Defending the markers of masculinity: Consumer resistance to brand gender-bending

I study the Porsche Cayenne SUV launch to ethnographically analyze how men consuming a gendered brand respond to perceived brand gender contamination. The consumers' communal gender work in a Porsche brand community is analyzed to uncover brand gender contamination's effects on the identity projects of consumers, the brand as an identity marker, and the prevailing gender order in the group. Through the promulgation of gender stereotypes, Porsche owners stratify themselves along gender lines and create an ingroup that is sharply defined by masculinity and an outgroup that is defined by femininity. The construction of social barriers limits access to Porsche's meanings to those who achieve masculine ideals and causes the SUV owners to resort to hyper-masculine behaviors to combat exclusion. The consumers' gender work reverses the firm's efforts to gender-bend the brand, reinstates Porsche as a masculine marker, and reifies particular definitions of masculinity in the community.

► Men resist brand gender contamination by fighting for their brand.
► Through gender stereotyping, brand communities create ingroups and outgroups.
► This impedes the transfer of masculine meanings out to new consumers.
► This limits the transfer of feminine meanings in to existing consumers.
► This collective gender identity work strengthens the brand's gendered meanings.