There’s No Such Thing as a Gay Bar: Co-Sexuality and the Neoliberal Branding of Queer Spaces

Abstract

Gay bars have historically functioned as communal spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. Because of neoliberalism, LGBTQ+ acceptance continues to rise as “post-gay’’ discourses, coupled with the inclusion of heterosexual audiences, have repositioned gay bars as inclusive spaces. In this study, we explore how the meaning of “gay bar” is communicatively negotiated. Specifically, we employed a co-sexuality lens with spatiality to understand how the “gay bar brand” is constructed and perceived. We used ethnographic methods including observation, 25 semi-structured interviews, and documents at two gay bars in a Midwestern college town. We demonstrate how gay bars, through neoliberal branding, reopened the meaning of gay bars as spaces for “all” sexualities. Three tensions emerged: (1) who gay bars are for (queer or general communities); (2) sexual autonomy (contested meanings around “safety” and “being yourself”); and (3) viable marketing (tension between “community” and “commodification”). This study contributes to the literature on sexuality, space, and branding by moving beyond utopian depictions of gay bars. Instead, it encourages scholars to understand the bars as destabilized and contested queer spaces.

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

“…As Aarnav suggests, the prevalence of the Internet and digital devices has contributed to the 'degaying' of physical gay spaces (Nash, 2013) by enabling users -particularly young gay men -to transcend spatial and geographic boundaries abating the need for traditional physical gay spaces (Blackwell et al, 2015;Vorobjovas-Pinta & Hardy, 2015). This, as our findings illustrate, plays an important role, particularly for those men intent on evading negative stereotypes and interactions associated with gay bars and gay spaces more generally (Branchik & O'Leary, 2015;Branton & Compton, 2021):…”

“…Generated data (transcripts, field notes, and supplementary materials) were analysed as social texts, through which certain discourses, cultural meanings, and discursive practices were rendered visible (Moisander et al, 2009). Data analysis took place in three distinct phases (Branton & Compton, 2021). Phase one included a preliminary analysis of the observational research, informal interviews, and supplementary materials that helped us refine the scope, theory, recruitment, and interview protocols.…”

“…Intersecting with a politics of homonormativity (Duggan, 2003) that espouses an 'acceptable' type of gayness premised on heteronormative attributes (e.g., white, cis-gendered, able-bodied, upper/middle-class) and institutions (e.g., domesticity, monogamy), these trends imply a shift in collective identity from opposition (celebrating difference) to inclusion (stressing similarity) within the broader mainstream culture (Schroeder, 2015). Such is further evidenced in the 'degaying' of gay spaces, whereby the lines between gay and straight (e.g., bars, clubs, and districts) have become increasingly blurred (Branton & Compton, 2021;Ghaziani, 2014;Nash, 2013). Coupled with landmark societal and legislative changes (Edmondson, 2021;Kirchick, 2019) and the growing visibility of gay imagery in popular culture (Branchik & O'Leary, 2015;Descubes et al, 2018;Kates, 2004;Mikkonen 2010;Nölke, 2018), these trends have raised questions around the nature of contemporary gay culture, identity, community, and consumption, and how they are interlinked; as well as how gay consumers negotiate their experiences in the current social milieu.…”

“…Characterised by sex, recreational drugs, and alcohol, circuit parties draw in thousands of (primarily white) male participants, last between two and ten days, and recur annually. With the mainstreaming of gay culture, marked by an erasure of predominately gay spaces (Branton & Compton, 2021;Ghaziani, 2014), the circuit serves as a sort of subcultural boundary (Kates, 2002) moving 'in a seemingly counter direction. With every step toward assimilation into the cultural mainstream, the circuit has become a vast symbolic counterweight reminding gay men of their essential difference' (Carrington, 2006, p. 134).…”

“…Many of the participants expressed their confusion of ( (Branchik 2002;Branchik & O'Leary, 2015). For others, the problem emanates from the broadening of the gay subcultural boundary (Kates, 2002) that now includes a whole host of subjectivities that the participants may not fully identify or want to be associated with (Branton & Compton, 2021) Victor's repudiation of gay-specific services, like misterB&B -a travel and social network site that caters directly to a gay demographic looking for short-term lodgingsignifies his uneasiness, particularly with the sexual implications associated with using peer-to-peer platforms targeting gay men. This appears to echo a longstanding trope that homosexuals are somehow responsible for a breakdown in traditional values and sexual morality (Branchik & O'Leary, 2015).…”