Outing PlanetOut: surveillance, gay marketing and internet affinity portals

Abstract

This study uses an examination of the two largest internet affinity portals serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) communities - PlanetOut.com and Gay.com - as an entry point into a broader discussion of gay marketing and surveillance in cyberspace. Informing this examination are arguments that the newfound courting of the ‘gay community’ by mainstream marketers represents a repositioning of gays and lesbians in commercial panoptic formations based on the perceived desirability of these populations as niche markets. This position is supported by the Janus-faced design of these online portals, which present themselves as inclusive communities to gay and lesbian consumers while simultaneously presenting themselves as surveilling entities to corporate clients. The marketing strategies deployed by these portals suggest that corporate actors believe that gays and lesbians can be enticed into self-surveillance by distancing solicitations for personal information from their economic aims and rearticulating them with images of community and romance.