ABSTRACT
Van Damme's gay-affected packaging only secures audience "inclusivity" in the context of unmarked straight publicity, and as such, it is an advertisement both for a specific product or brand name and for the shared legitimacy of straight cultural media and gay/lesbian consumption. Van Damme's publicity efforts to appeal not only to heterosexual women but also to gay men would seem to belie the assessment. For Van Damme, the emphasis on a certain sensitive romanticism brings together the appeal to heterosexual women and gay men as potential audiences. Van Damme may be a man's man in the Bikini Harley adventure, but most of his publicity suggests that the action hero might well provide a different kind of ride, given the opportunity. The complexities of gay publicity emerge quite usefully in a New York Times column discussing a particular commercial representation of gay life.
