Description: PlanetOut as a Virtual Community
After logging on to www.planetout.com
the smoothness and professional look of the site is striking. After
all of the icons and pictures of attractive (and clothed) men and women
pop up, the viewer is confronted with a staggering array of neatly laid
out options. The site's main categories are: People, which includes
chat rooms and message boards for those seeking same- sex relationships;
PopcornQ, "the world's most comprehensive resource for Lesbian and Gay"
film and video; Shout, that has all of the latest on the queer arts and
entertainment scene; NewsPlanet, queer themed news updates culled from
a variety of media sources; Netqueery, a search engine that contains over
3,000 gay sites with a variety of intuitive and hierarchical searching
strategies to find exactly what one needs; Civic Center, a resource center
for political activism that contains links to all major online queer political
organizations including GLSN, NGLTF, GLAAD, PFLAG, HRC, DQ, !OutProud!,
and the Hate Crimes Resource Center, among others; QRD (Queer Resources
Directory), a digital library and archive for 1000's of articles and news
archives on Queer topics; and finally, Shop, which has links to online
Queer retailers as well as an in house store. In addition to these
links there are hot/new/featured links that come up on the home page and
change periodically. For the minority of Internet users not on AOL,
to get full access to PlanetOut via the World Wide Web, you have to join
first.
The variety of content as well as the professional organization
is very impressive and although it might appear that an analysis solely
of the political sections of the site would be appropriate, the importance
of the whole picture and the relationship of all of the constituent parts
of the site to the broader social context is illuminating. The final
note for the Descriptive section is that PlanetOut is amazingly easy to
navigate and gives the impression of trying to be "cool," which is very
important for successful web sites. The days of people exchanging
information over the Internet solely via BBS's and typing back and forth
at DOS prompts is clearly over.
Pro: PlanetOut, a Queer Community
PlanetOut has historically had its ups and downs. However,
today it is a popular thriving site. PlanetOut has truly created
a digital community. As a result queer identity and political action
is no longer tied to urban geography. This is perhaps the unique
contribution of PlanetOut: it creates a source for those who know that
they are not straight, but have no good information about being queer.
Unlike explicitly political sites, the tone of PlanetOut is not militant
nor maternal. The resulting message to the viewer is that "its OK
to be gay" and it is so OK that we don't even need to mention it.
Therefore, PlanetOut presents an essentialized message that queer identity
simply exists or just happens, and presents a picture of its view of queerness.
Additionally, to PlanetOut's credit, they have made a multi-faceted
site with links to entertainment, social relations, political relations,
hobbies, travel, and shopping. The result is that if one chooses
to take part in the culture war, PlanetOut is there and ready to assist
you. Both their links and their internal sites on political activism
are impressive as is their news service. But because news and politics
is just one of a wide selection of choices, it implies that it is just
one facet of a gay identity that actually has no more importance than say,
movie interests. Therefore, although they have presented an unstated
essentialist message and have given a nod to political activism, they are
actually attempting to construct an appealing and inclusive gay identity.
Social Constructionism is rampant while the Critical Perspective is understated.
The result is that the viewer understands that there is more to being gay
than being oppressed. This site presents an important contribution
to creating and solidifying a gay identity. It is imperative for
members of an oppressed group need to have their oppressed status be related
to other positive identities even if it is the "successful gay male fashion
designer" or the "fulfilled lesbian soccer mom." PlanetOut does a
good job at main streaming the queer identity. By avoiding difficult
issues and presenting the positive and normal side of queer life, it creates
an appealing gay identity in a very safe space (cyber-space).
Con: PlanetOut, a Sell Out
The seeds of PlanetOut's failure are sown in its success.
The name "PlanetOut" connotes two important concepts: first, "planet" implies
a separate world that is queerness; second, "Out" is noticeably different
from LGBT and its generality is a sign of its lack of support for diversity.
Also, the sleek and cool look of the site makes it look similar to any
other mainstream site on the Internet and it signals PlanetOut's acceptance
of the dominant class's values. First, by creating a separate space
where its OK to be gay, PlanetOut has in effect, opted out of the culture
wars. As stated before, it has links to political sites but de-emphasizes
them in favor of other values discussed below. Because PlanetOut
is separate from planet Earth, queer identity is only partially represented
in this vacuous environment. For 99.9% of all queers, the reality
of political and social oppression is felt in multiple ways, multiple times
in almost every single day of their existence. To give it the same
relative weight as movie interests or travel interests is to hide a dominant
facet of the queer identity. From the critical perspective, queers
only have a queer identity because they are seen in opposition to the dominant
identity. The site constructs an invalid queer identity and in doing
so is building a castle on sand. Second, PlanetOut's attempt at inclusivity,
"Out" being equated with "queer," de-emphasizes important differences in
the LGBT community. Within the site, one can find one link to a queer
Christian site and one or two links to black and Latino sites, but other
than that, the only other racial/ethnic/cultural/spiritual diversity is
to be found in the People section, that is in reality little more than
an electronic do it yourself dating/sex service. In fact, there is
so little diversity that the topic of economic and/or class is completely
absent from the site! Therefore, it perpetuates the Great White Myth
and the small and often token inclusion of other minorities makes the site
as uninviting to minorities as other mainstream queer organizations.
Third, in the absence of strong political critical values, what is found
is an embrace of the dominant socio-economic system and a validation of
values and forces that continue to oppress the queer community. PlanetOut
is a consumer site, with adds popping up periodically and links to goods
sold on the site popping up frequently. It therefore supports the
capitalist system that marginalizes females and feminine traits.
Further, by emulating the look and feel of mainstream sites, it creates
the impression that legitimacy flows from kowtowing to the norms.
PlanetOut presents itself as a site that has everything a straight person
would want if he were gay. There are links and support and areas
of the site dedicated to women, yet the lack of information on specific
women's issues, from glass ceiling economics to breast cancer to child
abuse and sexual abuse, which are primarily (not exclusively of course)
women's issues, is glaringly absent. There does exist an extensive
emphasis on meeting people for sex, consumerism, expensive travel and investment
information that is clearly male oriented.
Conclusion
It appears that on PlanetOut the Digital community is populated
by virtual affluent white males. Although PlanetOut has much
to offer members of the queer community and can accurately be called a
resource for them in the culture wars, it suffers from the same biases
and hierarchies of the dominant system. PlanetOut attempt to create
a queer digital community just as good as any other straight one.
The problem is that queers need a better community. By constructing a queer
identity in the image of the straight identity that is at the same time
separated from the dominant structure, it works to solidify the existing
queer movement while selling out any chance for substantial future progress.