My work is personal to me – it’s therapeutic, and sharing it with the LGBTQ+ community brings me a sense of happiness and belonging, connecting with strangers under the same umbrella.
Unfortunately, it’s marred by big companies and profit-driven individuals taking advantage. Two phrases spring to mind, Rainbow Washing, and the Pink Pound.
Rainbow washing is the practice of making your business appear queer-friendly. The phenomenon appears around the traditional Pride Month of June – although consumer fatigue means this is becoming less celebratory year on year.
Ironically, it’s usually the washers themselves who make the biggest fuss about it; “We celebrate diversity” is their standard statement. From a marketing perspective, they get to control the narrative – usually by pivoting to how they are “the good guys”.
Interestingly this manifests in two ways: the corporate giant donating a mysteriously vague amount to an unnamed charity, and the niche “artisan-brand” that leans heavily on the idea that they are the only ones you can “truly trust”.
Both are selling the same thing, though; a moral halo. One does it with a marketing department, the other with a tug on the heart strings because they are part of the LGBTQ+ community, yet they too tout the exact same mass-produced print-on-demand t-shirts, mugs, and cheap keychains.
Big or small, the mantra stands, they really, really celebrate diversity.
The above can be explained by the phrase “The Pink Pound”. The Pink Pound is huge, and it’s the description of the monetary amount injected into the economy by the LGBTQ+ community.
This is an emotional area for me. We might be Here, Queer, And Proud Of It, but a lot of us are quiet, and just get on with it. Indeed, the LGBTQ+ umbrella is vast, but a lot of those members are only just realising they are part of it. Many of them might be confused, oppressed, or even unhappy with their own feelings -they are vulnerable.
This is why the Pink Pound is seen as lucrative, if you strip away the disposable incomes a same-sex couple may have, you’ll see the coffers of the Pink Pound are also filled by people searching for their own identity and validation.
So where do I fit into this? My place is as a solo artisan, I make things, nice things that I hope the LGBTQ+ community would like to buy. If you don’t want to buy anything, that’s okay, I really don’t mind; I just enjoy the process of creating.
You can read more about me on my About page, or if you’d like to contact me please do visit the Contact page.