The gender of the brand - Rethinking the relationship between subjectivity and the market

This article revisits the question of how, and through which instruments, contemporary subjectivities are being accessed by the market. Drawing on historical and contemporary experiences, we defend a critical perspective aimed at the naturalization of the brand as a mode of conduct. Seeking this purpose, we consider (1) how commodities obtained a life of their own, (2) the role of behavioral science, (3) the role of the media, and (4) how lifestyles and political stances entered the government of the brand. Drawing from post-operaist, feminist and queer studies, we emphasize the critical challenges that lie (5) in emotions and (6) in bodies. Against this backdrop, we stress enabling moments, new precarities and, above all, the ambivalences that arise from the brand's government.