covid after three years of avoiding it, right before we were to travel for the holidays---more on this later), there is always the small squabbles amidst family members, that, in my family at least, are par for the course. This year, right at the end of a three day stay, a conversation my partner and I had had the week previous while driving around listening to Christmas music came up in front of my aunt and parents. Now, by way of background, all three of these folx profess to be very very liberal socially and fiscally, life long democrats, retired hippies, and all around "laid back" free spirited tolerant people--until you ask them to confront their complicity as white folx in the white supremacist structures of which we are all - myself included-- a part. I should mention that, when telling this story to a friend and colleague the other day, they immediately knew what song I am about to mention just because I said "band aid" and "racism" in the same sentence.... But, my family---especially my aunt, who used to work as a stage sound equipment crew member in the 80s and 90s before an injury--found my proposition to be an intolerable slur against an untouchable institution and an exaggerated, overly judgmental, and maybe even delusional critique. I deigned to suggest that the song "Do they know it's Christmas time in Africa"--which was sung at/by Band Aid---the 1984 edition--was complicit in racist discourses that support white supremacy (see lyrics below). I explained that intention is irrelevant. I explained that while most people understand that song is about depravation and not ignorance, those who want to hear that black folx are inherently less than, and therefore unable to be truly Christian will hear a validation of their viewpoints. I explained that its not about "being racist" but about how all things are complicit in white supremacy by virtue of participating unmediated in these discourses. It didn't matter, I had clearly touched a nerve. My aunt declared that "you don't understand--people were suffering, it was horrible and we were doing everything we could to help" and "You just think everything is racist now." I mean, in a sense she is right, but it is not about what I think. I gave up on the conversation as it got too emotional, but, it left me concerned---if these people, liberals with relative means and no need to be threatened cannot participate in the work of anti-racism at the most basic level of discussion, who can???? I don't have a clever solution here, only my disappointment. Speaking of disappointment: During the dozens of rounds of testing we did in the lead up to the holidays with Covid, I opened a US government sanctioned Covid test only two find two sets of instructions, one in Spanish, one in English. Ok, fine, separate but equal...or not, because the English one was glossy and official looking, while the Spanish language instructions were matte. I know this does not matter in the grand scheme of things too much, but, not merging them, or, doing a lower quality of print on the Spanish language instructions just felt to me like a fuck you to our VERY LARGE MLL Hispanic population in the U.S. It felt anti-immigrant and anti-diversity. So, a merry WHITE Christmas to US all! UPDATE: I am less clear now on the implications of the glossy versus matte Covid test instructions. I opened another one up from the same brand a few weeks later and it was inverted: the Spanish was glossy and the English matte. I then texted someone else I know who had the test and she said both were glossy?! So, perhaps its just inconsistent, or, an attempt at randomized equality. However, it still, in my opinion, risks reinforcing dangerous and inaccurate hierarchies if you get the English only glossy version and are already pre-disposed to linguistic or immigrant discrimination. New pic: Do They Know It's Christmas Time? Band Aid (Various Artists) / Midge Ure / Bob Geldof It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time But say a prayer, Pray for the other ones At Christmas time it's hard, but when you're having fun There's a world outside your window And it's a world of dread and fear Where the only water flowing Is the bitter sting of tears And the Christmas bells that ring There are the clanging chimes of doom Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time The greatest gift they'll get this year is life Where nothing ever grows No rain nor rivers flow Do they know it's Christmas time at all? Here's to you Raise a glass for everyone Spare a thought this yuletide for the deprived If the table was turned would you survive Here's to them Underneath that burning sun You ain't gotta feel guilt just selfless Give a little help to the helpless Do they know it's Christmas time at all? Feed the world Feed the world Feed the world Feed the world Feed the world Let them know it's Christmas time again Feed the world Let them know it's Christmas time again Feed the world Let them know it's Christmas time again Feed the world Let them know it's Christmas time again Feed the world
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Recently I had to browse security camera options for an aged in-law. After looking at a spate of local companies, I figured I would cover my bases and get a few national quotes. The image above is the first thing I encountered on the ADT page. As a straight white cis-woman, I cannot say how it feels to look at this particular scene of domesticity as someone who identifies as queer or BIPOC, but, as a cultural analyst, I was both buoyed and discomfited. Firstly, what I see as the good news: This is a national company centering queer and biracial families (childless, no less, no even a surrogate fur-baby in sight---Lee Edelman might be cheered by this) in their advertising campaign. This is the only image--not a token in a scroll. This normalizes families as not solely white and straight. Now for the bad news. The way these two men are marked as queer is not simply because they co-habitat in a domestic space. Another image I encountered later demonstrates this. After submitting a request for a quote, I got an email containing this image. I thought, wow, ADT's marketing department must have decided queer families are the next uncaptured market of security sales, another gay couple! But lo, my lack of TV watching betrayed me. After sending this to a friend, they informed me that these are twin brothers from a home improvement TV show---an endorsement by them of ADT, not by ADT of queer normality. The show is called Property Brothers, and after I returned to my original image to resume my critique without the additional fodder, I thought, hmm...actually, what if they are related. My reason for this is the possible reliance on stereotyping to signal or activate a queer market demographic that may link the two. ty anFirstly, I should note that the file name for the image that ADT uses on their website is "standing-couple-kitchen-d-2x." The reference to them as a couple, I believe, supports at the very least my understanding that the website image is a gay couple, and not more brothers, is accurate. But, each image, regardless, seems to activate queer stereotypes as a way of inviting, if not welcoming, queer, but maybe specifically gay male, audiences to see themselves as the audience and an ideal consumer. Firstly, the Property Brothers snap-shot. This is a theory that probably won't stand up to much scrutiny and I don't have any evidence for it, but, the show is on HGTV--Home and Garden TV, which, while it contains many shows ostensibly geared towards straight men, can also be a station who considers gay men to be a prime target audience. So, it is possible the brothers extend a targeting of queer audiences as new customers.
The homepage "couple," signals non-heteronormative identity in much more, I feel, troubling and undeniable ways. I cannot deny that we all, as individuals are enculturated to do things and behave in ways that perform our gender and sexual identities (thank you Judith Butler), but we must remember not to naturalize or essentialize such roles and behaviors and appearances, and that the repetition of said acts solidifies the naturalization of such things as expressions of an essential identity. Such ossification can become oppressive: a la women are meant to do the cooking and cleaning. Here, in this image, we have the man on the right doing cooking work--this normalizes both good and bad things. A) It resists the idea that this is inherently a woman's role (unless you see queer masculinity as maladaptive masculinity, but, based on my read of this marketing, the ideal audience for this would not). B) It contributes to the equating of gender and sexuality and the false narrative that gay men are more effeminate--or, woman-like. The effeminacy of gay men as a stereotype may also be reinforced further by the body language or position of the man on the left. He leans on the table, chest out, inner arms exposed--in a fashion most often seen posed by women in advertisements. So, while I think ADT is mostly evolving in a positive direction with this advert, it is trying a little to hard perhaps, and as a result leaning unnecessarily on reductive, erroneous, and sometimes damaging assumptions about "all" gay men. One final note on intersectionality before I speculate on the reason why ADT might be turning so directly towards this consumer group: let's talk for a minute about race and class. First, ADT is expensive. The kitchen depicted in this image is at least middle class. The men are dressed like people living on a middle class income. We can only assume that at least one of them is a professional something with a deeply disposable income--to pay for the heirloom tomatoes, the expensive chopping block and chefs knife, the REALLY nice (double?) oven, and of course, the security system itself. What might this communicate about queerness? Only middle class queerness is acceptable? Gay men have more money (out, coupled individuals in general do have higher rates of financial success, it is true, but, again, stereotypes.). Perhaps it is the fact that gay male couples have higher incomes, that made ADT decide to target this particular market (though it should be noted gay men often have lower job security than their straight peers). Beyond class, or, in ways that sociologically disrupts the stability signaled by their seemingly middle class status, this couple is also biracial, or potentially both BIPOC. Guessing races is not a practice I recommend, but, it is obvious that we have one lighter skinned and one darker skinned individual here and that visually in U.S. cultural rhetoric, this signals a biracial pairing (an image that is perhaps too visible relative to its increasingly quotidian occurrence). The presence of what appears to be a Black man suggests two things to me. One: ADT is also trying to increase marketing reach towards BIPOC consumers, as are many companies these days. Two: in order to include a BIPOC individual who is also gay, ADT's marketing team felt the need to reinforce white supremacist power dynamics so as to seem less threating. Regarding this second read on the image, I refer to the way in which the man on the right is: the one performing the labor, in the presence of a lighter-skinned man who will also benefit from it, making his position seems subservient (even if it is loving and equal in the reality it portrays for many queer couples). This is small and maybe even unintentional, but, I didn't want to overlook it. Now, on, finally, to why I think queer couples might be the next big market everyone wants a piece of. Though a quick google search produces no evidence of a wider trend identified relating gay consumers and home security spending, I can't help but wonder, if such a strategy is being employed here, what is it about our current social climate that might make such a move seem profitable? I feel it is the strangely contradictory social and political soup in which we currently reside (reactionary politics? two steps forward one step back?). The last 30 years have seen remarkable progress on the front of gay rights, acceptance of queerness, and inclusion and validation of these lives and bodies in our every-day U.S. culture---especially since gay marriage was legalized in 2015. However, not a year later, we ushered in a period of regressive (make America great again? when was it great?) politics. 2016 kicks off the era of Trumpism which, as we now know is much bigger than one man and has unearthed and emboldened a wide and terrifying but not new streak of homophobia (and racism, and sexism, and islamophobia, and antisemitism, etc.). So, here is my theory--since public dialogue, the executive branch up until 2020, congress, and the supreme and lower and state courts have rapidly and openly sought to dismantle a sense of safety and security for queer folx at the same time as public acceptance and normalization of queerness is higher that it has ever been before, this strange soup of social conflicts produces the perfect market for a queer home security campaign: "We approve of your life! Now, use that newfound power to purchase a home security system that will allow you to protect it from the increasing number of threats that beset you on all sides! Free dame-day quotes available now! References "ADT Home Alarm Systems." 2023. https://www.adt.com/. Accessed 1 January 2023. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge. ADT Email to Molly Hall. 3 January 2023. Glassman, Brian. 2020. "Same-Sex Married Couples Have Higher Income Than Opposite-Sex Married Couples." 17 September. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/same-sex-married-couples-have-higher-income-than-opposite-sex-married-couples.html. Accessed 3 January 2023. Jones, Tasha L. 2021. "How to Approach BIPOC Targeted Marketing." https://lvjonesconsulting.com/how-to-approach-bipoc-targeted-marketing/. Accessed 3 January 2023. |
Discourse in ActionWelcome to my page, where I have decided to record moments that I witness or experience in my daily life that fill me with perplexity, rage, or sadness. Sometimes all three. Not sure what unites these moments (yet) but want to record them either way. Archives |