The appropriation of minority groups’ struggles in society continues as major supermarket retailer Marks & Spencer release the LGBT sandwich in solidarity with those of the LGBT community.
The supermarket retailer will be donating to charity as well cementing its purposeful attempt to help the LGBT commnunity.
The brand is giving £10,000 to Akt, an LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity and €1000 to BeLongG, an Irish youth service, although Piers Morgan strongly detested such a notion.
Dont bite the hand that feeds the LGBT community
For something as disposable as a sandwich, you pick it up open, eat, digest and then forget, I wonder truly how much meaning it has behind it. The colours are well known and immediately resonates with those in the LGBT community.
For the LGBT movement to be reduced to a sandwich in the name of unity, highlights the fickle attempts by retailers such as Marks and Spencer’s to stay relevant in a turbulent social justice market.
Food is a momentary pleasure, a sensation that does not last more than a few seconds. It comes and goes. Business is also business and these companies are looking to make money. The capitalist nature of this attempt at solidarity hasn’t gone unnoticed. Witty comments have surfaced on Twitter by one user “Louis Staples”
LGBT people: “it’d be nice if people could stop abusing us when we hold hands in public, we could teach LGBT lessons in schools and if the BBC could stop debating our existence on live air that’d be grea-
Capitalism: “what we’re really sensing here is you want your own sandwich”
Capitalism renders these messages insignificant through making it a commodity in the market. Bought and sold, it makes the movement for LGBT rights tangible and something meaningless.
Feminist thought leader bell hooks argues that such commodification strips political integrity and meaning, making it no longer a possibility to serve as a catalyst for concrete political action. Consumers may ignore political messages.
However, if companies are apathetic to the fight for the minority groups to have equality, society will complain.
What we see here is an ongoing trope of companies, organisation jumping on a bandwagon. Its part of the changing market and the way capitalist endeavours are making money in this social justice generation. Companies are now being ethical to align their beliefs with minority groups.
Where is the black lives matter, or even Muslim sandwich? Or a sandwich for gay Jewish vegans perhaps? Perhaps it’s time companies walked back up and stayed out of politics.
