You are right about everything you said. :-) Though I should clarify, when I was talking about a 'consumer culture that underrepresented non-normative identities' I didn't mean to blame the consumerist part of the culture, that was descriptive. Consumerism has lots of good things about it. Not the least of which are the active and engaging communities that it generates (much love to AL). I just meant to say that our culture, which is saturated with consumerism, tends to underrepresent non-normative identities in the products it puts in front of us. This isn't a consumerism problem, its a culture problem. But, as you said, cultures change and it is getting a lot better.
I was referring to Participatory Culture in a Networked Era. It's very interesting and a very easy read. It's essentially a transcript of a conversation between the three authors. It's a novel way of tackling an academic work. Lamarre is foundational, but it can be a bit thick. I wouldn't ask you to read him. :-)
