The Affirmative Norm

I saw something startling the other day. I was on the 1 train, on my way back up from Penn Station, and I glanced over at an advertisement on the wall of the train. It was nothing special at first glance: a man dressed in hospital scrubs, sitting cross-legged on the steps of what appeared to be a hospital. The ad was for a commercial storage company, and this clean-cut 30-something with the big grin on his face was apparently the one who was storing his things with the company. I then read the caption: "Old Sports Equipment, Books from Med School, Boyfriend's Artwork. All your storage needs." That's right, "Boyfriend's Artwork." Now please do not interpret my reaction the wrong way. Although I am a straight, white, Irish-Polish-Catholic male, I consider myself an accepting person. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but think to myself how revolutionary this ad was.

Initially, I thought of Ellen and the first lesbian kiss on network television. I thought of Will & Grace and the effect it has had on the genres of shows in primetime. And although he was before my time, I thought of Archie Bunker and the effect his exploits and prejudices had on how we look at society. Then I thought harder and realized that depicting a gay man on an advertisement for storage space--something having so little to do with homosexuality--means a whole lot more to society than any depiction of "alternative lifestyles" or prejudices in the mass media. The advertisement I saw on the subway is not a publicity stunt, an answer to the challenge of creating innovative television, or a political statement. It is a first step towards ending prejudice in the United States and around the world.

The advertisement is so monumental because it epitomizes the strides society has taken over the past five or 10 years toward greater acceptance of alternative lifestyles. Because I am only 19 years old, my experiences with acceptance and prejudice issues are limited. Reflecting on stories I have heard about race relations and sexual-orientation issues, however, I think that a poster depicting a homosexual in a scene having nothing to do with sexual orientation would have never made it to the printer five or 10 years ago. If it did, the ad would probably have been called rebellious or inappropriate. Depicting mixed-race couples would have most likely received similar judgment. In just the past few years, however, although prejudice is still a major problem, our capacity for accepting differences is beginning to change.

Prejudice and race relations are issues that cannot be changed overnight. In fact, they are aspects of society that can only be changed over generations. Many of the race-relation and sexual-orientation problems that require generations to be rectified are still young: The civil rights movement occurred merely two or three generations ago, and homosexuality came into the public eye only a generation or two ago. Consequently, there are still many people who actively discriminate based on race and sexual orientation. Eliminating their inherent prejudices is a lost cause. Let us not give up hope on our generation, but the key to ending prejudice and the great social schisms that still exist lies elsewhere.

What is my solution? I feel that we are making strides as we speak. Here in New York (and unfortunately less so in other areas of the country), prejudice is an important issue that people have begun to recognize and to take steps to eliminate. Programs that promote tolerance are in effect in schools, businesses, and beyond. The imperative step, nevertheless, lies in integrating acceptance into aspects of everyday life, such as advertising.

There are different ways in which advertising could go about promoting acceptance. One way would be to require businesses to create a certain percentage of advertising with an alternative focus, like the poster in the subway. Do I believe this is the best way to go about influencing societal change? Not necessarily, but hopefully by simply leaving the door open for integration of minority groups, it will no longer be the exception to integrate alternative lifestyles into advertising.

Our generation must be sure that we do all we can to create a world that fosters acceptance. I hope that the consequence of bringing alternative lifestyles into a medium like advertising will be that one day, people will look at a poster of a man with a lifestyle other than their own and not first identify him as homosexual, but rather be inclined to go store some old toys with a commercial storage company.

The author is a Columbia College sophomore.