Since the beginning of the summer, most of the people I interact with or follow via social media - both friends and public figures - have acknowledged Chick-fil-A's controversial anti-gay donations in one way or another. Dan Cathy's assertion that his company has backed groups which support the traditional view of marriage as the union of a man and a woman with Baptist Press created ripples throughout the media. These ripples then created a movement on Facebook and Twitter in which people would profess their disgust with the corporation, promise never to buy from there again, or - on the other side of things - post photos of themselves with chicken sandwiches from the chain. While Chick-fil-A is the most controversial, it is not the only corporation which has taken a stance on gay marriage. In late June, Kraft released a photo of a rainbow-creme Oreo in celebration of the Pride festivals many cities had at the time. Today, August 7th, is said to be Starbucks Appreciation Day. Consumers are encouraged to purchase Starbucks products to "support those that support equal rights," to quote a graphic going around on Facebook.
What is most disappointing is not - as many jump to point out - the stance these companies have and what they do with their money. Nor is the commoditization of sexuality. What is truly disappointing is that the public reaction is to the particular stance held by the companies, not to the fact that corporations have enough power that they can hold a political or social stance and act upon it in in a way that provokes such a reaction. Ultimately, the Chick-fil-A controversy is representative of the way in which the role of the corporation has changed, as Robert Reich proposes in his book Supercapitalism. CEOs no longer act as "corporate statesmen;" instead, they control a business that has become a political entity itself. Furthermore, this has led to the degradation of our democracy and civic duty. By allowing companies to have these stances and reacting to them by altering our consumption habits, we have begun to cast votes at the checkout counter instead of the ballot box. As a society, we have allowed our political ideology to be defined by where we shop instead of what we vote for or protest against. We have come to live in a society where our means of expressing our ideas is buying a certain type of product. Because of this, we have lost our citizenship and gained our consumership. The only way to correct this in our current social structure is to redefine the way we value products. Instead of seeing them as a political statement, they should be seen as nothing more than a way to fulfill a need or desire. We should not alter our spending habits the way many have because of Chick-fil-A's or Kraft's stances on marriage. We should not protest in front of Chick-fil-A because they don't support marriage equality, we should protest against all of these corporations for taking our citizenship away.