Whose Lifestyle Matters at Johannesburg Pride? The Lifestylisation of LGBTQ+ Identities and the Gentrification of Activism

Conway, D. 2022. Whose Lifestyle Matters at Johannesburg Pride? The Lifestylisation of LGBTQ+ Identities and the Gentrification of Activism. Sociology. 56 (1), pp. 148-165. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211024072

TitleWhose Lifestyle Matters at Johannesburg Pride? The Lifestylisation of LGBTQ+ Identities and the Gentrification of Activism
TypeJournal article
AuthorsConway, D.
Abstract

In response to criticisms of whiteness and the privileging of middle-class South African experiences over the black majority and those in poverty, Johannesburg Pride expanded from a one-day event to include a ‘Lifestyle Conference’ in 2018. This article argues that rather than including broader South African LGBTQ+ experiences, rights and needs, the conference centred privileged and normative ‘lifestyles’ and emphasised individual agency, rather than making intersectional inequalities visible and a basis for collective action. Drawing from ethnographic research at Pride events, and interviews with Pride organisers and LGBTQ+ activists, this article builds on critiques and insights from social theory to analyse Johannesburg Pride’s Lifestyle Conference; its aims, politics, marketing and messages. By exploring the raced and classed exclusions of Johannesburg Pride, this article addresses key gaps in the academic literature on Pride, and traces how the lifestylisation of LGBTQ+ identities obscures inequality and contributes to the neoliberal co-option of Pride.

Keywordsactivism
diversity
gay pride
Johannesburg
LGBTQ+
lifestyle
Pride
queer
South Africa
whiteness
JournalSociology
Journal citation56 (1), pp. 148-165
ISSN0038-0385
1469-8684
Year2022
PublisherSage
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211024072
Web address (URL)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385211024072
Publication dates
Published online17 Jul 2021
Published in printFeb 2022
Supplemental file
License
CC BY 4.0
FunderLeverhulme Trust

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