Subarus and Stereotypes

 In honor of me starting a new job working for a local car dealership, I figured it would be great to discuss something a little out of the norm this week: the Subaru. Subarus have quite a stereotype as being lesbian cars-- one of my coworkers even calls them "lesbian battle wagons." But why is this stereotype around? And are these cars as queer as they're made out to be?

In short, yes. 

In the 90's, Subaru released an ad (shown above) which was one of their first instances of marketing towards the LGBTQ+ community. As you can see, one of the cars has a rainbow flag bumper sticker. The other's license plate says "XENA LVR." Xena: Warrior Princess was a popular show that had a lot of lesbian subtext, very similar to Netflix's reboot of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (don't judge-- you know you watched that kiss in season 5 too). So, each of these cars had references to queer culture which was a huge deal in the 90's.

Future ad campaigns included slogans like "At least we have our priorities straight," "It's not a choice, it's just how we're built," and of course, who can forget this gem of an ad?

Sure that ad might seem a bit like pandering. But Subaru didn't just put their money into gay ads. They also donated millions of dollars to HIV/AIDS research and several other causes. In a world where the LGBTQ+ community was still very, very far outside of the norm, Subaru's actions were bold and impressive. These "lesbian battle wagons" live up to their stereotypes thanks to decades of marketing and smart money moves from Subaru.