My image is of two gay black men wearing a “Gay Is The New Black” t-shirt. This ties into Fred Fejes article on gay and lesbian identity because for the obvious reason, that they are gay, but they are also selling a lifestyle and product (ex. the shirt) to others. Fejes talks about how gay men are labeled as “trendsetters” and the mean in this image have pink rimmed sunglasses on and a fedora hat... very trendy! To build onto Fejes’s findings, Robin R. Means Coleman explains how Black people have been breaking economic boundaries than they were before. In Coleman’s piece, she says that there is a notion in the white commodity of Black men feeling less than Black women but once they feel accepted than they will have their self esteem back. This relates to my picture because being gay is a hard sexuality to accept, especially if you are a gay Black man. But in this picture, these Black men feel very happy and proud that they are the way they are, and they are accepted into the white culture. In Baym’s “Johnny Can’t Dissent” he talks about counter-culture idea, and how capitalism and consumerism has it becoming commodified. This relates to the picture, and what Fejes and Coleman were talking about because there are two gay Black men who are dressed differently. This representing the homosexual counter-culture. They look like they want to market their shirts, because, today, there are more and more gay people coming out and they probably don’t want to make other Black men feel weird or alone. Also, I concluded this because gay’s have been known to get beat up for their orientation, and if they is a gay black guy, then they should run for the hills (if they live in the projects) because it is still something that is working on being accepted.
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