Word: queerness
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...driveways to display them in. We don't experience our cars as ourselves. If we did, I would have to confront the sad fact that I am a mouthwash-green 1995 Mercury Tracer. We express ourselves instead through our clothes, shoes and furniture, which is probably why we love Queer Eye for the Straight Guy so much...
There is, however, a car-country answer to Queer Eye: the car-and-bike makeover show. Discovery Channel's American Chopper, MTV's Pimp My Ride and several others turn junkers into sleek street machines and motorcycles into works of art, and in the process tell us how people (mostly men) express and define themselves through their stuff. They're Queer Eye, the shop-class version: the Gear...
...these shows, you have heavy metal and rap, not dance-club remixes. Tattoos and piercings, not Dolce & Gabbana. Metalworking, not wine pairing. If there is such a thing as the opposite of metrosexual, the Gear Eye shows are it. Most important, where Queer Eye is about growing up--becoming urbane and understated--the Gear Eye shows are about nurturing your inner third-grader. On the likes of Discovery's Monster Garage and TLC's Overhaulin', cars get tricked out into roaring, smoke-spewing beasts that resemble something out of a 6-year...
...With actress Kirstie Alley, Pier 1 walked the razor's edge of parody. The company, with $1.8 billion in sales for 2003, apparently felt it could gamble on Alley's fairy-godmother-in-an-evening-gown routine. It has now moved on to Thom Filicia, a member of the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy cast, who strengthens Pier 1's connection to individual style while injecting a trendy dose of male glamour...
...talk about the gents. It's hard to say whether Queer Eye reflects a broader acceptance of gays and gay culture, but it does underscore the increasing pressure on men to be glamorous. The business opportunity is huge, as the billion-dollar market for sexual-performance-enhancing drugs and plastic surgery for men shows. To date, the marketing of male glamour almost without exception smacks of desperation. The Queer Eye targets are always hauled in by their women. The marketing of Viagra and Levitra is painful to behold, and indeed Viagra will soon hire a new advertising agency to manage...