Every year, on the first breath of summer, Pride collections emerge like a horde of brightly-colored locusts. They blanket every storefront and Instagram feed in June, promising solidarity and celebration for LGBTQ communities."Yaas, Queen!" the shirts proclaim."Love is love," the decorative buttons affirm. Then there are the rainbow-printed suits and shoes, which bear no actual words but are still so very, very loud.
June is Pride Month. Wall Street has taken noticeMake no mistake: Visibility and acceptance are rights for which generations of activists have fought. But a growing chorus of LGBTQ voices are ridiculing the way Pride Month is being marketed by large companies, especially as they grow bolder with their use of queer language and imagery. Maybe it's rainbow capitalism -- the idea that some companies use LGBTQ allyship for their own gain. Maybe it's simply bad design.
— Chris Stedman May 27, 2021 Read MoreStedman, a professor of religion at Augsburg University and an expert in digital communication, has been watching the ugly Pride merch discourse with great interest. To him, the uncomfortable feeling these rainbow offerings inspire has little to do with taste.
Pride 2021: A history of the rainbow flag 01:39Pithy phrases and campy glitz may be great for selling things, but that's not what this language was made for. Facing alienation from a culture at large, marginalized communities create their own cultures as a form of protection. Queer aesthetics, even the humorous, glamorous, fascinating parts, are often shaped around a basic instinct of survival.
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