Where the gays shop

So I just read this article from my lover, Wonkette, which describes Obama staffers playing taboo. Someone got "gap" and his hint was a place where gay people shop. Obama guessed "Abercrombie and Fitch" and another staffer guessed "H+M."

I, of course, am addicted to H+M; I have not shopped at Gap since coming out and admitting that I have taste. But Abercrombie and Fitch? Cmon. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure lots of gay guys pine over their half (or fully) naked dudes on display in the windows and their catalogs, and surely some gay guys do shop there. But isn't A+F one of the most heteronormative stores? It's whole sales pitch is not about its clothing, which are rarely even visible in its sexed-up ads - it's about selling traditional roles of masculinity and femininity.

Big, muscular guys playing football in their boxers, and women standing for some reason without shirts on in a field. The dominating, powerful men and the vulnerable yet sexy women. Gay guys with any sense of style would rather reject accepting a brand that is focused on enforcing gender roles and instead go somewhere that actually cares about their clothes and how they reflect different personalities. In this way, I love shopping at H+M. They have a wide variety of styles, and rather than trying to push you into a corner and force you to accept a certain look, they seem to consider it their job to facilitate you creating your own. A buff, macho guy could go into H+M and come out looking hotter than he could walking out of A+F, and so could someone like myself with more of an indy style, or a rail-thin emo guy, or a euro trash guy, or any guy.

Men who have style and confidence don't need to purchase masculinity, they just need to purchase clothes. And I would like to think that gay guys are a little bit better at this seeing as how they have a more vested interest in challenging the status quo in such regards. But then again, judging by some gays I know, for whom style is all about conformity and status, maybe this is wrong.

Anyway, this story was weird, and gives me an odd sense of why maybe some gays are uncomfortable with Obama - I personally don't consider him equating gay fashion with the most sex-obsessed and promiscuous store on the planet a compliment. But I don't think it's a reflection of anything more than maybe a generational or orientational gap. (God, I can't even imagine what McCain would have said. Victoria's Secret, maybe? Or a furs trading post out in the Louisiana Territory?)