Other products in the Pride Collection make less sense. Likewise, there are certainly members of our community that will snatch up rainbow-colored Mickey Mouse T-shirts, even if that does mortify me. Target is correct we will buy Pride-themed pet accessories, and I don’t think that we should be embarrassed by that. Some of these products are so well-tailored to our community, it’s enough to make a person believe in market research. That’s the only explanation I can offer for why Target seems to think that a rainbow-colored ice cream cone is this year’s must-have motif (get it on a button-down, a scented candle, or as a dog toy).
However, seeing relatable faces in clothing I can’t imagine wearing is surprisingly unsettling.Įxamining the collection, I wonder if some queer Target designer carefully created a few products but then slowly started to wonder what exactly they could get away with. Likewise, obvious care went into hiring a diverse set of models. Target stands ready to sell us T-shirts and bandanas in the colors denoting a variety of LGBT identities, notably including asexuality. The Pride Collection is remarkable for its inclusiveness. That alone says plenty about the corporation’s latest attempt to sell rainbow-covered everything to queer and trans people. In my local Target, the Pride Collection products are right next to the Fourth of July paraphernalia.
