Biti isti, biti poseban: potrošačke prakse kao marker „istosti“ i „različitosti“ među gej osobama u Beogradu

Abstract

U radu će biti razmatrano uzajamno konstituisanje gej identiteta i potrošačkih praksi u kontekstu beogradske gej populacije. Osnovna istraživačka pitanja su kako unutar gej zajednice u Beogradu simultano funkcionišu identifikacijske prakse koje operišu sa idejama „istosti“ i „različitosti“, i kako se odvija unutrašnja hijerarhizacija gej populacije na osnovu parametra „ukusa“, opredmećenog u potrošačkim praksama i preferencijama. U radu je primenjen etnografski pristup.

The essay focuses on bilateral construction of gay identity and consumer practices in the context of Belgrade gay community. Through ethnographic approach, the study analyzes the phenomenon of consumption, or more precisely, the relationship between construction of gay identity and its relation towards the objects of consumption. The fieldwork part of the research was conducted in one of the currently active gay clubs in Belgrade, “Apartman”. This was followed by in-debth interviews with nine respondents, and informal conversation with ten more of them. We were interested to find out how identification practices related to the ideas of “sameness” and “difference” simultaneously operate in the processes of identity construction of our gay respondents. We tried to explore how our respondent’s interest in questions of style, fashion, consumption and shopping has contributed to the creation of their gay identities, and how these identities were performed in the context of the gay club. We also present how the internal classification, according to the issues of style, fashion awareness, and shopping skills and practices, was performed within the Belgrade gay community. The results of the research show that simultaneous performativity of “sameness” and “difference” has an important role in the processes of creation and presentation of person’s gay and lesbian identities to others. Therefore, sharing common symbols that refer to belonging to the gay/lesbian community, and creating distinct and individualistic appearences and styles of clothing, are two parts of the same process of comming to terms with someone’s gay/lesbian identity. Our research also pinpointed the role of reknown fashion brands in the abovementioned processes, and suggested that the more developed gay/lesbian market niche has to be developed in order to enable and encourage more nuanced economic attitudes and shopping choices of gay/lesbian population in Serbia, including the more politicized relation towards consumption and economy in general.