TRENDING TOPICS

This is an opinion piece and reflects the views of the author and not necessarily the views of Covered. I would also like to state that while I am not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I do consider myself an ally. This does mean that I am not fully qualified on having an opinion on this matter and would like for you to keep that in mind as you read. Thank you to my friends in the queer community for guiding me through writing this peace.

If you haven’t seen the Rainbow Pride Collection for sale at Woolworths, I’m sure you’ve seen the backlash and criticism against the South African retailer online. While we can all argue against the “Gay Agenda” and debate to the end of times about what is morally and religiously correct or not, let’s look at the capitalistic agenda first.
Pinkwashing is a term that is used to refer to manipulation tactics used by an establishment to portray themselves as liberal or very left-wing when that is not the case. There are two definitions of pinkwashing that can range from flat-out lying to using the LGBTQIA+ community for for-profit purposes.

A prime example of this is Israel Pride Week. This pride week takes place in June and has an attendance of 200 000 people where self-expression and queer culture is celebrated and promoted. This comes across as very progressive and fits into liberal movements of the West but runs in conjunction with the human rights abuses of the Palestinian people. Does this mean you can identify as anything except Palestinian?  The promotion of allyship by Israel serves as a propaganda tactic. Sometimes the IDF tweets pictures of soldiers supporting the queer community or women empowerment images, but they are the violent enforcers of an apartheid system. Israel also uses Palestinian homophobia to promote their occupation- by showing the world that Israel is superior and one of the reasons is Palestine’s treatment of homosexuals.
The second definition refers to corporate pinkwashing which is using the LGBTQIA+ cause as a marketing tool and nothing more. A large corporate company that will benefit from a small community but will not actually do anything to serve them. During pride month there is almost a rush for companies to run social media campaigns or feature a product in the rainbow colours of the pride flag. Red, orange, blue and all the other colours are plastered on spaces to acknowledge the month. It is beginning to come around like clockwork, like Christmas decorations everywhere.

Pride campaigns serve as a rainbow cog in the machine. Another way for corporates to make money and keep making money. An example of pinkwashing would be the pride campaign that BMW ran in 2022 where they changed their logo to feature the rainbow colours on social media accounts across the world, except in Russia, where homosexuality is outlawed. If they truly aligned and wanted to support the queer community, why not support Russia too? Were they too afraid of the backlash or too afraid of losing customers and money in that country?

Ultimately, from a demographic point of view, the LGBTQIA+ community can form a large part of customers. Although there are no official numbers (the South African census does not keep a record of gender identity or sexual orientation) according to this 2019 article, 634 000 South Africans would self-identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Why not appeal to them?

So, what is the capitalistic-gay agenda?
The Woolworths collection features 6 items (t-shirts, socks, a tote, and a bucket hat) with the pride flag plastered somewhat randomly on the product. They claim that they are donating some of their profits to an LGBTQIA+ organisation but when I asked for specifics, they could not tell me which organisation.