Pink capitalism, also known as rainbow capitalism, is the incorporation of the LGBTQ+ movement into the various spheres of capitalism. The most visible form of this process is the aggressive marketing and advertising which the corporations indulge in during pride month. However, the intentions behind these actions invite a lot of skepticism especially from within the LGBTQ+ community. There is thus a need for critically analyzing the impacts of the said “rainbow capitalism” as its critiques are ironically those whom the corporates label as its beneficiary.

 

At the stroke of midnight every June, we find corporations painting rainbows over their logos and embracing the most visual form of support to the community which eventually drains the essence of the movement, molding it to suit the aesthetic of their customer base which now consists dominantly of progressive youth rather than conservative adults. Ash, a member of the community owning a small business of their own believes that this shallow participation in Pride is mainly due to cancel culture and the fear of losing customers owing to their lack of participation in politics. This results in them making hollow commitments to the cause and thereby not contributing anything to what pride stands for while faking the “wokeness” to keep their sales running. This ignorant approach to pride buries the history which it originally attempted to represent.

 

When asked, LGBTQ+ owned businesses stated that pride is more than just the celebration which it appears to be and its reduction to this is most likely to be a result of rainbow washing. Ash says, "Pride is a protest, not a parade. Unfortunately, some people from outside the community tend to view it as the latter. While pride is a movement with multiple layers which need to be understood, PR and marketing strategies have reduced it to another commodity that can be sold”. Sarah Sinhal, another small business owner from the community states how people who do not belong to the community, often believe that the narrative is theirs to write and that they can turn pride into whatever works for them under the umbrella of activism and raising their voice for the “voiceless”.

 

Another issue that is commonly observed by people from the community is that allies believe that allyship is a badge to wear, a flag to wave, a t-shirt to put on, or any such visually observable process. This creates room for commercialization, often resulting in a materialistic approach to issues, where one can wear solutions and buy out of problems. This tendency of people where they reduce support as a tangible object leads to performative activism and churns out masses of people who have settled to doing nothing more because they believe that their pride t-shirt has effectively created change, leading to a stagnancy in the fight for LGBTQ+ liberation, while it appears to be physically dynamic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                               

                                                                                                  Credits: Team Vogue- Anna Pipes

 

 

 

The community has come a long way from having no representation at all to having the biggest corporations plastering rainbows to their logos and products to represent them. But is this really a representation? Or is it just another sales strategy? Sarah Sinhal says, “some corporates, irrespective of what they market during pride, end up donating to and supporting anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns, by which they are not only being hypocritical but also counterproductive.” Many people buy commodities from corporations under the impression that they are supporting a good cause and all the money that they spend on these corporations gets funneled back into anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns, thereby causing more harm than good.

​

As we begin to compare the difference between mass-produced commodities which scream pride and the handmade products by people from the community who run small businesses, it becomes clearer which benefits them. This realization is vital in identifying effective ways to help the community and to put an end to pretentious activism. "In everything we make, we put in a piece of who we are, and every penny you pay us keeps the community going, unlike in those businesses which see pride as an extension to everyday trade and a means to encash more money", says Alvia, a small business owner from the community. She strongly believes that the love and dedication with which small businesses work can never be replaced by the mechanical processes which corporations indulge in. “We are emotionally invested in the work we do,” she adds. Moreover, people from the community are more committed to pride than corporations ever will be and are thus better at providing products that truly reflect pride. The emotional element in pride cannot be separated from those belonging to the community, thus it becomes impossible for corporations to replicate and reproduce like everything else that they sell.