Levi’s isn’t afraid to bare their true colors for Pride Month this year.
The storied denim brand, to shock and chagrin, just released a pair of “pride denim chaps” as part of their pride collection. For 2020, Levi’s says it has “banded together with artists and activists around the world to create space for one single message to prevail: USE YOUR VOICE!”
The release of the chaps is purportedly to celebrate the “raise awareness about stigma” tied to the LGBTQ+ community, according to its website. However, the denim chaps aren’t the only part of the Pride 2020 collection. It also includes rainbow graphic tee shirts and tie-dye denim that encourages people to speak out for LGBTQ+ rights. Levi’s says 100% of the net proceeds from the pride collection will go to the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization OutRight Action International.
Even so, some members of the LGBTQ+ community on social media were not impressed, and took the move as yet another example of corporate pandering during Pride Month. One lesbian writer said, “Um. I think Levi’s needs help,” while another quipped, “Listen, even the party gays didn’t ask for this.“
As Naveen Kumar wrote for them during Pride Month 2019, there’s a long standing trend of criticism from within the LGBTQ+ community about the corporate commodification of Pride. However, in recent years, the pointed concerns have grown louder, especially as the large stride towards marriage equality has taken Pride to the mainstream for corporations unlike ever before. There are rewards to be had in organizing victories, however, the critiques highlight that slapping rainbows on products might imply that commercial visibility means the larger battles have already been won — when, in fact, the community still is still fighting for full enfranchisement.
“What we’re seeing in terms of corporatization and consumer influence is to a large degree a completely logical outcome of a gay rights movement that was predicated on a series of reforms — legal, judicial, and cultural — all [geared toward] acceptance,” Michael Bronski, Professor of the Practice in Media and Activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, told them. last year. “Full citizenship in America has always been predicated on the ability to consume. So why would it be different for LGBTQ people?”
