Article Review... Please

So my campus' Queer Publication has permitted me (as TAHS) to write for them again. After two issues of censorship by the former self-hating editor, my voice is now allowed to be heard. Unfortunately, in addition to my token "Angry, political" segment, the publication also needed some filler. So I wrote up a little blurb on stereotypes, because that's something I can always sound off on. Below i pasted the 518 word rough draft, still unsure about my satisfaction with the quality of my work...

Suggestions?

"'Gay Industries'
(The Rainbow Workforce)

The stereotype that’s easiest for Straight America to consume of Homosexuals encompasses a very flat lifestyle of partying, shopping with the Straight Girl and exploring ways in which he can bend gender norms in every act that he does. But for those who dare to muse beyond this single dimension of the homosexual, a host of other questions arise in connection to life as a stereotype. And not just questions like “where does he shop?” and “what race is he?” (both of which have obvious answers explicit within the stereotype itself). They are questions of, “what classes does he take?” “what does he eat?” and “where does he work?”

Specifically this last question is something worth exploring. Using popular representation of the gay stereotype in decades past as a crude lens, one can easily find that there are indeed “Gay Industries.” These are jobs filled with noticeably high populations of homosexuals. Now, we can look at the obvious “Gay Industries” first as they are the common and timeless associations we make with the stereotype. Doris Day’s 1961 movie, “Lover Come Back” provides evidence of the discursively homosexualized profession—in this case it is the interior design business. Not much has changed with that. It is important to note that, since decades like the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s were marked by heavily heterosexism and sexual repression, it takes one quite a great deal of effort to even locate the homosexual in popular culture under all the coding. That being said, we have a host of other obvious industries including the fashion industry, the number one circle wherein societal norms are flipped to the point that any male designer is gay until proven straight (Ah, gotta love those binaries). This industry is explicitly linked to the make-up industry, and salons. Really anything that involves the outward appearance of a person or a space really.

As my mother once off-handedly put it to me, the marketing branches of many firms and such in the States are another niche for the gay man. This is something I’m particularly pleased with: using our epistemic advantage to get those heteros spending. And so we’ve filled other jobs wherein a keen epistemic advantage serves a crucial role. Just try wikipediaing “List of LGBT writers.” You can spend days going through that one. You don’t really have to rack your brain to think of jobs that are compatible with the gay stereotype. Decade after decade, the image of us is the same. Stylists, bakers, tailors, artists, wedding planners… these jobs seem to dwell on the aesthetic, the frivolous, the inconsequential; making the lives of our straight counterparts more pleasing—if only visually.

Dare I be bold and ask… why? Why the gay mind must be so wont to aesthetic contributions to society. Why our stereotype is only of white bourgeois effeminate males presenting straight folk with clothes, and food and beautiful houses and gardens. Why we are easier to digest that way. Dare I question this paradigm and delve deeper? Nah. After all, I’m gay! And I’m just supposed to be covering the facts that matter to my queer little mind: the ones on the surface."