Commerce "Outs" Identity
No matter their size, shape, shade, or sex, people, like products, are given personalities in the American commercial marketplace. In most lifestyle choices -- such as clothes worn, cars driven, jobs worked, foods eaten, pets pampered, films seen, magazines read, programs watched, or music heard -- Americans order the personalities that they both want and can afford to project from the menu that commerce offers. Essentially, Americans consume their identities, a paradoxical form of self-definition through self-cannibalization. In the realm of commerce, no one can remain in the closet.
"LesBiGay"1 identity appears to be the specialty du jour for sale on commerce's cart. Having discovered LesBiGays as a significant market sector, capitalist vendors now endlessly pitch products to them. Moreover, these savvy vendors now pitch the LesBiGay identity itself as a product.2 LesBiGay images infuse commodities with illusions of chic and trendy lifestyles ready-made to buy. Sean Strub, a New York marketer, colorfully captures the inextricable link between his gay identity and his commercial choices: "I buy my Christmas gifts from the Shocking Gray catalogue, I wash my hair with Pride shampoo, I wear Don't Panic T-shirts, and I stamp 'Gay Money' on my cash."3
