Racial Homophily and Homogeneity as Post-Racial Commodification in BrokeStraightBoys.tv

This research critically investigates the current racialized labor practices that dominate one “reality TV” series dedicated to gay adult film celebrities. To accomplish this, I examine the complex ways in which racial homophily and homogeneity function as a consequence of executive decisions about profitability, ultimately reflecting prevailing market forces of conspicuous consumption by predominately (white) gay male audiences. This paper uses both political economic theory and textual analysis to interpret how the adult actors’ portrayals in this series work in tandem with the prevailing socioeconomic forces that eroticizes racial homogeneity at the expense of gay men of color whose appearance and existence at the periphery of the series is maintained and reinforced in an allegedly “post-racial” setting.