Gay Cars: Not that there’s anything wrong with that
‘œThe car has become… an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete.’ ‘“ Marshall McLuhan
Last weekend as Jeanine and I picked up our rental car to drive out to the Berkshires, I laughed at seeing the Subaru sitting in the stall. Do straight people know that Subaru’s are considered lesbian cars?
Apparently so. According to The New York Times, Meghan Daum, my favorite op-ed contributor to The Los Angeles Times wrote a few years ago, ‘œabout a promising first date with a man that never led to a second one because, she later learned, the guy saw that she drove a Subaru Outback station wagon and concluded she must be a lesbian.’
When did a car become a declaration of one’s sexual orientation? Even Tom and Ray at Car Talk have assembled their list of The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Cars. You can’t get any more hetero than Tom and Ray. But the gays weigh in too: Gaywheels.com publishes their list of gay-friendly car companies and Ramone Johnson who covers the Gay Life at About.com compiles his ‘œBest of‘ every year.
Why all the lists? And why are car companies using a stereotype for identity? Is it branding? Is it greed? Are they designing products specifically for queer buyers? And when you think about it, are cars really any different from jeans, coffee, or mobile phones? So what’s all the fuss about cars?
Personally, I don’t get it. Plus all the niche marketing seems to have backfired. Or at the very least wasted on me: the lesbian. This was duly noted when Jeanine asked if I’d ever consider buying one. As I kicked it into overdrive, the concern wasn’t: does this car make me look gay? But rather: does this car make me look fat? Mainstream marketers take note.
Zoom, zoom, zoom. What are your thoughts on gay cars?
Well this gay woman drives a Subaru Forester – which is definitely a queer car – and I like it! I will admit that I look for lesbians when I see a Subaru, Forester or Outback and I do often find them. It’s interesting – like rednecks who drive trucks or something. I don’t know. Interesting and yes, a little weird.
The gay boys like Subarus too…
I’ve said it before, I’ve wanted a Subaru since I was a little kid. This was before Martina Navratilova started doing commercials for them. There was something about a Subaru GL that connected with me. Then it became the Outback, and Subaru has had a grip on my heart since then. I have a rationale for almost everything. This one, all logic escapes me… it’s like the march of the penguins. It’s just nature, I guess.
The sad thing is that of all the nice cars I got to drive when I was younger, a Subaru was never one of them. It was like I was Johnny Cash and a Subaru was my June Carter.
This straight boy loves his Subaru too! I’m on my second Subaru, and I don’t plan on stopping there. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to explain to my wife that I’m actually a lesbian…
Oh dear. What about bi girls? I think Subaru Outbacks are really cute!
But in the big scheme, I don’t judge people’s sexuality/sexualness/really anything except perhaps income or planet-lovingness by their cars.
Well, except for one thing. If a guy’s car is amazingly loud, I think he’s “compensating” for something.
My partner and I live in Maine, where old Subarus and Volvos are the unofficial state cars. We just bought a well-used Subaru Impreza. She likes it because it’s got AWD and a roof rack, and gives us Mainer cred; I like it because it was cheap and has lots of cargo space.
We almost considered getting the vanity plate LESBARU for it, but decided against it. 🙂
Part of the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance.
Fabulous! I can’t wait to tell the ex-U of Colorado football player across the street that it turns out he’s a lesbian! 🙂
Actually, my family and neighbors on both sides and across the street drive Foresters, and our other neighbor (who *did* recently check out a lesbian cowboy bar for the first time) bought a new Impreza last month.
Maybe people of both orientations just happen to like a good, reliable car…money (corporate)is the only thing I can think of to birth the Les/Subaru connection.