National Advertisers, the Advocate, and Queer Sexual Performance

This thesis examines how national advertisers work to frame gay subjectivity and queer sexual performance in the Advocate, the nation’s largest and most widely circulated gay and lesbian newsmagazine. Utilizing Judith Butler’s conceptions of performativity and the abject, I direct my attention to two examples of advertising discourse from Miller Lite that appeared frequently in the Advocate in 2002 and 2003. I argue that these advertisements evidence an ambivalence, representing queer sexuality while reifying gay male marginality and delimiting the number of ways in which queerness can be performed. I conclude by arguing for a more nuanced understanding of same-sex desire and the importance of body politics for queer, feminist, and ethnic/racial civil rights struggles while asking how gay men might be nominated as complete sexual and political citizens.