Cultural camouflage: how consumers perform concealment practices and blending techniques to insulate cultural membership

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore how gay men manage their identities both within and outside the gay community by drawing on post-gay discourses, which surmise stigma against the gay community as a thing of the past. Implementing qualitative methods, the findings show that a post-gay subjectivity is produced via a series of camouflage strategies, which enable consumers to assimilate into mainstream society, whilst acquiring cultural membership and recognition. This research illustrates how these strategies function as cultural repertoires that improve consumers’ well-being while paradoxically reproducing heteronormative power relations that exacerbate stigma and diversification both within and outside the gay community.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• identity threats
• stigma
• cultural membership
• post-gay
• LGBTQ+

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra S. Rome

Alexandra S. Rome is an assistant professor of marketing at ICN Business School. Her research focuses broadly on consumer culture with a focus on gender, sexuality, and the market mediation of social life. Her current research agenda includes several projects exploring the pornification of culture and the role of digital technologies in consumption. Her work has been published in journals including Marketing Theory, the Journal of Macromarketing, and Psychology and Marketing.

Jack S. Tillotson

Jack S. Tillotson is an assistant professor at the School of Marketing and Communication at the University of Vaasa. Much of his current research interests lie in examining consumer embodiment as it is related to various issues of health and well-being. His research appears in the Annals of Tourism Research, the Journal of Place Management and Development, Foundations and Trends® in Marketing, and Psychology and Marketing.

Florian Maurice

Florian Maurice recently graduated with an MSc in Marketing and Brand Management from ICN Business School. His thesis focused on sexuality, consumption, and tourism.