How Fashion And Beauty Brands Are Capitalizing on Queerness By Selling Rainbow Pride Products

Teen Vogue is celebrating Pride by highlighting the stories that matter to the LGBTQ community. See all our coverage here.

Pride month has hit peak commercialization and this year it feels like brands are capitalizing on it more than ever. From corporate banks to restaurant chains and even candy stores (we thought candy was rainbow colored all year round?!) everyone seems to have painted themselves ROYGBIV in honor of the 30 days devoted to the LGBTQIA+ community.

This is particularly true for the fashion world, where limited edition t-shirts, multi-colored bralettes, rainbow platform sandals, and beauty products are being sold by mass market brands to celebrate (and inevitably profit off) a community that has long endured stigmatization, discrimination, harassment, and much worse.

While fostering conversations around LGBTQIA+ rights, creating further visibility for the community, and raising funds for queer-focused non-profits are signficant and commendable gestures, these efforts are also diluting queer narratives. We’ve now officially entered into the era of rainbow capitalism, where queerness is being marketed to us in a very specific way.

“Brands see June as an opportunity to capitalize on a culture that’s reaching mainstream acceptance,” MI Leggett, the designer behind genderless clothing brand Official Rebrand tells Teen Vogue. Out deputy editor Fran Tirado agrees. “Queer and trans people, who have really only been ushered into the mainstream in last 50 years, have now become a demo that brands can check boxes on,” says Fran, which he believes is an “ugly consequence of being publicly recognized.”

Yet boiling queer culture down to be as palatable and consumable as possible, MI says this erases many aspects of queer history and identities and ignores the fact that the group was devastated by a deadly epidemic the government did not adequately address (AIDS). “[Brands generally] don’t depict the tragically low life-expectancy of Black trans women being 35. They don’t depict higher rates of homelessness, depression or suicide. They mostly depict cis or cis-passing queers who look happy, clean, and affluent. These are not truly inclusive or intersectional representations.”

Not only this, Ben Barry, associate professor of equity, diversity, and inclusion at Ryerson University in Toronto argues that most brands’ efforts tend to be normative. “Throwing rainbows on t-shirts and jackets...these looks continue to uphold a binary rather than unstitching it.” Ben believes that when brands capitalize on queerness, it limits the ways we perceive queer liberation, tying it closely to heteronormativity and capitalism, while also reducing queer issues to being singular issues — mostly gay rights and gay marriage. Rather than spreading the multitude of experiences endured by the community, “it conceals how queer justices are tied to colonialism, racism, transphobia, and capitalism.”

It also becomes a problem when fashion and beauty companies support anti-LGBTQ organizations, or work with factories in places where LGBTQIA rights are not fully supported to produce their products. For example, Nike is currently offering special pride products, while still working with Chinese manufacturers. Though China, which is known for being socially conservative, accepted a recommendation from the UN to adopt anti-discrimination laws in March 2019 — a event that queer supporters called a “milestone” — a month later Chinese social media platforms experienced censorship against pro-LGBTQIA content, later reversed after user backlash.

In response to a request for comment from Teen Vogue, Nike highlighted their strong LGBTQIA activism over the years and their and Code of Conduct policies, though they did not address China's censorship of LGBTQA voices directly.

Brands should be considering how they can be stronger allies to the queer community at every point of their business models — from hiring queer employees and executives to putting company policies into practice that ensure they are properly affirming the community. This also means providing gender neutral bathrooms for non-binary and trans folks in their offices and store spaces and also using proper gender pronouns.

“Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic society so brands and corporations are going to do this no matter what,” says Fran. “In an ideal world, capitalism would have no place in queer liberation or pride whatsoever.” But, there are some things brands can be doing to impact the community in more appropriate ways.

Fran, who regularly travels the country speaking with students and consulting companies about queerness, says brands need to pay attention to their messaging — “I am up in arms and critical in how they come across,” he told Teen Vogue — and ensure their efforts have real impact on queer communities by working with a non-profit partner, particularly ones that are more underserved, and donating 100% of proceeds to that organziation.

This year, American Eagle is donating 100% of sales from its pride collection to support LGBT youth via the It Gets Better Project while ASOS has partnered with GLAAD on a 50-piece collection with 100% of net proceeds going to the organization.

Nordstrom is donating 100% of proceeds from a t-shirt that benefits the Human Rights Campaign, while the retailer has also provided grants to various non-profits such as Seattle's Pride Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and is sponsoring several pride parades in the United States and Canada in addition to the World Pride Parade in New Work.

Fran believes explicit communication about how much brands are donating and where donations are going is essential. While Doc Martens’ 1460 Pride Boots support a critical organization called The Trevor Project — allowing wearers to “stand tall with the LGBTQ community” — the website does not state how much of the $145 the rainboots cost will go to the non-profit.

In response to this, a spokesperson from the company shared over email that, “Dr. Martens doesn’t disclose an amount of sales that goes to The Trevor Project because they make a lump sum donation yearly. That way they don’t rely on the sales of the product in order to donate the amount they would like towards The Trevor Project’s work.” While the company’s reasoning has some validity, it could be argued that transparency could work in the brand’s favor, for those consumers who want to know exactly how much of their purchase is going to support marginalized groups.

Moving forward, Ben believes that in order to shift power structures, brands must also collaborate more with trans people, indigenous people and queer people of color. “Those are really where the attention and the messages or need to be focused because they're the ones who have been left out of pride month and queer liberation,” he says. There’s also an opportunity for bigger name brands to partner with smaller queer-led companies and help bolster their messages and products.

When companies only talk about queerness during pride month, they are tokenizing the demographic, which Rob Smith, CEO and founder of a genderless retail store called The Phluid Project, says is inauthentic as corporations should be discussing these issues all year around. Rob says, “In order to truly make progress, and I do believe we are on our way, we must approach, admit and work to remedy limitations and injustices in sizing, casting, representation and solution-based product, first.”

Plus, Rob thinks that corporate companies have a massive opportunity to protect the queer community in ways that the government won’t, pointing out that “In 26 states across the nation, you can still legally get fired for being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.” Accordingly, fashion and beauty brands could play a crucial role in bolstering vulnerable communities and educating the public about queer issues, beyond just creating products and ad campaigns.

Rob has taken these issues into consideration since launching his company, offering diversity trainings, providing gender-neutral bathrooms and dressing rooms, and arranging the retail floor so it is an open concept with no split between masculine and feminine products. Beyond The Phluid Project’s own private label, the company supports queer owned businesses and non-profits whose mission and concept aligns with theirs, and also does consulting for big name brands such as Nike and Macy’s to help them implement these ideals in their business practices.

“What feels most pressing in this moment is so much more about company culture and the importance of beauty or fashion brands really taking a stand or are putting forth thoughtful, cogent language about inclusion, about identity as opposed to just selling products,” says writer and curator Kimberly Drew.” She wants to know who these companies are marketing their products to and who benefits from them, and wishes to see corporations who are putting their efforts towards giving their staff proper diversity and inclusion trainings from C-Suite executives to those working in retail. “I'm way more interested in seeing a cultural shift happen much less than getting a pair of rainbow slippers.”

Still, MI makes a point to say they don’t want to downplay the importance the rainbow flag can hold for some people. “Even if the motivations are murky, corporate pride collections and campaigns can have a huge impact. I’m very privileged to call both Brooklyn and Berlin home — if I lived in a place where queerness was less accepted, perhaps the endorsements of large companies would mean much more to me.”

Model Aaron Philip recognizes the duality of the situation, saying that while capitalizing on pride is wrong brands could really support the community in actionable ways. Recently, she had a positive experience working with Dove on a project, which donated money and resources to The Audre Lorde Product. Aaron told Teen Vogue that the collaboration didn’t feel “performative” because Dove is going beyond just donating money. Over email, a spokesperson from the brand shared that, “through this partnership, Dove is supporting the ongoing work of healing justice, trans justice, community building and volunteering being done by The Audre Lorde Project in NYC.”

Aaron also starred in Sephora’s trans-focused campaign, which released earlier this month, that took a stand for trans inclusion, featuring other transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary models including Hunter Schafer and Fatima Jamal. Similarly, Fran believes that “giving trans people money is the most important thing” — trans people, who are considered one of the most vulnerable groups within the queer community, should be a priority for brands. And this is especially true since Marsha P. Johnson, a black transgender woman, was a major figure in the Stonewall Riots that ultimately prompted the first pride-related celebrations in 1970.

Ultimately, celebrating pride is more than just buying or wearing cute and colorful merchandise. So, before spending your dollars on rainbow products, consider these issues, and make smart decisions that will actually benefit the queer community. And as Fran says, “If we don’t hold brands to better ideas and giving back to our community, then we will be one dimensional rainbow signs.”

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue