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Thursday, April 12, 2007

We Are The Sex Media: You’re Only as Gay as Your… Car?

filed under: We Are The Sex Media by Lux Nightmare

I don’t drive.

I never have: I moved to Manhattan when I was sixteen, and getting a license didn’t make much sense.

When I was nineteen, I got a learner’s permit, but I never actually used it: it’s since expired.

So since I don’t drive, and I don’t really know anyone who drives, I don’t really give much thought to cars.  And I especially don’t give much thought to what a specific car says about one’s sexual identity.

Apparently, I’m alone in that one: the New York Times has an article in today’s style section analyzing the orientation assumptions that come prepackaged with different types of cars.  While the article makes some semi-valid points about about orientation and choice of car (since gays — and I assume they mean gay men — have, on average, a higher amount of disposable income, and are less likely to have children, they might be more drawn to less “practical” cars; like, say, a convertible or a two seater — though of course it would be remiss of us not to point out that the whole “childless rich gay man” thing is a bit of a tired stereotype), I can’t help but wonder, yet again, why any of this matters.

I mean, seriously: why should who I fuck affect my choice of car?  Or music?  Or anything about my lifestyle separate from, well, who I fuck?

My feelings might be best summed up by Adam Bernard, a GM employee interviewed for the article:

Company executives, he said, do not seem to feel skittish about losing market share among straight consumers if gay buyers suddenly seize on a particular model. “I don’t think internally we ever asked the question, ‘If we put Cadillac in The Advocate, are we going to lose straight Cadillac buyers?’ ”

“Frankly,” he added, “the money’s all the same color.”

And the cars all run on the same gasoline.

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