Best Buy: Make The Geek Gay

Target and Best Buy have been hammered by gay rights allies this week for giving money to the Minnesota Forward PAC, which in turn handed that dough over to right wing gubernatorial hopeful Tom Emmer.

Both companies claim they're more interested in Emmer's economic plans than his social conservatism.

Despite their explanations, Target and Best Buy still can't shake queer criticism, and could use some good, progressive press; I can't go that far, but I can offer Best Buy some advice: make "the geek" gay.

For those of you who don't watch commercials, Best Buy currently has a TV spot in which a college-bound teen and his mother are looking for a laptop, and receive Best Buy's "Geek Squad" support team. "Buy a laptop, get a Geek," the store's promotion declares.

So, mom, son and store employee go to review the geeks, hanging from the wall like toys, almost all men. "Look at these fabulous geeks; there are so many," exclaims the mother, strolling past the exceedingly handsome men. For all her enthusiasm about the men, however, her son proves his heterosexuality by salivating at the geek army's sole female. Mom readily explains, "He's in such a hurry to learn," and the viewer has a little laugh. Very little.

Though I don't think there's anything wrong with this commercials' heteronormative conclusion, there's clearly gay potential here. Best Buy could easily expand its market, and garner positive press, if they were to just make that final geek a man -- or make the customer a woman -- thus giving the ad campaign a same-sex face lift.

For all its negative byproducts, like oppression and poverty, capitalist culture and the consumerism therein aren't all bad. Consumerism can in fact be harnessed for good, instead of evil, like when Chemistry.com puts out a gay inclusive commercial, or travel website Expedia's decision to add "gay friendly" as one of its "hotel amenities," thereby forcing businesses to either offer same-sex support or miss out on our money.

Consumerism isn't the only force behind this "gay the geek" campaign. There's an age-old, and often unspoken, alliance between the gays and the geeks: most people who fit into those categories have been picked on and taunted for not conforming to the "norm." We're outcasts, and feel a solidarity, however subconscious, born from years of social abuse. And of course the groups aren't mutually exclusive: I'm a gay man who proudly identifies as a geek, among other things.

By making the geek gay, Best Buy would accomplish two goals. First, it could show gays that it is not homophobic, a charge understandably tied to their Emmer involvement. Second, the company would show its political shrewdness by linking two historically oppressed groups into a mighty phalanx for social justice. If the gays and the geeks can be brought together, we would be a force to be reckoned with; toss in nerds, punks and other assorted "weirdos," and we would be unstoppable!

Though my suggestion may sound like jest, I am completely serious: if Best Buy wants to prove it doesn't have a homophobic agenda, it needs to reach out to the gays, the geek and other oppressed peoples to form an inclusive umbrella of capitalist, and social, love.

As for Target: I have no such suggestions for you. Perhaps you can enlist a fashion designer to create a limited line of rainbow flags, or something. Sorry, your commercials aren't in my televisual rotation.

Photo credit: Best Buy Commercial on YouTube