Chapter 4: Game Boys

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CHAPTER 4 :GAME BOYS & WE CONTROL WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE

TEXTS IN CONTEXT

The analysis in this section covers two texts in two different publications: XY magazine and A&F Quarterly. The visual taken from one text, the A&F Quarterly, is re-used in XY magazine to address issues related to Abercombie & Fitch and corporate influence on people’s lives in general.

A&F Quarterly, Spring Break issue, 2001.

The text and visual originate from the A&F Quarterly, Spring Break issue 2001 (pages 21—211). This issue is titled ‘XXX’ and focuses heavily on a variation of naked, erotic, and sexual activities which the ‘students’ in the catalogue apparently engage in while they are on spring break. The cover features the so-called ‘Carlson twins’: two nearly identical, young, athletic, brothers who wear hardly any clothes throughout the issue. The ‘game boys’ section consists of two pages. Text only on the left, and the full color visual on the opposite page.

Click here to see the full text and visual.

THE EXCERPT

The excerpt below is taken from page 210 and consists of the section title, the sub-section title, the introduction in bold print, and the first game description.

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XXXTRA FUN

GAME BOYS

Sometimes the sun’s too much and you need some time in the shade. With some time to chill with your buds or babes, A&F’s game guy Jim Mainiero picks the best games to get your juices flowing this spring - even if you’re playing solo.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day for Nintendo 64 Like a fraternity pledge gone wild, Conker will wreak havoc on the “Golden Showers” level. Our hero gets drunk, and you have to aim hiss piss at all the baddies before they ignite his furry little ass. Later he has to whack one of the boss’s brass balls until he submits. Get out the beer nuts and paddle whoever said Nintendo was just for kids. www.rareware.com

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Analysis of the text.

XXXTRA FUN

XXX is the theme of the entire issue of the catalog, and 'XXTRA FUN' does therefore not only refer to this page or the text below. Normativity (i.e. forbidenness) is a somewhat obvious choice here, as the three X’s generally stand for X-rated material which, according to some people, belongs outside the mainstream, public domain. In this case the X’s surely announce to the reader that the material below is somehow supposed to be sexy, naughty, pornographic, erotic, or forbidden. Simultaneously, the word-play at work here carries an element of humorousness, both in the sense of combining the triple X with the word ‘extra’, as well as specifically linking sexuality to ‘fun’. Finally, X-rated materials and activities are surely considered to be desirable by some of the readers, and fun is generally desired by all. Extra fun with the triple-X logo mixed in is then a superlative hardly anybody would be able to resist, and would be classified as highly desirable for most readers.

Still, seeing the X’s and the text they have become part of alone may not spark too much interest, but when the concepts of fun and sex are combined with a viewing of the adjoining photograph, the situation changes. There are two young guys who seem to be having fun playing video games, being nearly naked, being together, being lazy, or a combination of these elements. Reading fun and sexuality into the picture, as the heading XXXTRA FUN suggests we do, then may influence the way in which we read the visual and it may become more likely for us to see what is going on in a sexual context.

When viewing the visual first and then moving on to the text, a slightly different implicational order may lead towards the same conclusion. The visual may generate feelings and notions of desirability towards the young men in the viewer, but it does not have to. These may simply be two guys who are too lazy to put on clothes, or have just showered after a trip to the beach, and decided to play a game before getting dressed. Someone not inclined to be attracted to men, or men of the body type depicted, may not think twice about the erotic nature of the photograph and simply register a gaming situation, or not, and move on. However, when the viewer then reads the words XXXTRA FUN on the left page, he or she may be inclined to add, or add a stronger erotic component to the interpretation of the visual.

GAME BOYS

A Nintendo ‘Game Boy’ is a small, hand-held piece of computer hardware which lets you play simple versions of video games. An appropriate category to apply to this section of the text is humorousness. GAME BOYS refers cleverly and humorously to a whole range of things:
-the gaming device,
-playing games in general (literally and figuratively)
-boys
-boys who likes to play games (again, literally in the sense of playing sports or video games and in the sense of playing sexual games, but also figuratively in the sense of manipulating people)
-boys who are game (being in for something, possibly sexual activities with someone, each other, or themselves).

Accidental or not, the phrase GAME BOYS sounds much like GAY BOYS when spoken out loud. This ‘coincidence’ may influence a readers interpretation of text and visual, and could help to build a case for a ‘gay reading’.

Boys who are game for something are usually interested or excited about taking part in activity that is being proposed by someone else. In this case, while taking the visual into account, it is probably not hard for many men, and certainly for gay men, to remember similar situations during puberty and adolescence where homo-erotic tension built up while ‘playing’ with friends. Sitting next to each other on the sofa, in various stages of undress, while playing video games, is a perfect starting point to develop an erotic situation, if at least one of the two players would be interested. This type of event is fairly typical in gay literature and erotic prose, but also in more mainstream and heteronormative popular culture. For the person most interested in physical or romantic contact, it would become important to play games in the sense of building up a scheme to somehow convince, or manipulate, the other party into engaging in sexual activity. I do not want to push this line of thinking too far, but between the popular culture cliché, gay erotic writing and film, personal experience, the visual in the catalog and the text GAME BOYS, I feel it’s fair to say this interpretation of the texts is somewhat likely to be made by certain readers.

The evaluation of the text GAME BOYS as humorous seems more an evaluation of the fact that the phrase can mean or refer to so many things, which is somehow funny, than it is an interpretation of each individual meaning. Games, boys and near-nudity may certainly all be interpreted in different ways (e.g. as desirable or not, comprehensible or not, normative or not) but in this case the word-play, or pun, seems to be a fitting umbrella-category for all the things that are going on.

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Sometimes the sun’s too much and you need some time in the shade. With
some time to chill with your buds or babes, A&F’s game guy Jim Mainiero picks the best games to get your juices flowing this spring - even if you’re playing solo.
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Five markers of ( infrequent) usuality in this excerptmay serve as some kind of mitigation the sexually suggestive language elsewhere. It is suggested that being in the sun too long is undesirable, and therefore you need to go inside and ‘play games’ every so often. It is the nature of those games that is interesting here. The text sections marked as evaluators of desirability suggest to the reader that getting out of the sun is good every once in a while, and that cooling down inside with your friends and playing the best video games is a desirable thing to do, even if you have nobody to play with. This more objective reading will not necessarily spark erotic connotations. For a reader who is already set up for a more eroticized reading (perhaps by XXXTRA FUN, or by the visuals that precede this page in the catalog) the combination of buds, babes, games, flowing juices and playing solo, can all be interpreted in sexual ways. Buds and babes involved in games where juices are flowing may be evaluated as a desirable and sexual situation by many readers, while ‘playing solo’ can refer to masturbation which is sexual but possibly less desirable, at least in comparison with ‘playing’ together with friends. The usuality markers here do provide a mitigation of this interpretation, or of liking or doing what is suggested here, by stating that the reader may only ‘sometimes’ want to go inside and play, and only sometimes feel the ‘need’ to do so. The ‘even if’ in the last line provides a further disclaimer in this interpretation that says that masturbating by yourself is a last resort at which you arrive when there is nobody else to play with, quite beyond your own fault and you therefore really have no choice. The normality of sexual desire and activity is reinforced here, while leaving open plausible interpretations within the dominant guidelines for sexual normativity enforced in mainstream society (i.e. the taboo on masturbation).

When the reader relates this excerpt and its possible interpretations to the visual on the right hand page, an erotic and/or homo-erotic interpretation becomes more likely. The presence of near-naked guys, close together, playing games in the position they are in is at least putting emphasis on physicality and physical attraction for some readers/viewers. The visual is analyzed further in the section below, where different readings of it are discussed. Naturally, the excerpt just analyzed also relates to the texts above and below it, which may support or negate different readings for different readers. Above the text was the phrase ‘game boys’, which we have discussed already. To complete the picture, I will analyze the next excerpt on the page below.
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Conker’s Bad Fur Day for Nintendo 64. Like a fraternity pledge gone wild, Conker will wreak havoc on the “Golden Showers” level. Our hero gets drunk, and you have to aim his piss at all the baddies before they ignite his furry little ass. Later he has to whack one of the boss’s brass balls until he submits. Get out the beer nuts and paddle whoever said Nintendo was just for kids. www.rareware.com
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In this section evaluative markers of desirability and normativity are dominant. Depending on your point of view, each coded section can either be interpreted as desirable or undesirable, and as positive or negative normativity. 'Going wild' is generally undesirable, except when you and your fraternity brothers expect you to 'go wild' and consider it desirable and normative behavior in the context of the fraternity system. The desirability of 'going wild' for them is also related to the undesirability of 'going wild' in mainstream society. ‘Wreaking havoc’ is generally undesirable, but may again be interpreted as desirable in the same way 'going wild' does, and this again depends on negative or positive normativity in relation to the interpreters social position. 'Golden Showers' (urinating over others) may be desirable by some and not by others. Heros are good, while being drunk is again a positive or negative normativity and a positive or negative desirablity marker. ‘Pissing’ on people is bad, but pissing on ‘baddies’ is good (Lemke: 1997a), and the same goes for ‘igniting his furry little ass’. Whacking balls can be evaluated as undesirable by the ‘whackee’ but desirable by those who want him to submit.

What we are being set up for here is a sexually charged text about fraternity boys, sold in the shape of a joking description of a computer game. The text suggests there are obvious links between the game and a ‘fraternity pledge gone wild’, which tells us that what happens in the game also appears to happen with the pledge. Urinating over others, getting drunk, igniting or abusing someone’s butt, whacking genitalia with a paddle, forced submission; these are all ingredients for a sexually charged hazing session. Fraternities only have male members, so the homo-erotic component is obviously present. On top of that, several words and phrases refer explicitly to elements or activities which are well known in gay and SM sexual subcultures, such as "ass", "balls", "paddle", "submission", and Golden Showers. (Golden Showers in gay male sado-masochistic game playing involves the dominant figure urinating over the submissive one).

There are four clearly identifiable positions from which this text can be interpreted. There is a mainstream interpretation of people who may have no strong interest in A&F, (frat) boys, games, sex or a combination of these while reading the text. A fraternity pledge, or member, can read the text quite differently, and parts of the text that relate to fraternities may be foregrounded and influence the overall interpretation of the text. Somebody who is interested in gay, sado-masochistic sexual practices may pick up on those markers, and a computer gaming fanatic may read the text from a player's point of view. Each of these groups may classify the coded text as desirable or undesirable, and as positive or negative normativity. The tension between desirability and normativity is interesting. When an activity such as 'going wild' is likely to be a marker for negative normativity from a mainstream position, it is likely to be rated desirable by those resisting mainstream society's view of that activity. If 'aiming piss' at someone is negative normativity to a fraternity jock, it may be highly desirable to an SM-practioner interested in humiliation and submission roleplay.

In this example the erotic and homo-erotic sexual charge in the text is already much more explicit than in the previous text. Therefore, as noted at the end of the previous text analysis, anything that the reader has read before is intertextually linked to whatever meaning is constructed here. There is a cumulative textual theme of sexuality from the title to the first excerpt, which is further reenforced in the subsequent paragraphs.The likelihood that the reader will create an erotic interpretation from all the different text sections combined increases as grounds for such an interpretations become stronger and more plentiful. Then, when an erotic interpretation is constructed and the visual next to the text depicts two attractive fraternity-age guys in their underwear, there is not much room anymore to deny that a homo-erotic angle on the entire text is likely, or at least possible. After all, the game is ‘not just for kids’ , and in other words for adults and ‘adult’ in nature.

VISUAL ANALYSIS

The visual image in this multi-modal text, which combines verbal text on the left-hand page with a photograph on the right-hand page, can be read differently by different people, but also on different levels of analysis by the same person. I will present a first, or more superficial and ‘objective’ reading of the image, followed by a deeper, or more erotic interpretation of what the features depicted here may mean to the viewer. In a way, a first reading generates a listing of the actual visual elements represented, while the second reading attaches probabilities of interpretation to the individual elements and the combination of them.

A first, ‘objective’ reading.

The visual depicts two young men, dressed only in underwear, sitting closely next to each other on the sofa while playing a video game. Each of them has a hand-held game control device, which they hold with both hands in their laps. One hand on the left of the game console, and one on the right, with all fingers below the machine except for the thumb, which is on top to control the different buttons and the small joystick. We cannot see their faces as the photograph has been cut off at the upper chest level, but we do see their bare torsos with well-defined abdominals, their arms, legs, and one guy’s bare feet. The other wears white socks. A fairly large piece of the wooden floor under the sofa is visible, as is the game computer and some video game cassettes on the floor, along with a few beach towels and shoes. The picture is in full color, with the most dominating tones being the somewhat tanned skin of the guys, the wooden floor, one pair of white and one pair of black underwear, and the somewhat red to burgundy color of the sofa they are sitting on.

What could be a first, general interpretation for a viewer of this visual? Two guys are playing video games, being too lazy to get dressed, possibly. They may be on vacation and have just returned from the beach, and they’re spending some time relaxing at home before they go out with their girlfriends. These and similar interpretations seem perfectly reasonable and seem likely to be given when viewers are asked to explain what is going on here. Now let’s take the reading of this visual to a next possible level.

A second, erotic reading.

Two young guys are sitting very close together on the sofa. They are naked except for their briefs, and one guy is wearing white socks. The positioning of their athletic bodies explicitly displays their torso, nipples, well-developed abdominals, and their strong legs. They are each holding a game console with both hands at groin level, and their arms and legs seem to just lightly touch. There are towels on the floor, as well as a game computer and copies of video games including X-Men.

It is probably difficult for anyone to deny that any part of this erotically suggestive description is untrue. Everything that is said in the description, is actually depicted. Now let’s look at the different design techniques that are used to highlight and background certain features.

All the visual vectors (Arnheim: 1956) in the photograph point towards the parts of their bodies covered by underwear. The four legs lead up from below, the four arms and hands from above, and also the lines in the wooden floor lead towards the groin areas of both men. The underwear area is foregrounded by the use of light, especially on the white underwear, but also the abdominals of the guy on the left are lighter than the other body parts in the picture. The area of the hands and the groin are visual foci, while everything else is less focal. A large portion of the visual surface depicts skin tones and flesh color.

So far this description of the image remains a conventional one. Now let us move on to further interpretation which is to some degree likely to be made mainly by certain viewers who are either attracted to the people in the photograph, or have any other kind of inclination to consciously or sub-consciously analyze and interpret the situation here erotically.

A homo-erotic reading.

Two hot, near-naked young guys are lounging back on a sofa, displaying their attractive torsos, ripped abs and muscular legs. They are wearing sexy briefs, and holding video game consoles, right over their crotches. Their hands are in pretty much the same place where they would be if they were masturbating, and even the grip of the hand is similar to that which you would use to masturbate. Arms and legs are touching, and one boy is wearing white socks, which is a pun on US-made gay pornographic videos where jock-type guys often wear them during sex. Even the position they are in on the sofa, lounged back, is if not common at least suitable for masturbation, alone or together. There are towels on the floor, which are commonly brought in for ‘cleaning-up’ afterwards, or may have been used for that purpose already (at this stage we don’t know if this is before something might happen, or after it already happened). With a little imagination, the white cables on the floor, leading from the crotches of the guys, suggest spilled semen. The X-Men video game box both hints at X-rated (sexual) material or activity, and at men in general, while linking one to the other. Jocks on a sofa can make you think of college and fraternity houses, which play a part in the sexual imagination of those fantasizing what all those (supposedly) straight guys do in one house together. Frat house fantasies are definitely part of homo-erotic popular culture.

Text and visual in combination.

From the analysis of the text excerpts and the visual it becomes clear that erotic and homo-erotic interpretations by readers are possible, and probably likely to occur, depending on their personal sexual tastes. The different ways in which the text and the visual contribute to these kinds of meanings have been pointed out throughout the discussion above. Clearly, both text and visual can be read in a more or less sexual way, and homo-erotic markers can be used to emphasize a more ‘straight’ or more ‘gay’ sexual reading.

The text starts out with a relatively low frequency of sexual markers, and this level increases as the reader progresses from the title to the opening paragraph, to the first game description. The visual, on the other hand, gives us all its content ‘at once’ and it is up to the viewer to find a path or narrative in the picture. Depending on the way the viewer does this, and their personal tastes and socio-cultural viewing position, a more or less erotic interpretation can be constructed. It is, however, not impossible to generate a completely non-sexual interpretation when viewing the visual alone. When the text is taken into account a non-sexual interpretation of the visual become highly unlikely and difficult to defend. In reverse order of analysis the story is somewhat different. The text contains a high degree of obvious sexual markers, and the visual does reinforce these, but even without the picture the text is likely to be interpreted erotically.

Still, text and visual are most powerful in combination. In the text we encounter games, juices, solos, fraternities and numerous hints at sexual activity. In the picture we see the game, the (fraternity ?) boys, near-nudity and a juxtaposition of attractive young bodies. The obvious sexual innuendos in the text and the possible eroticism in the visual make a strong case for a (homo-) sexual reading of either one, when picture and text are combined.

Voices and Reading/Viewing Positions

Goffman's theory of 'footing' is useful to think about the different voices and groups involved in what he sees as divisions of semiotic labor. In the production of the written and visual texts discussed in this chapter so far, Abercombie & Fitch are the 'principal', or institution whose beliefs are told and position is established. The 'authors' are the advertising and marketing people who have translated these 'principal beliefs' into a marketing and communication plan. Finally, the creative team composed of the photographer, lighting people, make up artists and possibly even the models make up what Goffman calls the 'animators'.

Another group of voices involved in the communicative event of text production and interpretation are readers and viewers with specific sexual orientations and preferences. Straight males, gay males, straight females, gay females, and probably a range of sexual 'categories' outside these narrow definitions make up different viewing positions involving sexuality. A third way to look at the different social voices here is by age. There can be readers in their early teens, who may enjoy looking at A&F catalogs and desire to be or look older. There are people in the official A&F target age range, who may feel more directly spoken to by the text, which is about similar age groups. There may be people who are 5, 10 or 40 years beyond the official target age range, and 'still' wear A&F clothing to look younger or appeal to the younger crowd, or who simply enjoy the visuals and texts in the catalogs. In any case, it is likely that age influences interpretation, just like gender and sexuality do.

A final approach to the different groups involved in the process of meaning making is one that identifies which sub-cultures, interest groups or political affiliations readers may have. Video game players, A&F admirers, college students, and A&F critics (such as XY magazine and the "moral majority" ) all have specific socio-cultural backgrounds and interests that influence their reading of the text.

Naturally the different catogories overlap. An advertising executive for Abercombie may be female, gay, 40 years old and a video game enthusiast, and interpret the text in a way that mixes all these features into a complex meaning. Some of these features will be foregrounded and backgrounded at different times. When she is in the office she may look to see if these texts and images really are in line with the message A&F tries to convey, and decide whether she likes or dislikes the text on that basis mostly. When she's interested in games, at home on a Sunday morning, and is reading up on the newly released ones, she may read this text less as an marketing professional and more as a game player. The point is that neither one of the people involved in the production or interpretation of these texts will have a simple viewing point influenced by only one characteristic such as age or gender, but that they emphasize different interests and features at different times and in different situations.

WE CONTROL WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE

The text excerpts and the photograph in this section of the analysis come from XY magazine, issue 30 of April 2002, titled 'Unbelievable', pages 49 and 50. The full text consists of an article written by Joseph Desantis (19 years old at the time) from Pittsfield (MA). He has written the article called 'We control who you think you are' for this issue of XY. One photograph is included in the the article, and it is the same one as analyzed in the previous text analyses on A&F's 'game boys'. In XY magazine the photograph is reprinted in black and white, while the original was in full color, and takes up about two thirds of the first page of the article. The total length of the article including the photograph is two pages.

Click here to see the entire article from XY magazine.

When the reader comes to this page in the magazine the first thing that confronts him and demands attention is the large, reprinted 'Game Boys' photograph from the A&F catalog. The photograph take up two thirds of the page and is placed at the top, depicting the two athletic males in underwear playing a video game (for further analysis of this photograph please refer to the discussion earlier in this chapter). Not all readers will know or remember this photograph from the A&F catalog, but most readers of XY will probably find the boys in the picture attractive and therefore be drawn into the visual and the text below it. Those who have not seen this photograph before are likely to pick up on the fact that this is an Abercrombie ad because of rather typical A&F content: barely dressed boys. The logo and brand name of A&F is also displayed on the underwear, and especially fashion conscious XY readers are likely to identify the brand when looking at underwear on boys. The visual probably appeals to the reader in much the same way it does in the A&F catalog, although it will also be obvious to many readers that this is not an advertisement for A&F clothing. Many readers will be aware of XY's criticism of A&F for not advertising in XY magazine, and may therefore anticpate that whatever text comes along with the photograph is likely to be critical of A&F and not in favor of A&F. Still the visual does its job and gets the reader to pay attention, and in some way 'trick' them in appreciating the very thing that is criticized in the rest of the article. Of course the photograph also relates directly to the title of the article, 'we control who you think you are', in the sense that the boys in the picture are holding game control consoles in their hands and are so in control of whoever or whatever those controls have power over.

unbelievable

The editors at XY have put the word 'unbelievable', which is not in the original, in the bottom right corner of the photograph. This refers to the theme of the entire issue of the magazine, which also is 'unbelievable'. Displaying this word at the beginning of the article therefore shows that the article is part of the issue of the magazine and its theme. 'Unbelievable' also refers to the level of warrantability the editor seems to attach to A&F's official non-sexual and/or non-gay explanation of their advertising, while it's obvious from the photograph that sexuality is an important component. 'Unbelievable' can also be explained in combination with the main topic of the text below, which claims it is is 'unbelievable' that gay boys relate their identity to brand names and buy into the cheap marketing tricks of corporations.

we control who you think you are

'Control' is good when you have it over something you feel needs to be controlled, but bad when other people have it over you. 'Who you are' is important, and knowing who you are desirable. 'Thinking' who you are, however, affects the warrantability of 'being who you are', as it implies putting the fixed status of your identity or personality up for discussion, if only with yourself. Thinking that you are someone, somebody, or have a specific identity is weaker than simply being who you are, or knowing who you are. When thinking who you are is then also controlled by someone else, your identity is severely undermined or destabilized. The 'we' in this phrase can refer to Abercombie & Fitch, to most or many 'brand identity' corporations targeting young gay men, or even to globalization and capitalism at large. 'We' can also refer to the attractive boys in the picture above, who control the viewers mind by addressing the viewer's sexual interests and 'fool' them with an empty concept of image and identity. Not (just) the corporations are to blame for these practices, but the consumers who are not critical enough and use brand names to perform identity while blinded by their sex drives.

Without even planning to do so, you cater to what every tacky marketing executive has wet dreams about: brand name loyalty. Every marketing coordinator from every company wants to be your best friend.
I know this from real life experience, because I work for them.

By using 'every' three times the author emphasises Usuality, and tries to convince the reader that there are no exceptions (every marketing manager is bad) and that the Abercombie case is not an exception, but that similar practices are common in all corporations. Catering to tacky people is not good, obviously, and doing what they want most and have 'wet dreams' about, is even worse. 'Loyalty' and 'wet dreams' can be interpreted as desirable, but not when you are being loyal to the wrong thing, or the person who is having these wet dreams is not your friend. The author states that young gay men who buy into the marketing strategy don't 'even plan to do so', which supports the interpretation of the use of the visual which says that young gay men are tricked into buying logos by sexually accented advertisements. The author establishes warrantability for his claims by stating that he knows what he is talking about from personal experience, as 'working for them' guarantees first-hand knowledge of the truth.

It is not normal - unbelievable! - for people to identify themselves wholly by using a brand name of clothes.

'Not normal' is an obvious evaluator of normativity. The author claims that what is going on here is outside what is generally considered normal. In fact, of course, the behavior he is protesting against is quite common and considered within the dominant normative domain of mainstream society. Therefore, he is seems to be saying that identifying yourself by using a brand name should be considered abnormal. Again, 'unbelievable' refers to the incomprehensibility that people do use brand names for identity purposes, and also to the warrantability of their claims to 'knowing who they are'.

I am alarmed by AOL screen names such as Abercombieboy this or GapBoi that. These are the names of corporations who trick us to make their shareholders rich, and then they and the shareholders bash young gay men, as Peter Ian Cummings and others have described. It is perverse and an insult to the young gay community. We should not let ourselves be represented by a theory of globalization or mass marketing, when what makes young gay men's culture great in the first place was our individuality and creativity.

Being 'alarmed' by a situation means that something is happening which is of high importance to you. 'Tricking' people into doing something is always undesirable, unless you are the the one who tricks them. Making people rich is desirable, unless these people do undesirable things, such as bashing young gay men, which is bad in the eyes of the author. 'Perverse' things are usually outside the norms of mainstream society or the rules of accepted behavior in a specific community, and are therefore undesirable. A 'theory of globalization or mass marketing' is undesirable to the author and allegedly to young gay men, and so is being represented by one. The use of the word 'theory' can be interpreted as a marker of warrantability, as a theory does not have to be true and is certainly less valuable than 'reality'. That reality is made up of real young gay men and their 'great' culture, marked by the desirable qualities of individuality and creativity.

But in their ads, Abercombie, Gap and Hilfiger just sell some words and an image. The quality and design of their actual merchandise doesn't matter as long as their logo is big and sends a hidden message of "jock" or "prep". They've been telling us this so long, bombarding us with naked boys in their logo-slathered skimpy clothes, that we started to believe, for example, that "Abercombie" means "jock" and "Gap boy" means "nice boy".

Not only are Abercombie, Gap and Hilfiger 'just' selling something, which seems to be undervalued and undesired in itself, but they are also selling nothing more than 'words and an image', which are considered undesirable and low status here. 'Quality and design' are good, but unimportant, contrary to the logo and the message, which are considered by some to be desirable and by the author to be undesirable. The message itself is undesirable, the hidden message even more so, and the concepts of 'jock' and 'prep' positioned as empty, undesirable marketing inventions. Bombarding people for a long time signifies importance, warrantability and desirability. You only bombard people with things you feel are important, doing it for a long time establishes warrantability with them, and the activity of bombarding is either desirable or undesirable depending on whether you are doing or receiving the bombardment. Naked boys are desirable by the target audience of the author and of A&F, and probably by the author himself and possibly some A&F people as well. Seeing them in skimpy clothes probably only enhances the desirability of those naked boys, unless their clothes display logos, which is undesirable from the author's point of view and desirable from A&F's point of view (as well as the brand name fans the author is addressing). Believing is good, unless what you believe in is bad, and signifies the level of truth you attach to the idea you believe in. 'Jocks' and 'nice boys' are probably usually desirable in the eyes of young gay men, unless, according to the author, they only think they are jocks and nice boys because of the logos on their clothes, which makes these labels undesirable.

The A&F and XY excerpts in relation to eachother