The Angsty Gay: Are we being taken advantage of by corporate advertisers?

Walking down Eighth Avenue in Chelsea you can't help but notice several advertisements geared towards male sexuality on each block. No where else in New York do you see men being objectified for commercial purposes. It's such a normality on Eighth Ave that I've become completely desensitized to it until now. This week I realized that perhaps us NYC gays are being taken advantage of by major corporations trying to sell various products such as clothing, steroids, online dating, pornography, ect. All things we don't really need, but are unfortunately sold in copious amounts in this part of town.

The fact that these items are so ubiquitous on Eighth Avenue doesn't really bother me. What really drives me crazy is the way they're advertised. We've all seen the barrage of posters featuring "perfectly" sculpted guys starring out with an aroused look in their eyes, and the suggestive texts attached to them. I can't help but think this display of so-called "perfect male body image" can slowly erode away at any guy's self esteem. However that's exactly their intention. They're letting you know that if you don't buy into whatever their selling that you should feel self conscious about your body and purchase whatever it is to make yourself worthy of attention. These advertisements represent millions upon millions of dollars worth of budgeting by corporations to make you feel shitty about yourself. But don't, for a second buy into this stereotypical idea.

Their is a huge problem in the gay community today concerning body image. So many of us are so deeply concerned with the way we look and I believe it's partly due to these marketing ploys. As a whole it is very easy for any entity concerned with making money to take advantage of the gay community in this fashion. Hopefully we can start to see a change in the way corporations treat our community. Instead of making us out to be a stereotypical over-sexed, body conscious group, we can begin to receive the respect we deserve. However, this respect can only be achieved if we decide to become our own catalyst. No longer can we support this shameless promotion of so-called "perfection".