W
WWW JU S TO U T COM
2 b AUGUST 21 2009
VO ICES
T h e P o w er o f th e G o / D o lla r
Harnessing a Different
Kind of L-Word:
Lucrative
Last month I had the opportunity to
speak on a panel at an international confer
ence for women bloggers about issues relat
ing to being queer on the Internet. We dis
cussed a variety of topics, including reaching
other queer bloggers, dealing with negative
commenters, and the visibility of our com
munity. Attending the session were Trish
Bendix from afterellen.com and chicagonow.
com, which features the L-Blog; Liza Barry-
Kessler, one of the founders of lesbianfamily.
org; Sara Dopp of genderfork.com; author
and blogger Deb Rox of debontherox.com;
and Polly Pagenhart from lesbiandad.net.
Each woman had rich and relevant in
formation to contribute, support to lend and
provided amazing conversation for the rest
of the weekend. In a group of over 1,500
mostly straight, mostly mommyblogging
women—that is, women who blog about
being a mommy—it was refreshing to find a
group of people to whom I could relate and
feel comfortable around.
Being forced to interact with the straight/
mommyblogger women was difficult at best;
each time I introduced myself, she would ask
'for the name of my blog, which immediately
bp Kathrpn M artini
The gay dollar is real, and
I believe it is imperative
that we show companies
and small businesses that
we are a force with which
to be reckoned.
outed me. “The name of my blog is recover-
ingstraightgirl.com,” I would say, watching
for the expression on her face. Her smile
would freeze and she would just look at me,
the ill-at-ease feeling setting in.
These were women from all over the
world, from places unlike Portland, some of
whom had never been around an out lesbian
before. I tried to view it as an educational
experience—an educational experience for
them, that was. I’m not shy and was never in
the closet, but being in that situation was very
uncomfortable. It was just another example of
how much privilege I took for granted when I
was living a hetero life. It also made me real
ize how glad I am to live in the northwest.
The second day of the conference fea
tured Ilene Chaiken, creator and executive
producer of The L Word. I worried that the
fact she was a successful, out lesbian would
be lost on the audience, or as Deb Rox put
it, “I wonder if the big pink elephant in the
room will be addressed?” I was pleasantly
surprised to find that it was addressed; the
moderator brought it up often. Chaiken was
an interesting and compelling speaker, and
the queer bloggers cheered every time she
said something we liked—especially when
she told us that Jenny’s killer would be re
vealed in The L-Word movie, a script she is
currently penning.
She spoke about product placement and
targeting the gay dollar and how that type
of marketing was non-existent when she was
first writing the series, which debuted in 2004.
It was non-existent because we were invisible.
We are still invisible to many companies that
market to women, a fact completely lost on
me. Why wouldn’t companies market to us?
Most queer couples are DINKs (Dual In
come No Kids) and we spend money.
When Chaiken spoke about how difficult
it was to find a corporate sponsor for Dana,
the professional tennis-playing character on
the program, the ladies at my table knew that
it was Subaru. According to Chaiken, Subaru
was the only car company to even consider
being featured on a lesbian television show at
the time. Hopefully, this is changing.
Certainly the fight for marriage equality
has increased the visibility of the queer com
munity, as well as shown us who are friends
and allies and who aren’t. We all have the op
portunity each and every day to vote with our
dollars and choose to frequent friendly and
family-owned businesses. We can choose our
doctors and dentists and what kind of car we
drive or which realtor to select when buying
a new home.
Just Out is filled with advertisements for
businesses that won’t take our money and use
it against us. The gay dollar is real, ¿Tnd I be
lieve it is imperative that we show companies
and small businesses that we are a force with
which to be reckoned. Ibis can only be ac
complished if we as a community demand it;
it’s time.
The queer blogging panel and a lesbian
keynote speaker helped me to not feel invis
ible at the conference, despite being in the
midst of 1,500 straight mommybloggers. We
are not invisible, and it’s our responsibility
to stand up and be counted as a group that
makes things happen!
is a freelance writer
and blogger. She can be reached at kathryn@
recoveringstraightgirl. com.
K
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