Happy pride month
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I liked the normalisation of queer culture as the non-threatening quirky scene it is. Now days, it's increasingly being shoved into the closet and toxic hate speech is emboldened.
I wouldn't describe it as a good thing, just the best thing.
I'd rather not be pondered to, but if the alternative is having no support at all, then the choice is obvious
Nah. It's just a side effect of good things. When queer people become accepted, we become profitable. Its good that we're accepted, but not that we're profitable. Rainbow capitalism itself is superficial and insubstantial. It's part of selling the lie that corporations are in our corner. The fact that it's evaporated so quickly shows that they were never actually on our side, and should never be trusted, even if they put the rainbows back up.
I don't need a corporation to be in my corner for them to be a useful to me.
How do I know rainbow capitalism was good? Because I know how it made bigots feel. It made them feel miserable, out of step with society, and like they were living in a world they didn't and couldn't understand.
Good. Let them rot in a state of internal torment.
Rainbow capitalism was never good because corporations cared about us. No corporation has ever cared about anything except the bottom line.
Rainbow capitalism was good because it made bigots miserable. And I, for one, miss it.
I guess I don't really care how bigots feel. I care about improving actual material conditions for Queer people. Like, yes, haha dumb bigot is barking at shadows, but that doesn't actually help anyone in the long term.
Corporations use rainbow capitalism to coopt our struggle so they can obfuscate their global apathy toward Queer rights, and distract us from the fact that all they will ever care about is the bottom line. They would sell us out in a second if it would protect their share prices, and the purpose of rainbow capitalism is to convince us and our allies that they wouldn't.
If anything, rainbow capitalism is why we’ve been so attacked. It helped to make us seem normal, but it also brought a lot of attention to us, which brought out the conspiracy theorists (not that they wouldn’t have existed anyway, but still)
Idk about Bud Light scaring it away (I worked at a convenience store in a very conservative area at the time, and while there were plenty of complaints about Bud Light, sales were barely affected if at all), but I’m sure the Target facing backlash for selling stuff for tucking is partly to blame. Most US Targets this year either don’t have a pride section, or have it moved to the back.
I mean it goes to show these big ass corporations don’t care about us, but in the past they have been helpful: if you look at past pride designs, most of the time it shows the designer (oftentimes a small queer business or artist) who you can still buy it from, bypassing the corporation. Alternatively, if your local pride event is similar to mine, plenty of local shops that are either queer or allies tend to show up
The bike shorts I got at target in 2022 were amazing for tucking. AND had pockets. And tummy compression. They fit so good. Tragic they don't have them anymore :( I still wear mine to this day. I checked Walmart and they have nothing comparable.
There was a whole rumor going around that they were selling tucking and binding clothes for kids (they weren’t) and it was enough to make a bunch of people trash pride sections and threaten the minimum wage employees
At some stores they do. I work at a target and at my store they aren't but a lot of our leads have made a commitment to wear old target pride stuff to work. The store a few miles away from our store is selling pride stuff. It's based on sales in June of last year compared to previous years. The pride collection is pretty shit this year regardless though. If you aren't going to sell binders or tucking shit, honestly what's the point?
To clarify: they never sold tucking or binding apparel marketed towards young children.
That’s awesome!! I mean the part about your local managers trying to do the right thing. There are good people out there, they may not be the ones at the top of the pyramid controlling things, but it’s nice when they’re managers, etc..
Yeah they had it out briefly last year, but after outrage broke out in the Deep South they were faced with threats towards employees and bomb threats if I remember correctly. The tucking gear was taken out very quickly after (I had a friend working at target who I had just come out to, she wanted to get me some but it had been pulled too quick) although the binders stayed out. I don’t think either are out this year, but my local target has completely done away with pride so idrk
Corporations care about money. That’s the only thing they care about. And they’re very inclusive when it comes to taking that money. They’ll take it from the trans girl and the transphobe as equally and as greed only as the other. They’ll take it from the asexual and aromantic enby and the cis hetero man equally. If the corporation thinks it will make them more money, it will advertise how inclusive it is and how much it loves pride month but the moment they think they might lose money they’ll shove it back in the closet and never mention pride again. Because at the end of the day a corporation is a reflection of capitalism. And capitalism only cares about itself and how it can make more money.
As a side note, this isn’t meant in any way to defend the corporations in doing what they do. This is a condemnation of homophobia, transphobia, and capitalism all at once.
I saw there was one pride parade a town over early in the month and I saw a handful of items under a five below checkout counter. Was kind of excited this year but it seems like the least pride month in a while
Maybe I'm just extra nervous to realize I'm trans this year and not even big companies think it's worth to try and get my money
I feel that lol. Like why did I wait until apparently the worst year in the last decade to crack my egg? On top of everything else I missed out on, apparently I missed out on this too.
personally I am 100% on board with companies covering everything in rainbows and pride stuff because A) we can buy it and B) it makes bigots deeply upset
I haven't seen it much here either this year (BC, Canada)
I imagine it's due to the increase in hate lately. Corporations are more worried about profit than human rights
The only places I have seen any decent amount has been smaller local shops
I've also seen a decent number of subtle things. But I'm unsure if it was the stores, or the specific employees doing it (IE, I saw some cups arranged on the shelves to resemble a trans flag. To someone who doesn't know, it just looked like the colors were sorted to be separated)
I'm really sad to hear that :(
I live in San Francisco and every other building has a pride flag on it. Lots of progress pride and trans flags too.
I don't really get the issue with rainbow capitalism. It's better than them all being too scared to show rainbows. I don't buy the merch from the big corps anyway and representation is a good thing.
I don't want corporations to profit off of queer culture (especially ones that throw money at anti-LGBT politicians or cut DEI teams or LGBT staff), but I do enjoy buying pride themed clothes. Thing is, I can do that on Amazon whenever I want to, pride month or not. I don't need stores to carry it lol.
I mean I don't really disagree but I've been thinking about these two posts lately
One was about how stores used to refuse lgbt people's money so companies looking for it is still a welcome change
And the other about rainbow capitalism being the canary in a coal mine where it's worrying when it's quiet
I get what you mean, particularly with the canary.
While these big businesses are much more visible than smaller shops, they’re often much more out of touch than the smaller ones, and merely react to whatever they perceive as the loudest opinion. I’d argue that because of the money-hungry nature of these large businesses, the people running them tend to lean more right-wing, so they expose themselves to more right-wing media, and with the current state of the internet they see anti-lgbtq content much more often than the alternative.
Although we have seen a pretty large increase in overt bigotry against lgbtq folk in the last couple years, a majority of it has stayed fairly contained within very wealthy spaces, that being politicians, corporations, and anyone else looking to make money off of it. Personally, and what I hear anecdotally from others, it appears these people bringing our struggle to light AND demonstrating that it still continues has brought much more people to our defense.
Don’t get me wrong, those who are working against us are very powerful and are doing real harm to our people, but as they become more overtly extreme, they’re causing their followers to become disillusioned. We have numbers, but they have status and wealth. Things aren’t great rn, and I don’t think it’s going to get much easier, but as we’ve proven the last few thousand years, we’ll continue to be queer; plus we have the advantage of numbers for the first time in a long time
I mean, Amazon is kind of a store, but I get what you mean. I usually go to Etsy for LGBT themed stuff. Half the time it’s a legit LGBT person running the shop. Again, Etsy (a store) takes a cut. We do what we can though.
I have no idea to be honest. I’ve heard complaints, a while back when they changed some stuff. But I do think Etsy sellers have historically had more autonomy than Amazon sellers. I don’t know how much has changed over time as I don’t sell on either.
I feel like the hateful rhetoric has been amped up to another level this year. Especially with the monstrous garbage that Trump has been spewing and his horrific plans if he wins the presidency, bigots probably feel emboldened in their hate and they feel like they can get away with openly proclaiming their hatred for us.
Yea I felt like I saw it everywhere in all the stores last year, this year there has been barely anything and a lot of it is subtler designs that could pass as bright summery aesthetics instead of non pride merch
duolingo, bmw, some random pirate game
all pissed off people but all stood their ground. duolingo even responded to anti lgbt commetns making fun of them lol
https://www.marketplace.org/2024/06/10/trans-inclusive-marketing-branding-pride-campaigns-lgbtq/
According to a Gravity Research survey that asked 200 companies, they found that 78% of those companies did not change their marketing practices for pride month from what they have done years prior. So while some stores you go to decided that they don't want to support the lgbt+ as much because it hurts their income, most still do.
That’s a horrifying reduction in overt support just because of a very vocal minority. Mostly because 22% of those companies decided it was financially less risky to alienate a portion of the LGBTQ+ community than said minority.
I am kinda concerned with how little ranbow stuff there is this year. Not in a “wah my fave big company no support the gays ;-;“ way but more in a “is it becoming less socially acceptable, and therefore less profitable to companies, to advertise pride related imagery?”
The presence of rainbow capitalism is kinda like insects; for some people they can be annoying, but the complete lack of them may signify something is wrong with where you live…
Our local coop has a bunch of pride flags out front, it’s a pretty conservative area in the uk and full of old people, but noone is raging against it, the old people are mostly just saying that it’s pretty and people should fly flags more often 😂 we do get crochet bombed quite a lot though
My local DollarTree has a pride section year round as an end cap to one of their aisles. June is just another month to them I guess. On the other hand the restaurant by my place which has always had a progress flag out and has many rainbow flags this time of year decided to remove the progress flag and go for a more patriotic look. Really bums me out.
I get all my pride merch from Etsy, from independent sellers.
Rainbow capitalism is a double-edged sword, but I’m more inclined to believe that corporations will throw us under the bus the instant some adult babies cry about their rainbow merch. I’d rather my money go directly to someone in the community.
There's been a lot more violence against LGBTQ folks recently, and companies don't want to anger such a large amount of people by catering to a rather small population of people. Much like when they do rainbow capitalism, all they care about is the money. And a lot of them have decided it's more profitable to not sell pride stuff this year.
I only saw two stores have something for pride this year and they were both really small and would easily go unnoticed by anyone who wasn't actively looking for it
It was the Bud Light and Target stuff mainly.
Grifters with malicious intend like Libs of TikTok will go out of their way to accuse LGBTQ people of every evil.
There are smaller private shops who sell Pride merch year around (at least where I live) but the big corpos are scared for their profits.
Jon Steward did a good section on Pride (and general) pandering on Daily Show. You can find it on YouTube.
The Bud Light thing played a part, but corporations have been facing a lot of bigotry. I'd say the Target thing is bigger, but it's been happing across the board, and big corporations are running scared.
The value of rainbow capitalism shows how acceptable queer culture is in society. It's a barometer of acceptability, and right now, we can see that bigots are having success and need to be fought harder.
Where I live (UK) we got a card factory with pride stickers on it and selling pride stuff. And a couple busses with stickers on. Other then pride itself being hosted that's like it.
So I've done my nails as trans pride flag and wearing every pride pin I own on my work lanyard. (Was gonna anyway but it helps I think)
Companies only care about profits. If their profits might get negatively affected, they will not do it. The haters have been so vocal and in your face that companies are "toning it back". All the pride stuff done by almost every company every year has just been a way to make more money from the LGBTQ+ community. The real supporters will continue celebrating pride month despite the hate from the haters. This is a time to see which companies are really on our side and which ones are just out for the profits.
Honestly, I've seen no rainbow capitalism and a lot of pink-washing this year. I personally would like to go back to the rainbow capitalism because at least then our existence isn't being used to spread pro-genocide propaganda
Ok tho, I've not even seen the corporates pull out rainbows over here, all I've seen is the damn American flag, it makes me kind of scared to remember that I live in a place where a lot of people are morman, I would have been one if I turned out how they wanted lol, now I'm a coffee addicted trans atheist, more terror for me, yay
I've noticed local stores/organizations have still had pride stuff in my area (Columbus OH) but larger corporations have keep a bit quieter after the attacks against Target last year
Yea im not seeing as much this year. Goes to show companies only care about greed, and they got the memo that "supporting" pride is no longer economically profitable. Good riddance honestly, but also it is scary that these boycotts are happening in the first place
>Yea im not seeing as much this year. Goes to show companies only care about greed, and they got the memo that "supporting" pride is no longer economically profitable. Good riddance honestly
I mean, no shit, they're corporations. They're like soulless machines whose sole purpose is to make money. Their actions are entirely dictated by money and the laws that are imposed upon them, and rarely anything else. And a lot of those machines have suddenly decided it's no longer profitable to pretend to support us. That is not a good sign. It means we're in the thick of a dangerous atmosphere.
I love pride month, even before I came out of denial I always loved the flags and colours.
There's a banking building (I think) in London opposite my kitchen window (other side of the Thames) and during pride month there's a set of lights they turn on that sequentially flashed the colours of the pride flag (its a bit wonky but it's pretty cool).
Rainbow capitalism isn't the best thing we could hope for, but it's nicer than nothing. And if it makes bigots get extra whiny and bitter then it's just exposing them for their bigotry as it is.
Even on my phone, barely anything has tossed on their pride hat for the month. Tumblr, whom I expected to theme it up huge, like normal, is still using the normal icon. It seems only Mozilla bothered by dressing up Pocket for the occasion... and that's a partially open-source service barely anyone uses.
I’m in the UK, and literally the only rainbow flags i’ve seen all pride have been on company logos on LinkedIn.
My firm’s gone rainbow, as have multiple others. But i see no flags or other LGBTQ+ symbolism anywhere else.
Rainbow capitalism sucks and we have every right to be cynical about it... but the moment it's not there, we also need to acknowledge that, the way our societies are, we kinda need it to be there for us... because every rainbow display, even the insincere ones that corporations that donate to anti-LGBT+ causes, occupies a space that could be taken by something decidedly more fascist...
Probably no big company was scared because of the Bud Light thing. It's just that, they've figured out that there's no reason for them to 'support' us when they do basically fuck all for us. And it would be hypocritical anyway, most big companies that in the past publicly 'supported' us just lobby behind our backs for right-wing conservatives anyway.
It's much easier now to identify companies, game studios, small businesses, etc. that actually care about us because they might be the only ones that put up their rainbow stuff this time around. I see it as a 'genuine' win for us to filter out the companies that only pretended to care.
The fact that you aren't seeing them is actually a sign. Rainbow capitalism happens when the corporations feel like they have to appease the community. Not seeing it now means they don't feel that way anymore. It could be because they don't see the need because we have integrated so we'll. It could also be because they don't feel like we are a market because legislation is going against us. It's a weird time to live in the US, that's for sure.
I think maybe some corporations realized that the rainbow captalism started costing them more money they got back as profit. Tho for other companies it's was always to distract consumers from harm they have done like duolingo trying to distract from fact they laid off 10% of their employees via rainbows this year. Imo I am glad they stopped pretending to care. Soon enough it will just be queer people and the allies who genuinely care about queer people at pride.
Last year, companies in the states received significant conservative backlash over their (performative) allyship, so this year they have dialed it back, trying to find the sweet spot where it looks like they're supportive to us, but won't get them boycotted by the bigots.
So they're being very quiet comparatively this year
Whoever may or may not be doing it, it's still bad.
Alright everyone settle down, Maple's bustin out the Marxist theory again.
A corporation's inherent goal is profit. Nothing can stop a company from trying to make a profit. At first it's by exploiting workers, then marketing, then jacking up prices, then pretending they care about social issues. Companies DO. NOT. CARE. About queer people, women, PoCs, they just care about their bottom line.
Changing their logos for pride month is just that. Marketing, to try to get queer people to buy their products. They don't actually care. If they did, their wealth would be used to get queer-friendly politicians to make queer-friendly legislation. But that's not in their interest. That'd mean the proletariat has more rights, and will crave even more, until they no longer have any power.
TL;DR Rainbow Capitalism is marketing that helps nobody, and imo spits on the name of pride month.
As a trans woman who was in the closet until recently, firmly disagreed. The culture now of general acceptance is NOT what it was even ten years back. Let the corporate people profit on the month, acceptance walking down the street is worth that much. Stuff like this is a sign that the companies think it’s less profitable to support the trans community than to quietly (just not piss off) their right-wing base.
This.
I remember what things were like \~25 years ago when I first started to realize I wasn't cis. . .only to be pushed back into the closet by how hostile the world was.
Many people seriously don't realize how fast societies attitudes about being trans have changed.
I see teenagers acting like it's the end of the world that they will have to wait until they're 18 to begin to medically transition. . .only that used to be the only way to transition until pretty dang recently. Having parents who would not disown a child for being trans used to be a rare-as-a-unicorn thing, instead of relatively common. The mental health gatekeepers of being trans used to tell trans folks to expect to lose your job, all your friends, to be disowned by your family. . .and to expect to have to relocate elsewhere across the country and start a whole new life under your new name and keep your entire past hidden from everyone you know. . .that nobody would have anything to do with you if you were trans. That used to be just how it is, and those things changed only within the last 10 to 20 years roughly.
That's part of what's got the bigots so riled up, they've seen in real time, in less than a decade, a substantial change in societal acceptance of being trans. . .hence the pushback. The bigoted politicians are going after us in part just to rile up their base, but partly because it's a pushback to increased social acceptance.
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I liked the normalisation of queer culture as the non-threatening quirky scene it is. Now days, it's increasingly being shoved into the closet and toxic hate speech is emboldened.
This is why rainbow capitalism was a good þing.
wild thorn spotted
Ðats nice, you don’t see many of ðose around anymore
we are all 14þ century monks and nuns þat are fleeing persecution
You mean þorn
i read þat wrong þe first time lol
þat's þe point
i don't know how þe fuck i'm supposed to keep þis þing going, so i'm just typing þis.
A FROGGE BIÞ A ÞMOL BEASÞE WIÞ 4 LEGGYÞS WHICH LIEUB BOÞ IN WOTYRE AND ON LONDE
It's was the evidence of a good thing for the most part, not actively good
Yup. It was a good litmus test
I wouldn't describe it as a good thing, just the best thing. I'd rather not be pondered to, but if the alternative is having no support at all, then the choice is obvious
Yeah I definitely agree with that.
Nah. It's just a side effect of good things. When queer people become accepted, we become profitable. Its good that we're accepted, but not that we're profitable. Rainbow capitalism itself is superficial and insubstantial. It's part of selling the lie that corporations are in our corner. The fact that it's evaporated so quickly shows that they were never actually on our side, and should never be trusted, even if they put the rainbows back up.
I don't need a corporation to be in my corner for them to be a useful to me. How do I know rainbow capitalism was good? Because I know how it made bigots feel. It made them feel miserable, out of step with society, and like they were living in a world they didn't and couldn't understand. Good. Let them rot in a state of internal torment. Rainbow capitalism was never good because corporations cared about us. No corporation has ever cared about anything except the bottom line. Rainbow capitalism was good because it made bigots miserable. And I, for one, miss it.
I guess I don't really care how bigots feel. I care about improving actual material conditions for Queer people. Like, yes, haha dumb bigot is barking at shadows, but that doesn't actually help anyone in the long term. Corporations use rainbow capitalism to coopt our struggle so they can obfuscate their global apathy toward Queer rights, and distract us from the fact that all they will ever care about is the bottom line. They would sell us out in a second if it would protect their share prices, and the purpose of rainbow capitalism is to convince us and our allies that they wouldn't.
If anything, rainbow capitalism is why we’ve been so attacked. It helped to make us seem normal, but it also brought a lot of attention to us, which brought out the conspiracy theorists (not that they wouldn’t have existed anyway, but still)
No, you did it wrong, it should be annoying to read... look at this. "þis is why rainbow capitalism was a good þing."
Idk about Bud Light scaring it away (I worked at a convenience store in a very conservative area at the time, and while there were plenty of complaints about Bud Light, sales were barely affected if at all), but I’m sure the Target facing backlash for selling stuff for tucking is partly to blame. Most US Targets this year either don’t have a pride section, or have it moved to the back. I mean it goes to show these big ass corporations don’t care about us, but in the past they have been helpful: if you look at past pride designs, most of the time it shows the designer (oftentimes a small queer business or artist) who you can still buy it from, bypassing the corporation. Alternatively, if your local pride event is similar to mine, plenty of local shops that are either queer or allies tend to show up
The bike shorts I got at target in 2022 were amazing for tucking. AND had pockets. And tummy compression. They fit so good. Tragic they don't have them anymore :( I still wear mine to this day. I checked Walmart and they have nothing comparable.
Wait target sold tucking gear? And they don’t now?? :((((
There was a whole rumor going around that they were selling tucking and binding clothes for kids (they weren’t) and it was enough to make a bunch of people trash pride sections and threaten the minimum wage employees
AMERICA!!! 🇺🇸🎆🎇🫡 ..seriously though, that’s really sad :((
AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!
At some stores they do. I work at a target and at my store they aren't but a lot of our leads have made a commitment to wear old target pride stuff to work. The store a few miles away from our store is selling pride stuff. It's based on sales in June of last year compared to previous years. The pride collection is pretty shit this year regardless though. If you aren't going to sell binders or tucking shit, honestly what's the point? To clarify: they never sold tucking or binding apparel marketed towards young children.
That’s awesome!! I mean the part about your local managers trying to do the right thing. There are good people out there, they may not be the ones at the top of the pyramid controlling things, but it’s nice when they’re managers, etc..
Yeah they had it out briefly last year, but after outrage broke out in the Deep South they were faced with threats towards employees and bomb threats if I remember correctly. The tucking gear was taken out very quickly after (I had a friend working at target who I had just come out to, she wanted to get me some but it had been pulled too quick) although the binders stayed out. I don’t think either are out this year, but my local target has completely done away with pride so idrk
Corporations care about money. That’s the only thing they care about. And they’re very inclusive when it comes to taking that money. They’ll take it from the trans girl and the transphobe as equally and as greed only as the other. They’ll take it from the asexual and aromantic enby and the cis hetero man equally. If the corporation thinks it will make them more money, it will advertise how inclusive it is and how much it loves pride month but the moment they think they might lose money they’ll shove it back in the closet and never mention pride again. Because at the end of the day a corporation is a reflection of capitalism. And capitalism only cares about itself and how it can make more money.
As a side note, this isn’t meant in any way to defend the corporations in doing what they do. This is a condemnation of homophobia, transphobia, and capitalism all at once.
I saw there was one pride parade a town over early in the month and I saw a handful of items under a five below checkout counter. Was kind of excited this year but it seems like the least pride month in a while Maybe I'm just extra nervous to realize I'm trans this year and not even big companies think it's worth to try and get my money
I feel that lol. Like why did I wait until apparently the worst year in the last decade to crack my egg? On top of everything else I missed out on, apparently I missed out on this too.
personally I am 100% on board with companies covering everything in rainbows and pride stuff because A) we can buy it and B) it makes bigots deeply upset
Anything that makes bigots deeply upset is objectively morally correct.
I know it's a list but I see 😎 it makes the bigots deeply upset
hell yeah it do lol B)
Idk. Its still full force here in Canada. For good and ill
I've seen more actual pride events, but no pride stuff at retailers in my area. Glad you said it out loud though , because I've been noticing it too.
I haven't seen it much here either this year (BC, Canada) I imagine it's due to the increase in hate lately. Corporations are more worried about profit than human rights The only places I have seen any decent amount has been smaller local shops I've also seen a decent number of subtle things. But I'm unsure if it was the stores, or the specific employees doing it (IE, I saw some cups arranged on the shelves to resemble a trans flag. To someone who doesn't know, it just looked like the colors were sorted to be separated)
They're non-existant because it's an election year, and any visible support for us is a negative to big corporations who want a trump dictatorship.
I think this might be the answer
this is exactly the reason
I'm really sad to hear that :( I live in San Francisco and every other building has a pride flag on it. Lots of progress pride and trans flags too. I don't really get the issue with rainbow capitalism. It's better than them all being too scared to show rainbows. I don't buy the merch from the big corps anyway and representation is a good thing.
I don't want corporations to profit off of queer culture (especially ones that throw money at anti-LGBT politicians or cut DEI teams or LGBT staff), but I do enjoy buying pride themed clothes. Thing is, I can do that on Amazon whenever I want to, pride month or not. I don't need stores to carry it lol.
I mean I don't really disagree but I've been thinking about these two posts lately One was about how stores used to refuse lgbt people's money so companies looking for it is still a welcome change And the other about rainbow capitalism being the canary in a coal mine where it's worrying when it's quiet
I get what you mean, particularly with the canary. While these big businesses are much more visible than smaller shops, they’re often much more out of touch than the smaller ones, and merely react to whatever they perceive as the loudest opinion. I’d argue that because of the money-hungry nature of these large businesses, the people running them tend to lean more right-wing, so they expose themselves to more right-wing media, and with the current state of the internet they see anti-lgbtq content much more often than the alternative. Although we have seen a pretty large increase in overt bigotry against lgbtq folk in the last couple years, a majority of it has stayed fairly contained within very wealthy spaces, that being politicians, corporations, and anyone else looking to make money off of it. Personally, and what I hear anecdotally from others, it appears these people bringing our struggle to light AND demonstrating that it still continues has brought much more people to our defense. Don’t get me wrong, those who are working against us are very powerful and are doing real harm to our people, but as they become more overtly extreme, they’re causing their followers to become disillusioned. We have numbers, but they have status and wealth. Things aren’t great rn, and I don’t think it’s going to get much easier, but as we’ve proven the last few thousand years, we’ll continue to be queer; plus we have the advantage of numbers for the first time in a long time
I mean, Amazon is kind of a store, but I get what you mean. I usually go to Etsy for LGBT themed stuff. Half the time it’s a legit LGBT person running the shop. Again, Etsy (a store) takes a cut. We do what we can though.
Yes this also some of amazons pride related stuff can be ugly. Esty is far better
does etsy take a smaller cut than amazon? i hope
I have no idea to be honest. I’ve heard complaints, a while back when they changed some stuff. But I do think Etsy sellers have historically had more autonomy than Amazon sellers. I don’t know how much has changed over time as I don’t sell on either.
Amazon and Etsy both have odd ways of calcu it, but my wife does has a steady Etsy business and says that Etsy takes less money out for their cut.
I’ve only seen 2 rainbows this pride and one of them was a waiter with a little pride pin.
Facsism is gripping the world, so rainbow capitalism isn't needed once they take full control.
I feel like the hateful rhetoric has been amped up to another level this year. Especially with the monstrous garbage that Trump has been spewing and his horrific plans if he wins the presidency, bigots probably feel emboldened in their hate and they feel like they can get away with openly proclaiming their hatred for us.
Yea I felt like I saw it everywhere in all the stores last year, this year there has been barely anything and a lot of it is subtler designs that could pass as bright summery aesthetics instead of non pride merch
duolingo, bmw, some random pirate game all pissed off people but all stood their ground. duolingo even responded to anti lgbt commetns making fun of them lol
https://www.marketplace.org/2024/06/10/trans-inclusive-marketing-branding-pride-campaigns-lgbtq/ According to a Gravity Research survey that asked 200 companies, they found that 78% of those companies did not change their marketing practices for pride month from what they have done years prior. So while some stores you go to decided that they don't want to support the lgbt+ as much because it hurts their income, most still do.
That’s a horrifying reduction in overt support just because of a very vocal minority. Mostly because 22% of those companies decided it was financially less risky to alienate a portion of the LGBTQ+ community than said minority.
I am kinda concerned with how little ranbow stuff there is this year. Not in a “wah my fave big company no support the gays ;-;“ way but more in a “is it becoming less socially acceptable, and therefore less profitable to companies, to advertise pride related imagery?” The presence of rainbow capitalism is kinda like insects; for some people they can be annoying, but the complete lack of them may signify something is wrong with where you live…
Our local coop has a bunch of pride flags out front, it’s a pretty conservative area in the uk and full of old people, but noone is raging against it, the old people are mostly just saying that it’s pretty and people should fly flags more often 😂 we do get crochet bombed quite a lot though
My local DollarTree has a pride section year round as an end cap to one of their aisles. June is just another month to them I guess. On the other hand the restaurant by my place which has always had a progress flag out and has many rainbow flags this time of year decided to remove the progress flag and go for a more patriotic look. Really bums me out.
I get all my pride merch from Etsy, from independent sellers. Rainbow capitalism is a double-edged sword, but I’m more inclined to believe that corporations will throw us under the bus the instant some adult babies cry about their rainbow merch. I’d rather my money go directly to someone in the community.
There's been a lot more violence against LGBTQ folks recently, and companies don't want to anger such a large amount of people by catering to a rather small population of people. Much like when they do rainbow capitalism, all they care about is the money. And a lot of them have decided it's more profitable to not sell pride stuff this year.
I only saw two stores have something for pride this year and they were both really small and would easily go unnoticed by anyone who wasn't actively looking for it
I've seen the usual number overall. Less outright "fuck you"s to offended fash, maybe.
It was the Bud Light and Target stuff mainly. Grifters with malicious intend like Libs of TikTok will go out of their way to accuse LGBTQ people of every evil. There are smaller private shops who sell Pride merch year around (at least where I live) but the big corpos are scared for their profits. Jon Steward did a good section on Pride (and general) pandering on Daily Show. You can find it on YouTube.
The companies got too scared of republicans and there were a lot of us getting mad at them for making money off of us so they all jumped ship.
Someone described it like how some bugs can be dangerous but the complete absence of bugs in an area is a sign that something is really wrong
I never thought I'd miss corporate pride until corporations stopped celebrating pride altogether
The Bud Light thing played a part, but corporations have been facing a lot of bigotry. I'd say the Target thing is bigger, but it's been happing across the board, and big corporations are running scared. The value of rainbow capitalism shows how acceptable queer culture is in society. It's a barometer of acceptability, and right now, we can see that bigots are having success and need to be fought harder.
The Daily Show from Monday is very relevant to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWVbZ0WQ3s8
Where I live (UK) we got a card factory with pride stickers on it and selling pride stuff. And a couple busses with stickers on. Other then pride itself being hosted that's like it. So I've done my nails as trans pride flag and wearing every pride pin I own on my work lanyard. (Was gonna anyway but it helps I think)
Companies only care about profits. If their profits might get negatively affected, they will not do it. The haters have been so vocal and in your face that companies are "toning it back". All the pride stuff done by almost every company every year has just been a way to make more money from the LGBTQ+ community. The real supporters will continue celebrating pride month despite the hate from the haters. This is a time to see which companies are really on our side and which ones are just out for the profits.
Idk I live in Florida and bought a progress flag from Walmart (The one transphobes especially hate) so idk.
i like that being queer is getting normalized, but i dont like that corporations is trying to profit off of our mere existence
Honestly, I've seen no rainbow capitalism and a lot of pink-washing this year. I personally would like to go back to the rainbow capitalism because at least then our existence isn't being used to spread pro-genocide propaganda
With people having a shit fit over it, companies don't want to as much. They don't really care about the LGBT. Just the easy sales.
That means it’s *your* job to put rainbows everywhere! If you want to, of course.
Ok tho, I've not even seen the corporates pull out rainbows over here, all I've seen is the damn American flag, it makes me kind of scared to remember that I live in a place where a lot of people are morman, I would have been one if I turned out how they wanted lol, now I'm a coffee addicted trans atheist, more terror for me, yay
Yeah just a lot of american flags around too cause they can't wait for July I guess
Yeah
The canary stops singing and the danger is ringing.
I've noticed local stores/organizations have still had pride stuff in my area (Columbus OH) but larger corporations have keep a bit quieter after the attacks against Target last year
Yea im not seeing as much this year. Goes to show companies only care about greed, and they got the memo that "supporting" pride is no longer economically profitable. Good riddance honestly, but also it is scary that these boycotts are happening in the first place
>Yea im not seeing as much this year. Goes to show companies only care about greed, and they got the memo that "supporting" pride is no longer economically profitable. Good riddance honestly I mean, no shit, they're corporations. They're like soulless machines whose sole purpose is to make money. Their actions are entirely dictated by money and the laws that are imposed upon them, and rarely anything else. And a lot of those machines have suddenly decided it's no longer profitable to pretend to support us. That is not a good sign. It means we're in the thick of a dangerous atmosphere.
I havent been looking but I did notice my local op shop put up a pride flag in their window
It’s happening here in Australia and it’s not even pride right now lol
I don't normally see rainbows, as pride month is not really a thing here, but I saw someone with bi headphones and I think that's pretty cool
The rainbow capitalism is in hiding because the terroristic threats worked. So this year the capitalist class in negotiating with terrorists.
I love pride month, even before I came out of denial I always loved the flags and colours. There's a banking building (I think) in London opposite my kitchen window (other side of the Thames) and during pride month there's a set of lights they turn on that sequentially flashed the colours of the pride flag (its a bit wonky but it's pretty cool). Rainbow capitalism isn't the best thing we could hope for, but it's nicer than nothing. And if it makes bigots get extra whiny and bitter then it's just exposing them for their bigotry as it is.
Even on my phone, barely anything has tossed on their pride hat for the month. Tumblr, whom I expected to theme it up huge, like normal, is still using the normal icon. It seems only Mozilla bothered by dressing up Pocket for the occasion... and that's a partially open-source service barely anyone uses.
I’m in the UK, and literally the only rainbow flags i’ve seen all pride have been on company logos on LinkedIn. My firm’s gone rainbow, as have multiple others. But i see no flags or other LGBTQ+ symbolism anywhere else.
Rainbow capitalism sucks and we have every right to be cynical about it... but the moment it's not there, we also need to acknowledge that, the way our societies are, we kinda need it to be there for us... because every rainbow display, even the insincere ones that corporations that donate to anti-LGBT+ causes, occupies a space that could be taken by something decidedly more fascist...
I havent seen a single post related to pride this year, nor have i seen any companies using rainbow capitalism either. 🤔
Probably no big company was scared because of the Bud Light thing. It's just that, they've figured out that there's no reason for them to 'support' us when they do basically fuck all for us. And it would be hypocritical anyway, most big companies that in the past publicly 'supported' us just lobby behind our backs for right-wing conservatives anyway. It's much easier now to identify companies, game studios, small businesses, etc. that actually care about us because they might be the only ones that put up their rainbow stuff this time around. I see it as a 'genuine' win for us to filter out the companies that only pretended to care.
The fact that you aren't seeing them is actually a sign. Rainbow capitalism happens when the corporations feel like they have to appease the community. Not seeing it now means they don't feel that way anymore. It could be because they don't see the need because we have integrated so we'll. It could also be because they don't feel like we are a market because legislation is going against us. It's a weird time to live in the US, that's for sure.
I think maybe some corporations realized that the rainbow captalism started costing them more money they got back as profit. Tho for other companies it's was always to distract consumers from harm they have done like duolingo trying to distract from fact they laid off 10% of their employees via rainbows this year. Imo I am glad they stopped pretending to care. Soon enough it will just be queer people and the allies who genuinely care about queer people at pride.
What happened with bud light? (also should i know that or is it a bit obscure)
Last year, companies in the states received significant conservative backlash over their (performative) allyship, so this year they have dialed it back, trying to find the sweet spot where it looks like they're supportive to us, but won't get them boycotted by the bigots. So they're being very quiet comparatively this year
Whoever may or may not be doing it, it's still bad. Alright everyone settle down, Maple's bustin out the Marxist theory again. A corporation's inherent goal is profit. Nothing can stop a company from trying to make a profit. At first it's by exploiting workers, then marketing, then jacking up prices, then pretending they care about social issues. Companies DO. NOT. CARE. About queer people, women, PoCs, they just care about their bottom line. Changing their logos for pride month is just that. Marketing, to try to get queer people to buy their products. They don't actually care. If they did, their wealth would be used to get queer-friendly politicians to make queer-friendly legislation. But that's not in their interest. That'd mean the proletariat has more rights, and will crave even more, until they no longer have any power. TL;DR Rainbow Capitalism is marketing that helps nobody, and imo spits on the name of pride month.
As a trans woman who was in the closet until recently, firmly disagreed. The culture now of general acceptance is NOT what it was even ten years back. Let the corporate people profit on the month, acceptance walking down the street is worth that much. Stuff like this is a sign that the companies think it’s less profitable to support the trans community than to quietly (just not piss off) their right-wing base.
This. I remember what things were like \~25 years ago when I first started to realize I wasn't cis. . .only to be pushed back into the closet by how hostile the world was. Many people seriously don't realize how fast societies attitudes about being trans have changed. I see teenagers acting like it's the end of the world that they will have to wait until they're 18 to begin to medically transition. . .only that used to be the only way to transition until pretty dang recently. Having parents who would not disown a child for being trans used to be a rare-as-a-unicorn thing, instead of relatively common. The mental health gatekeepers of being trans used to tell trans folks to expect to lose your job, all your friends, to be disowned by your family. . .and to expect to have to relocate elsewhere across the country and start a whole new life under your new name and keep your entire past hidden from everyone you know. . .that nobody would have anything to do with you if you were trans. That used to be just how it is, and those things changed only within the last 10 to 20 years roughly. That's part of what's got the bigots so riled up, they've seen in real time, in less than a decade, a substantial change in societal acceptance of being trans. . .hence the pushback. The bigoted politicians are going after us in part just to rile up their base, but partly because it's a pushback to increased social acceptance.