But I'm having second thoughts about my excitement. Feminism has long decried the portrayal and use of women in advertising: usually for cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, being mothers. Here a gay man [or maybe both men?] has replaced the woman: but is this actually liberating for either? Are gay men simply being feminized, conforming further to social stereotypes of both male homosexuality and of femininity?
It seems to me that the heterosexual male is still holding reign over his kingdom. Gay men are being placed into advertising by pushing heterosexual women out. We are sharing the same space, but neither "group" is getting to move into the full realm that we should be (and have been) demanding.
Maybe this is a (very) small victory for affluent white gay men, who have finally peeked out from the advertising closet. However, I am skeptical. I don't think women, gay men, or anyone else are progressing much further with this ad.
Even further, it is telling that the ad depicts very affluent gay men who can afford such an expensive kitchen. This group--as long as they conform to certain stereotypes--have been pulled to the "inner margins." Not included, but more accepted, tolerated. [The show "How I Met Your Mother" calls them "G-CWOKs."] But what about lesbians? Transgendered persons? Gay men who aren't rich and don't fit into the "G-CWOK" box? I suspect we are a long time coming before we see anyone like this in mainstream advertisements. And we still need to see more gay men and heterosexual women in ads that don't only portray them as typical stereotypes. And that's just advertising; don't get me started on television (though I hinted at it in my HIMYM comment). We have a long way still to go.
