The Final

Advertising:

The Lesbian Focus

For the final project, I decided to embark on a journey to discover the effects advertising on the body image of the lesbian community. In doing so, I also created a personal instagram, where I posted pictures and wrote blurbs relating to facts I was learning. During our class, we did read about advertising and how the lesbian audience has not really been found to have any commercial value to advertisers. We read the article, “Commodity Lesbianism”, BY Danae Clark. However, the research in the article was from the 70’s and 80’s, so decades ago. Times have advanced somewhat since then, so I wanted to see if there was any change in gay advertising.

When researching it is important to be able to compare and contrast groups with one another. So I took some time to research how advertising has influenced the gay male community first... and I found some interesting things out… www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/general-information/lgbtq.

“Approximately 20 million women and 10 million men in the U.S. will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives”

“gay men struggle disproportionately with body image issues and eating disorders: Though they are thought to make up just 5 percent of the national male population, gay men account for 42 percent of men who report having an eating disorder.”

Gay men are appearing in ads like cover girl. They share a lot of similarities with heterosexual females, thus when advertisers target women they are also targeting some of the gay male community.

James Charles, 2016 Covergirl Campaign.

As my research continued, I found an article that focused more on the lesbian population’s issues with body image. The following information came from the cite: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu

“While gay men act out similarly to heterosexual females in their issues of body image and self-esteem, lesbians seem to combine the experiences of both heterosexual females and males”

“Findings on this issue seem to be contradictory. Adopting feminist ideals frequently leads lesbians to care less about body image and weight; instead focusing more on the whole person. Other arguments indicate that it is impossible for lesbians, regardless of their beliefs, to ignore the pressure from media and societal messages that female beauty is synonymous with thinness”.

“All women irrespective of their sexual orientation are targeted constantly by media and societal messages that promote the thin ideal”

Since I was unable to film interviews with lesbian women first hand, I chose to look at a few online blogs to learn about different journeys.

“Megan, 25, feels better about her body when dating women because it changes the way in which she sees herself.”

“I was judged and of course it was suggested that the only reason I ‘said I was gay’ was because I was too fat to get a boyfriend.”

“Sadly, the LGBT community suffers higher rates of suicide attempts, depression and anxiety than the general population. We are also at higher risk of disordered eating.”

Though the majority of my research showed that lesbians are still not really targeted in advertising, there were still a couple ads that did!  

The Coors Light ad actually had two women in an ad for an equality campaign.

This Subaru ad did not have women in an ad, but planned on psychologically grabbing the attention of that audience… while mainly focusing on heterosexual men.

And then I remembered how I would see so many lgbt folks smoke at bars. It seemed like everyone was smoking, especially in NYC, so I looked up some information to see the lgbt smoking statistics. I did find out that I was right. Gay men, women, and trans people do smoke more than any other group. It does not help that cigarette companies gear their products for poor and lgbt communities.

“lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults smoke at rates up to 2.5 times higher than straight adults, due in part to targeted marketing by Big Tobacco.”

“20.6 percent of LGB adults and 35.5 percent of transgender adults smoke cigarettes”

“Big Tobacco has targeted the LGBT community since at least 1991”

In the end, it is fair to say that lesbian women are rarely targeted in ad campaigns. It is clear that companies have yet to see lesbians as a community they would be able to make money off of, except for cigarette companies. However, the subgroup within the community still share the qualities of straight men and women, so some advertisements do resonate with them. All women are told to be thin by the media, whether they are gay or straight, masc or femme. Women like Roxanne Gay have found themselves in a negative place because of society's view of what women should look like. Other gay women, feel they aren't phased by the norms set. My research did not really show one consistent finding, but was contradictory. There needs to me more studies done that focus on the lesbian community. For now, it is just important for all women and men to see through the psychological effects advertisements are meant to have on people. Be smart and love yourself.

Works Cited

“Eating Disorders in LGBTQ+ Populations.” National Eating Disorders Association, 21 Feb. 2018, www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/general-information/lgbtq.

Chabot, Nicole (2005) "How to Look the Part: Implications of Body Image Issues for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual College Students," The Vermont Connection: Vol. 26, Article 8. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol26/iss1/8

Rubin, Elana. “3 Women Explain How Dating Women Has Made Them Fall In Love With Their Own Bodies.” Elite Daily, Elite Daily, 13 Nov. 2018, www.elitedaily.com/p/body-image-for-lesbians-can-be-complicated-but-heres-how-3-women-fell-more-in-love-with-themselves-9901117.

“Distorted Self Images | Out & About Nashville.” Out About Nashville, 8 July 2014, www.outandaboutnashville.com/distorted-self-images/.

Stevens, Perry. “An Analysis of Tobacco Industry Marketing to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Populations: Strategies for Mainstream Tobacco Control and Prevention.” 1 July 2004, www.journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524839904264617.

Lee JGL, Griffin GK, Melvin CL

Tobacco use among sexual minorities in the USA, 1987 to May 2007: a systematic review

Tobacco Control 2009;18:275-282.

“How Advertising Depicts Gays and Lesbians.” HBS Working Knowledge, www.hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/how-advertising-depicts-gays-and-lesbians.