It’s ‘Rainbow-Washing’ Season
Look beyond a company’s new Pride-themed logo
As a gay man, Pride Month brings with it a basket case of celebrations and contemplations.
It’s a time to revel in one’s outright queerness. It’s a month to find love or simply fuck around — quite literally. It’s a 30-day review of LGBTQI+ history, reflecting on the progress made and the work that still needs to be done. It’s a calendar staple that pedestals inner authenticity; Pride Month is an homage to the breaking shackles, tethered by living in a world predicated on heteronormativity.
However, Pride Month — in more recent years, especially after the Marriage Equality Act was passed in 2015 — has become a month-long celebration inundated by glossy marketing campaigns selling you, the consumer, on a brand’s unshakable support for the LGBTQI+ community. It’s easy to start looking at the world with those colored glasses, which can adversely affect your conscious purchasing decisions. In a roundabout way, being enticed solely by a rainbow filter of a cheeky bit of queer website copy could even lead you to spend your hard-earned cash on a product made by a company that’s far from inclusive or ethical, or environmentally conscious.
Human beings are drawn and guided by a stimulus; it’s a survival instinct, quite frankly. Marketing drives and…
