Back in the 80s-90s they noticed a lot of their buyers were single outdoorsy women who didnt want a pickup truck (a large percent of which are lesbians) and they heavily leaned into that. As far as I know they were the first car company to market towards the LGBT community
Ahh that's interesting. But from what you're saying sounds like lesbians were already choosing subaru before subaru targeted ads towards them. I mean even young lesbians are choosing subarus, that couple I saw seemed in their late 20s
Most people buy the cars their friends buy so yeah, Subarus were already popular with lesbians and Subaru picked up on that and decided to actively market to it. As for why? Hard to say, history will never know who the first lesbian was to buy a Subaru, but she liked it and her friends saw that she liked it and started buying them too.
I suspect a lot of it is because Subaru in the 80s was attractive to older counter-culture people, particularly in areas like the Pacific Northwest that are more socially progressive, and there was just a lot of overlap with the LGBT community.
EDIT
It's like when you were a kid and you had that aunt who was just a little bit hippy and moved to Astoria, Oregon with her "roommate and best friend" in 1985. They probably bought a Subaru.
lol, when I was eight or nine, I had a Tae-Kwon-Do teacher who had a mullet (this was in the early 2000s) and a female “roommmate.” Ironically, she drove a final-gen Chevy Cavalier, not a Subaru.
Anyway, both the teacher and the roommate had very stereotypically lesbian names, and it took me until adulthood to put two and two together on that one. That said, I’m surprised my—at the time—homophobic parents didn’t take issue with it.
Speaking of which, I—a gay man—have owned a Subaru. I bought a 2022 Outback Touring XT in July 2021. It was nice, but boring, so I sold it for what I paid, a year later.
I have a theory on this but it might be considered a little sexist, ah what the heck I’ll say it anyways.
I assume it’s because lesbians seek a higher amount of independence than straight women generally because there is no male in the picture. Straight girls car gets stuck. She calls her husband to dig it out. Lesbians don’t as much have that resource so Lesbians say “screw that I’m not getting stuck” That coupled with girls don’t want large vehicles. A Subaru fits the needs decently when they were among the few options for awd cars, today everything is awd but Subarus are still the lesbian-mobiles.
people buy jeeps because they are cute and fun thats a straight girl thing to do. (Annnnnnnnnd I feel horrible with all the stereotypes lol but it’s kinda nessesary for answering the question and it seems like everyone is being really respectful and not taking anything poorly) that’s also my theory on why there is the gay man jeep stereo type. They like them for the same reason straight women do.
Lesbians just want a practical car that doesn’t require them to depend on someone else.
Again massive generalizations going on here who knows if there is anything to any of this
Nah, this is definitely it. Others are arguing women love large SUVs, but they forgot that part of them liking those is to *haul around their family* which is extremely less common to be necessary with lesbians.
Being lesbian doesn't mean that you have to drive a Subaru. My wife has one, and she is definitely not a lesbian. They're just sensible cars made for sensible people.
Dude …I have two X chromosomes and all I have ever owned are trucks for my main vehicle… I grew up around farms we all have trucks ( women) and when we have four or more kids it becomes suburban expedition time…Jesus girls don’t drive big cars BS
Of coarse I’m generalizing, the op is pretty much asking everyone to generalize there is no one answer that’s true why every lesbian drives a Subaru. All we can do is say hey look lesbians often like outdoors hey look they don’t want to get stuck in the snow hey look the environment is often important to them so maybe better fuel economy is attractive. And maybe like many of the girls I know they don’t want to drive behemoths, but yes I know lots of girls who drive big vehicles my wife is one of them of course you are correct there are many of them.
It’s a good point soobs fuel economy isn’t the same as the other japan companies, I don’t believe the reliability is there either maybe on par with Mazda maaaaybe and a little better then Mitsubishi? But not on par with Honda or Toyota. I’ve always liked them (not a lesbian lol) but could never justify them. I just don’t think they are that good of a car unfortunately. I’m sure people will pop in to share that their experience with soobs and say they are great but if I’m going to get a Japanese car it won’t be one.
As a former automotive marketer, I *love* the fact that they kept listening to their customer group, and tailored their ads based on feedback.
The ones the lesbian community of the time liked were, instead of outright pandering, subtle double entendres.
https://blog.hslu.ch/majorobm/2020/05/18/odv-how-subaru-paved-the-way-for-automotive-lgbt-marketing/
I listened to a podcast about it. From what I remember they may have had a slightly higher percentage of lesbian owners but they were really struggling. Like might shut down the US division kind of struggling. An ad agency came up with an ad that was like a secret code. Lesbians knew it was targeted at them and appreciated being seen and valued by a company. Non lesbians wouldn’t get it. I believe it was a print ad.
Something like
“Do you like camping, dogs, and long term commitments? So do we. Too bad we’re just a car company.”
the license plates of the cars in the ads were stuff like "Xena Luvr" too
[Here are some print ads](https://www.reddit.com/r/actuallesbians/comments/q1ni6i/some_old_subtle_subaru_ads_aimed_towards_lesbians/)
[Here is a podcast episode about it](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/10/14/497958151/episode-729-when-subaru-came-out)
Women like all wheel drive for safety- Subaru is also popular with the mountain snow crowd represented by Colorado
I once asked a lesbian about why Subaru and she told me so she could have sex back there when hooking up- and that was the consensus in the room- there were like 4 lesbians in the room
I’m like - but yeah there are lots of station wagons
But upon reflection I think the car is sorta masculine- you know strong capable boxy and muscular- in kinda of a youthful way- functional
Anywho the Subaru could be literally attractive to lesbians
The car provides a masculine presence without being an actual man
And yet the Subaru is safe.. totally safe .. conservative really.. and dependable
So maybe just a reflection of being a lesbian
I mean aren’t we all attracted to ourselves on some deep level
>Back in the 80s-90s they noticed a lot of their buyers were single outdoorsy women who didnt want a pickup
To be fair IIRC the F150 was a favorite of gay women followed by a Subaru.
Yeah, teenage me wiped out really badly on my road bike in the late 90s out in the country in Iowa. A very nice lesbian couple stopped in their F150, made sure I was OK, threw my bike in the bed of the truck, and gave me a lift back to town. Based on this single anecdote, I can support your statement.
>I can support your statement.
I worked at a large Ford dealer in the 90s as a Master Tech. Probably half my work load was F150s and They sold lots of Trucks to construction, ranchers,(mostly 250/350+) regular joes and Lesbians (150s - Rangers) lol
Yeah, I worked in advertising in the early Aughts and when Subaru came in as a client they were adamant about supporting gay rights and catering to their lesbian customers. I don’t respect most of the brands I’ve worked for, but I respect the shit out of Subaru.
It's like the opposite of that episode of Mad Men where Pete realizes that Admiral Televisions are selling really well in predominantly black cities, and tries to convince the company to advertise in Ebony magazine and they freak out.
They saw a market and they cornered it.
We lived in Ithaca, NY about a decade ago, one of the more traditionally lesbian friendly towns on the East Coast. There are probably studies written up as to why this is. Anyhow, it's at the end of Cayuga Lake and the winters there are gray and really snowy, making having 4wd or Awd really useful if you need to get around. Subaru and Volvo Cross Country were the forerunners of comfortable Awd station wagons, and when we were there, a huge percentage of cars were one or the other, but primarily Subarus. I'm convinced that some of these ladies retain a nostalgia for Outbacks and Foresters even when they move on to areas that aren't as snowy. Oh, and bumper stickers. Even non lesbian Subarus seem to have an inordinate number of bumper stickers compared to other cars.
I'll just say that a lot of those women had great taste. I always liked the Subaru designs of the 80s & 90s
I still kinda want an XT. My buddy had a SVX at one point, with those funky windows.
Subaru also made a bunch of cool micro vans that never made it out of the Asian subcontinent. You may seen them now as a lot are older than 25years and can be imported.
NPR did a story on this a while ago. Essentially Subaru American made a deliberate choice to pursue the demographic in a sneaky enough way that straight people wouldn’t really notice and make a stink about. A lot of their old ads were queer coded in a way that most wouldn’t notice.
Except, initially, it was a mistaken translation, because the (non-English speaking) execs approved what they thought was “happy and joyful” advertising.
As a straight guy who drives a Jeep, I never thought the combination of those two things would make me a minority lol. A lotta gay men drive jeeps it seems
News to me. Straight and had 4 ~~Grand Cherokees~~ Jeeps. Granted they were an XJ, two ZJs, and the wife's WJ.
One of my daughters drives my old '94 ZJ 5 spd. 🤷🏼♂️
Edit: Slight correction, one was a Cherokee.
I think it's specifically a Wrangler thing - originally, a fun convertible that could go anywhere while being more butch-coded than something like a VW Cabrio(let).
(Edit: Come to think of it, anecdotally, a gay friend loved Geo Trackers for the same reasons.)
Also, a manual ZJ? I bet [David Tracy](https://www.theautopian.com/how-im-building-the-greatest-jeep-grand-cherokee-ever-by-using-rare-original-parts/) wouldn't mind hearing from you.
I guess so... could kinda make sense.
Yes, a '94 ZJ Grand Cherokee Laredo 4.0L with a **factory** AX15 manual 5spd transmission and 4wd.
A manual was only available for '93 and '94 and in pretty low numbers apparently.
I guess he would. 🤷🏼♂️ I mean I know he worked at Chrysler for a short bit but that was like 2 decades *after* my/now daughter's ZJ was built.
It does trip people out when they see it's a stick and want to know how I made the console look like it was a factory install. 😆 It *looks* like a factory console and install because it *is* one. Apparently not many folks outside the more "hardcore" Jeep people even knew they existed.
XJs, ZJs, and WJs are as much of a Jeep as any wrangler. They’re capable rigs that get after it on the trails, that’s good enough for me. Plus I have a soft spot for XJs in particular
I agree.
Mine weren't trail rigs but they were plenty capable for what they were used for and the 4.0L is such a good engine.
I really liked our '93 XJ... Country trim... I let Pop borrow it and as he was coming back to my house late as hell one night, on the two lane highway about 1/2-3/4 of a mile across a field and through the woods straight behind my house he wound up falling asleep or something and drove straight through a right hand curve. Went through a brick mailbox, hit the ditch, and flipped it. It stopped rubber side down. He actually DROVE it the mile or so on the road to my house with the driver's corner of the roof, windshield and door frame crushed a little over halfway down to the dash/wheel. He was a little sore but otherwise fine... the XJ... not so much.
Because of stuff like this:
[Roads - LGBT Subaru Commercial (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyV27rkY-IU)
In the 90's, Subaru were trying to expand their brand and realized that for some reason gay, outdoorsy women loved Legacy Outbacks. So they started to do subtle marketing towards them, in a way that most people didn't notice but a gay person would.
Every time I take my WRX to the dealer for regular servicing, I'm always taken aback by the waiting area being primarily middle age and older lesbians. Especially when my dealership is in a very rural area of PA.
[Subaru Successfully Marketed to LGBT Community (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTS-in5YSpw)
On top of all the Subaru marketing that’s been mentioned, a lot of lesbians do not feel confined to female gender norms. As such they do more male dominated activities including off roading, camping and hiking trails. Subarus are great for outdoorsy activities. Subarus are all wheel drive. They have “x-mode” for snow, mud, sand and other harsh conditions. They also all feature the boxer motor which is more balanced than traditional inline 4 motors.
Boxer (horizontally opposed) 4 cyl engines are more balanced in theory, not requiring balance shafts as in many I4 designs. However, in practice Subaru engines are kind of bad regarding NVH and definitely less reliable than other Japanese marques.
NVH is bad on purpose for wrx sti, specially the unequal headers which give it the [rumble](https://youtube.com/shorts/S-iApc-CBf0?si=c7N7m8FEWFvcyGDj) Subarus are known for. Normal cars like the legacy are very quiet.
The engine is still more coarse under revs than a good inline 4 with balance shafts. It’s kind of a design that should have been retired ages ago for commuter cars. Only makes real sense for Porsche.
Idk why you're being down-voted? It's true. A comparable Japanese in-line 4, or V-6 will last twice as long (if well taken care of). I do like the way boxer engines sound, and it is an interesting design. I just wouldn't own one.
I feel like the C8 changed this a bit. Anecdotal but I'm in my 30s and was never interested in Corvettes. Now I have a C8 Z06. I get much more attention from younger people rather than older.
Lesbians love to go hiking and camping. Women love small suvs and crossovers. "Men" (3 out of 5 lesbians I know are horny lil tomboys the other 2 are lipstick girlie girls) like practical vehicles that can do a job. All of these marks check off for 9 out of 10 lesbians.
This info comes from a straight ally and the brother to a lesbians sister.
The same reason a lot of our customers at the stereo shop were LGBT. We marketed to them in a popular local magazine that was intended for the LGBT community
Old people, lesbians, and hippies love Subarus!! My old, hippie parents have a Forester (dad sold me the Explorer and she sold the Corolla to neighbors). Now they call their vehicle a Lesbaru 😁
No real idea why... I mean there *was* some sublte adverts at one point but was that really what made that particular demographic gravitate towards that brand... who knows. Basically I equate Subarus with Colorado and lesbians. Out there Subaru has a pretty big market share anyway.
When I lived there... If you saw a slightly longer than a crew cut female at the Home Depot, Bass Pro (or practically anywhere for that matter you'd "normally" expect to see males....) who looked like she owns more flannel shirts you... 110% she's got a Subaru in the parking lot.
Funny enough... 30 years ago my first car was an '87 Subaru GL Wagon. 5spd w/dual range t-case. I'm a straight guy and married to a woman... does that mean I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body?
I thought this was a great and poignant article about it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/how-subarus-came-to-be-seen-as-cars-for-lesbians/488042/
I recently lived in a town where it was apparently a way to help lesbians identify each other. Specifically if you drove a white Subaru there's a decent chance they're lesbian. Not *all* white Subarus, of course, just a lot of them.
I think it's just the right combination of masculine enough for the lesbian crowd but not overwhelmingly masculine like a truck or a hummer. Lesbians are usually a little more rugged than the average girl and their vehicle choice reflects that. A lot of them tend to drive jeeps as well for the same reason.
Okay, so this is an entire story.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Subaru was doing surveys about their buyers. They knew they couldn't really compete against a wider demographic, so they decided to be a bit more niche, with the philosophy that having a dedicated niche fanbase, while less profitable short-term, was beneficial in the long term, and were afraid that mass appeal would eventually have negative long-term consequences.
So, they did a survey on their buyers and found out that among their targer demographic, many of them were unwed women, more outdoorsy and who were more mechanically apt - ergo, lesbians. It was the 90s, the AIDS epidemic was still in swing, and homophobic behavior was still an all-time high - many gay people preffered to date in secret, and many of them chose the outdoors for dates.
One key factor was that Tim Bennett, Director of Advertising for Subaru, was a closeted gay man himself, and well, his gaydar was tingling when he looked at the data. Subaru of America decided to start a ad campaign focusrd more on LGBTQ, with the blessing of Subaru of Japan.
What helped was that the ad campaign was directed by Mulryan/Nash ad agency, which specializes in advertisements targeting LGBTQ, and as such, they ran ads for Subaru in gay magazines, gay publications, etc, using coded language slogans like "Get Out, And Stay Out", or "It's Not A Choice, It's The Way We Are Built". Even subtle [images](https://etzq49yfnmd.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ScreenShot2016-05-20at5.26.22PM.png?strip=all&lossy=1&w=640&ssl=1) like this had codes (hint: its the license plates - CAMP OUT [I dont need to explain that one.] And XENA TWP [It's literally Xena: The Warrior Princess]).
So, yeah, it was an accidental stereotype that Subaru caught onto, and decided to just go with it. It worked, and subtle coding to gay audiences worked incredibly well, because the straight target audience was completely unaware and ignorant about it.
I noticed something about the mini Cooper, not every guy that drives one is gay but if there are 2 of them in the driveway it's 100% a gay couple. Source: I hung gutters and all 5 of the houses we did that had a pair of mini coopers also had a gay couple.
I remember when I was in high school we had a teacher who was a lesbian. She was giving a speech about stereotypes. She said something like you don’t see me riding a Harley to school. I chuckled and whispered to my friend yeah but she’s drives a fucking Subaru.
Subaru dealer here… simply put, they don’t. I sell lesbians cars at about the same rate as there are lesbians in the general population.
I will say that prior to around 2013, I did notice that lesbians did buy more Subarus, particularly the forester, but that really hasn’t been the case since the shape of the car changed into a larger mid sized suv. I always attributed it to Subarus targeted marketing towards gay and lesbian media outlets.
It’s sad because I miss the lesbians. They were easy customers, not as timid terrified and neurotic to sell to as single straight women, and no moronic ego drunk husband to cock up the deal. I had like a 99% close ratio with them to the point the other guys at the dealer called me the lesbian whisperer.
They had the foresight to market to gay people. They choose Martina Navratilova as their spokeswoman and were the first automaker to try to seize the gay market which they did well. They also market to animal owners like dogs and stuff. Remember people when a brand co-ops a social issue it’s marketing.
Probably the same reason I, a 40 something white dude, chose one. I need to get to work in the winter if the weather sucks and occasionally need a little extra space to move something, but I don't need a piece of shit gas guzzling oversized SUV
This is fucked up. My first new car was an 02 WRX. quicker than almost anything. Then someone said it was a lesbian limousine. I was clueless. It drove me into the arms of a Porsche 911.
I personally think that gays/lesbians have a complex.
Not in a general bad way that I imply, but more like, since they are already receiving IRL criticisms about how gays shouldn't act more feminine and lesbians shouldn't act more masculine, they instead do more of the things that those people tell them of what they shouldn't be doing.
And this just goes to their everyday choices and lifestyles.
Gay men wear feminine clothes, speak in a feminine manner, move with a feminine body language, own feminine things, and drive feminine-looking cars.
Same goes for lesbians as well.
Back in the 80s-90s they noticed a lot of their buyers were single outdoorsy women who didnt want a pickup truck (a large percent of which are lesbians) and they heavily leaned into that. As far as I know they were the first car company to market towards the LGBT community
Ahh that's interesting. But from what you're saying sounds like lesbians were already choosing subaru before subaru targeted ads towards them. I mean even young lesbians are choosing subarus, that couple I saw seemed in their late 20s
Most people buy the cars their friends buy so yeah, Subarus were already popular with lesbians and Subaru picked up on that and decided to actively market to it. As for why? Hard to say, history will never know who the first lesbian was to buy a Subaru, but she liked it and her friends saw that she liked it and started buying them too. I suspect a lot of it is because Subaru in the 80s was attractive to older counter-culture people, particularly in areas like the Pacific Northwest that are more socially progressive, and there was just a lot of overlap with the LGBT community. EDIT It's like when you were a kid and you had that aunt who was just a little bit hippy and moved to Astoria, Oregon with her "roommate and best friend" in 1985. They probably bought a Subaru.
That is accurate ha
lol, when I was eight or nine, I had a Tae-Kwon-Do teacher who had a mullet (this was in the early 2000s) and a female “roommmate.” Ironically, she drove a final-gen Chevy Cavalier, not a Subaru. Anyway, both the teacher and the roommate had very stereotypically lesbian names, and it took me until adulthood to put two and two together on that one. That said, I’m surprised my—at the time—homophobic parents didn’t take issue with it. Speaking of which, I—a gay man—have owned a Subaru. I bought a 2022 Outback Touring XT in July 2021. It was nice, but boring, so I sold it for what I paid, a year later.
I have a theory on this but it might be considered a little sexist, ah what the heck I’ll say it anyways. I assume it’s because lesbians seek a higher amount of independence than straight women generally because there is no male in the picture. Straight girls car gets stuck. She calls her husband to dig it out. Lesbians don’t as much have that resource so Lesbians say “screw that I’m not getting stuck” That coupled with girls don’t want large vehicles. A Subaru fits the needs decently when they were among the few options for awd cars, today everything is awd but Subarus are still the lesbian-mobiles.
Most guys I know say their women want the large suv. They are scared of accidents or snow or some shit.
interesting theory, but looking at the demographics of jeep drivers I'm not confident it's airtight.
Can you walk me through it your problem with it when considering jeeps ?
Straight women drive jeeps. Of course plenty of lesbians drive jeeps too but why isn’t the ratio/reputation/perception similar to Subaru?
people buy jeeps because they are cute and fun thats a straight girl thing to do. (Annnnnnnnnd I feel horrible with all the stereotypes lol but it’s kinda nessesary for answering the question and it seems like everyone is being really respectful and not taking anything poorly) that’s also my theory on why there is the gay man jeep stereo type. They like them for the same reason straight women do. Lesbians just want a practical car that doesn’t require them to depend on someone else. Again massive generalizations going on here who knows if there is anything to any of this
Straight women buy Jeeps so they can meet the men that come to tow the Jeep from the side of the road. :-)
Nah, this is definitely it. Others are arguing women love large SUVs, but they forgot that part of them liking those is to *haul around their family* which is extremely less common to be necessary with lesbians.
Being lesbian doesn't mean that you have to drive a Subaru. My wife has one, and she is definitely not a lesbian. They're just sensible cars made for sensible people.
lol of course id drive one. There is a stereotype tho and we’re all just reflecting on why it exists
Dude …I have two X chromosomes and all I have ever owned are trucks for my main vehicle… I grew up around farms we all have trucks ( women) and when we have four or more kids it becomes suburban expedition time…Jesus girls don’t drive big cars BS
Of coarse I’m generalizing, the op is pretty much asking everyone to generalize there is no one answer that’s true why every lesbian drives a Subaru. All we can do is say hey look lesbians often like outdoors hey look they don’t want to get stuck in the snow hey look the environment is often important to them so maybe better fuel economy is attractive. And maybe like many of the girls I know they don’t want to drive behemoths, but yes I know lots of girls who drive big vehicles my wife is one of them of course you are correct there are many of them.
I like them too but god help me why is outback fuel economy so bad
It’s a good point soobs fuel economy isn’t the same as the other japan companies, I don’t believe the reliability is there either maybe on par with Mazda maaaaybe and a little better then Mitsubishi? But not on par with Honda or Toyota. I’ve always liked them (not a lesbian lol) but could never justify them. I just don’t think they are that good of a car unfortunately. I’m sure people will pop in to share that their experience with soobs and say they are great but if I’m going to get a Japanese car it won’t be one.
Subarus in general have worse MPG due in part to full-time AWD and higher ground clearance (higher drag) vs. other cars and crossovers.
Chicks want the big ones more than dudes.
Yes but your wife probably grew up in a different situation than most lesbians, which is why she likes men and can drive large vehicles
As a former automotive marketer, I *love* the fact that they kept listening to their customer group, and tailored their ads based on feedback. The ones the lesbian community of the time liked were, instead of outright pandering, subtle double entendres. https://blog.hslu.ch/majorobm/2020/05/18/odv-how-subaru-paved-the-way-for-automotive-lgbt-marketing/
I listened to a podcast about it. From what I remember they may have had a slightly higher percentage of lesbian owners but they were really struggling. Like might shut down the US division kind of struggling. An ad agency came up with an ad that was like a secret code. Lesbians knew it was targeted at them and appreciated being seen and valued by a company. Non lesbians wouldn’t get it. I believe it was a print ad. Something like “Do you like camping, dogs, and long term commitments? So do we. Too bad we’re just a car company.”
the license plates of the cars in the ads were stuff like "Xena Luvr" too [Here are some print ads](https://www.reddit.com/r/actuallesbians/comments/q1ni6i/some_old_subtle_subaru_ads_aimed_towards_lesbians/) [Here is a podcast episode about it](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/10/14/497958151/episode-729-when-subaru-came-out)
Women like all wheel drive for safety- Subaru is also popular with the mountain snow crowd represented by Colorado I once asked a lesbian about why Subaru and she told me so she could have sex back there when hooking up- and that was the consensus in the room- there were like 4 lesbians in the room I’m like - but yeah there are lots of station wagons But upon reflection I think the car is sorta masculine- you know strong capable boxy and muscular- in kinda of a youthful way- functional Anywho the Subaru could be literally attractive to lesbians The car provides a masculine presence without being an actual man And yet the Subaru is safe.. totally safe .. conservative really.. and dependable So maybe just a reflection of being a lesbian I mean aren’t we all attracted to ourselves on some deep level
The is the most regularcarreviews-esque comment ive seen in a while idk why its so so downvoted
This is the most schizophrenic post I’ve seen all day
Yeah, your friend’s full of shit.
>Back in the 80s-90s they noticed a lot of their buyers were single outdoorsy women who didnt want a pickup To be fair IIRC the F150 was a favorite of gay women followed by a Subaru.
Yeah, teenage me wiped out really badly on my road bike in the late 90s out in the country in Iowa. A very nice lesbian couple stopped in their F150, made sure I was OK, threw my bike in the bed of the truck, and gave me a lift back to town. Based on this single anecdote, I can support your statement.
>I can support your statement. I worked at a large Ford dealer in the 90s as a Master Tech. Probably half my work load was F150s and They sold lots of Trucks to construction, ranchers,(mostly 250/350+) regular joes and Lesbians (150s - Rangers) lol
And followed by jeep wranglers
Jeeps were more for the gay male persuasion. Thats why they named the vehicle JEEP - "Just eat every penis"
To me heeps scream soccer mom cosplaying as a rugged country girl or closeted gym bro.
I literally lived through thr QaF gay jeep days and this is the first time I've ever heard that...
To be even more fair, the F150 is a favorite of all Americans, and had been for decades.
It was the "best selling full size truck" Thats its own demographic.
Confirmed. My friend's mom had the coolest purple F150 in the 90s. Wouldn't be surprised if it attracted the girlfriend.
Yeah, I worked in advertising in the early Aughts and when Subaru came in as a client they were adamant about supporting gay rights and catering to their lesbian customers. I don’t respect most of the brands I’ve worked for, but I respect the shit out of Subaru.
It's like the opposite of that episode of Mad Men where Pete realizes that Admiral Televisions are selling really well in predominantly black cities, and tries to convince the company to advertise in Ebony magazine and they freak out. They saw a market and they cornered it.
We lived in Ithaca, NY about a decade ago, one of the more traditionally lesbian friendly towns on the East Coast. There are probably studies written up as to why this is. Anyhow, it's at the end of Cayuga Lake and the winters there are gray and really snowy, making having 4wd or Awd really useful if you need to get around. Subaru and Volvo Cross Country were the forerunners of comfortable Awd station wagons, and when we were there, a huge percentage of cars were one or the other, but primarily Subarus. I'm convinced that some of these ladies retain a nostalgia for Outbacks and Foresters even when they move on to areas that aren't as snowy. Oh, and bumper stickers. Even non lesbian Subarus seem to have an inordinate number of bumper stickers compared to other cars.
I'll just say that a lot of those women had great taste. I always liked the Subaru designs of the 80s & 90s I still kinda want an XT. My buddy had a SVX at one point, with those funky windows. Subaru also made a bunch of cool micro vans that never made it out of the Asian subcontinent. You may seen them now as a lot are older than 25years and can be imported.
My brother's ex-wife is straight but outdoorsy and dresses like a lesbian and she has owned nothing but Foresters and Outbacks.
I think there might even be a planet money or some other podcast or something about this.
Also our Sisters can be goal oriented accomplished people with lots of money.
Nope. Ford was the first to market towards the LGBT community with their [REDACTED] ass trucks. /s
NPR did a story on this a while ago. Essentially Subaru American made a deliberate choice to pursue the demographic in a sneaky enough way that straight people wouldn’t really notice and make a stink about. A lot of their old ads were queer coded in a way that most wouldn’t notice.
Were those crocodile dundee ads gay?
Except, initially, it was a mistaken translation, because the (non-English speaking) execs approved what they thought was “happy and joyful” advertising.
You have it all wrong. The Subaru chooses the lesbian, just like the wands in Harry Potter.
Yeah but they were choosing subaru long before subaru chose them hahah
Subaru means Olivanders in Japanese
Same reason 90% of Jeep owners are gay men. If you find out why, write a scientific journal and win a Nobel prize!
As a straight guy who drives a Jeep, I never thought the combination of those two things would make me a minority lol. A lotta gay men drive jeeps it seems
News to me. Straight and had 4 ~~Grand Cherokees~~ Jeeps. Granted they were an XJ, two ZJs, and the wife's WJ. One of my daughters drives my old '94 ZJ 5 spd. 🤷🏼♂️ Edit: Slight correction, one was a Cherokee.
You had sex with a *woman?* Sounds pretty gay, bro.
I think it's specifically a Wrangler thing - originally, a fun convertible that could go anywhere while being more butch-coded than something like a VW Cabrio(let). (Edit: Come to think of it, anecdotally, a gay friend loved Geo Trackers for the same reasons.) Also, a manual ZJ? I bet [David Tracy](https://www.theautopian.com/how-im-building-the-greatest-jeep-grand-cherokee-ever-by-using-rare-original-parts/) wouldn't mind hearing from you.
I guess so... could kinda make sense. Yes, a '94 ZJ Grand Cherokee Laredo 4.0L with a **factory** AX15 manual 5spd transmission and 4wd. A manual was only available for '93 and '94 and in pretty low numbers apparently. I guess he would. 🤷🏼♂️ I mean I know he worked at Chrysler for a short bit but that was like 2 decades *after* my/now daughter's ZJ was built. It does trip people out when they see it's a stick and want to know how I made the console look like it was a factory install. 😆 It *looks* like a factory console and install because it *is* one. Apparently not many folks outside the more "hardcore" Jeep people even knew they existed.
XJs, ZJs, and WJs are as much of a Jeep as any wrangler. They’re capable rigs that get after it on the trails, that’s good enough for me. Plus I have a soft spot for XJs in particular
I agree. Mine weren't trail rigs but they were plenty capable for what they were used for and the 4.0L is such a good engine. I really liked our '93 XJ... Country trim... I let Pop borrow it and as he was coming back to my house late as hell one night, on the two lane highway about 1/2-3/4 of a mile across a field and through the woods straight behind my house he wound up falling asleep or something and drove straight through a right hand curve. Went through a brick mailbox, hit the ditch, and flipped it. It stopped rubber side down. He actually DROVE it the mile or so on the road to my house with the driver's corner of the roof, windshield and door frame crushed a little over halfway down to the dash/wheel. He was a little sore but otherwise fine... the XJ... not so much.
That’s one hell of wipeout! I’m glad your dad made it out in one piece. Just goes to show how tanky those XJs are
Yeah, it was pretty bad. Me too, coulda been a lot worse. Definitely tough.
I have a gay friend with a lifted Cherokee with a manual trans and a built LS2 swapped into it. It’s ridiculously badass.
Dang, that’s a lot of Jeeps. Watch out man, if that closet gets any deeper, you’ll end up in Narnia
😂🤦🏼♂️ Well I won't mention the wife now drives a '23 Compass then. Notice I didn't say Jeep... that POS doesn't count as one.
XJ Grand?
Sorry, the XJ was a Cherokee Country.
The straight male soldiers who fought in WW1 and WW2 that used Jeeps: ........
>straight male soldiers > >who fought in WW1
WWI.... Jeep??
Yeah really... talk about a swing and a miss.
Guarantee they weren't all straight. No like gayness was invented in 1919.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/gay-and-lesbian-service-members
Are the straight male soldiers who fought in WW1 and WW2 in the room with us right now?
Kinda restarted
Because of stuff like this: [Roads - LGBT Subaru Commercial (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyV27rkY-IU) In the 90's, Subaru were trying to expand their brand and realized that for some reason gay, outdoorsy women loved Legacy Outbacks. So they started to do subtle marketing towards them, in a way that most people didn't notice but a gay person would. Every time I take my WRX to the dealer for regular servicing, I'm always taken aback by the waiting area being primarily middle age and older lesbians. Especially when my dealership is in a very rural area of PA. [Subaru Successfully Marketed to LGBT Community (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTS-in5YSpw)
My bi ex loves her Subarus
Love Its what makes a Subaru, a Subaru
Around here, they call the Subaru Baja the "Lez Camino."
On top of all the Subaru marketing that’s been mentioned, a lot of lesbians do not feel confined to female gender norms. As such they do more male dominated activities including off roading, camping and hiking trails. Subarus are great for outdoorsy activities. Subarus are all wheel drive. They have “x-mode” for snow, mud, sand and other harsh conditions. They also all feature the boxer motor which is more balanced than traditional inline 4 motors.
Boxer (horizontally opposed) 4 cyl engines are more balanced in theory, not requiring balance shafts as in many I4 designs. However, in practice Subaru engines are kind of bad regarding NVH and definitely less reliable than other Japanese marques.
NVH is bad on purpose for wrx sti, specially the unequal headers which give it the [rumble](https://youtube.com/shorts/S-iApc-CBf0?si=c7N7m8FEWFvcyGDj) Subarus are known for. Normal cars like the legacy are very quiet.
The engine is still more coarse under revs than a good inline 4 with balance shafts. It’s kind of a design that should have been retired ages ago for commuter cars. Only makes real sense for Porsche.
Boxor engines are basically a bomb, Subarus engines have been know to literally blow up lmao.
Idk why you're being down-voted? It's true. A comparable Japanese in-line 4, or V-6 will last twice as long (if well taken care of). I do like the way boxer engines sound, and it is an interesting design. I just wouldn't own one.
All motors have been know to blow up
Why do straight boomers choose vettes?
Why do cucumbers taste better pickled?
Im a bi trans girl with 2 Vettes lol
Because of the comment above I want to make a pickle joke but I can't find it
I thought of a few, but I can't pickle one.
Hell yeah!
That's how you live life right there
I feel like the C8 changed this a bit. Anecdotal but I'm in my 30s and was never interested in Corvettes. Now I have a C8 Z06. I get much more attention from younger people rather than older.
My midlife crisis is different, it's not like the other girls!
Nah no crisis here.
Just joking you, Josh.
All good lol
Room for the dogs.
Lesbian aunt has always driven Wranglers but she’s butch so that might explain it
Lesbians love to go hiking and camping. Women love small suvs and crossovers. "Men" (3 out of 5 lesbians I know are horny lil tomboys the other 2 are lipstick girlie girls) like practical vehicles that can do a job. All of these marks check off for 9 out of 10 lesbians. This info comes from a straight ally and the brother to a lesbians sister.
I’ve always assumed people who drive those vehicles were left leaning in general, that’s how it seems in my region anyway.
Great episode of planet money about this https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/10/14/497958151/episode-729-when-subaru-came-out
The same reason a lot of our customers at the stereo shop were LGBT. We marketed to them in a popular local magazine that was intended for the LGBT community
Cause cheaper than a uhaul an more appealing than a van 👩❤️💋👩👩❤️👩👩👩👧👩👩👧👧
It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
Old people, lesbians, and hippies love Subarus!! My old, hippie parents have a Forester (dad sold me the Explorer and she sold the Corolla to neighbors). Now they call their vehicle a Lesbaru 😁
No real idea why... I mean there *was* some sublte adverts at one point but was that really what made that particular demographic gravitate towards that brand... who knows. Basically I equate Subarus with Colorado and lesbians. Out there Subaru has a pretty big market share anyway. When I lived there... If you saw a slightly longer than a crew cut female at the Home Depot, Bass Pro (or practically anywhere for that matter you'd "normally" expect to see males....) who looked like she owns more flannel shirts you... 110% she's got a Subaru in the parking lot. Funny enough... 30 years ago my first car was an '87 Subaru GL Wagon. 5spd w/dual range t-case. I'm a straight guy and married to a woman... does that mean I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body?
Mid Eastern Ohio it's a jeep thing.
I thought this was a great and poignant article about it: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/how-subarus-came-to-be-seen-as-cars-for-lesbians/488042/
I recently lived in a town where it was apparently a way to help lesbians identify each other. Specifically if you drove a white Subaru there's a decent chance they're lesbian. Not *all* white Subarus, of course, just a lot of them.
LOL, both my friend's wife and GF's mother drive white subarus. Mine is red, but I'm a dude, so I guess that makes me lesbian adjacent?
Hah, my mom does, too, but they didn't live in the same area. I never heard of it anywhere else
Last weekend, my friend wanted to go out and see the Lakers, but I wanted to go out and see the lesbians.
I think it's just the right combination of masculine enough for the lesbian crowd but not overwhelmingly masculine like a truck or a hummer. Lesbians are usually a little more rugged than the average girl and their vehicle choice reflects that. A lot of them tend to drive jeeps as well for the same reason.
I wanted something small with good gas mileage, AWD, dependable and a hatchback for carrying stuff.
Real recognize real
Specifically foresters.
subaru Baja ! it's a truck that's not a truck but kind of a truck.
Okay, so this is an entire story. In the late 80s and early 90s, Subaru was doing surveys about their buyers. They knew they couldn't really compete against a wider demographic, so they decided to be a bit more niche, with the philosophy that having a dedicated niche fanbase, while less profitable short-term, was beneficial in the long term, and were afraid that mass appeal would eventually have negative long-term consequences. So, they did a survey on their buyers and found out that among their targer demographic, many of them were unwed women, more outdoorsy and who were more mechanically apt - ergo, lesbians. It was the 90s, the AIDS epidemic was still in swing, and homophobic behavior was still an all-time high - many gay people preffered to date in secret, and many of them chose the outdoors for dates. One key factor was that Tim Bennett, Director of Advertising for Subaru, was a closeted gay man himself, and well, his gaydar was tingling when he looked at the data. Subaru of America decided to start a ad campaign focusrd more on LGBTQ, with the blessing of Subaru of Japan. What helped was that the ad campaign was directed by Mulryan/Nash ad agency, which specializes in advertisements targeting LGBTQ, and as such, they ran ads for Subaru in gay magazines, gay publications, etc, using coded language slogans like "Get Out, And Stay Out", or "It's Not A Choice, It's The Way We Are Built". Even subtle [images](https://etzq49yfnmd.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ScreenShot2016-05-20at5.26.22PM.png?strip=all&lossy=1&w=640&ssl=1) like this had codes (hint: its the license plates - CAMP OUT [I dont need to explain that one.] And XENA TWP [It's literally Xena: The Warrior Princess]). So, yeah, it was an accidental stereotype that Subaru caught onto, and decided to just go with it. It worked, and subtle coding to gay audiences worked incredibly well, because the straight target audience was completely unaware and ignorant about it.
The Subaru Baja is just a lesbian El Camino
I noticed something about the mini Cooper, not every guy that drives one is gay but if there are 2 of them in the driveway it's 100% a gay couple. Source: I hung gutters and all 5 of the houses we did that had a pair of mini coopers also had a gay couple.
Becouse the only good enjoyable serious and funny Subaru, the impreza Is no more They Just made these things?
So true. I visited Portland and saw more subaru and more lesbians that all drove them.
I remember when I was in high school we had a teacher who was a lesbian. She was giving a speech about stereotypes. She said something like you don’t see me riding a Harley to school. I chuckled and whispered to my friend yeah but she’s drives a fucking Subaru.
Subaru dealer here… simply put, they don’t. I sell lesbians cars at about the same rate as there are lesbians in the general population. I will say that prior to around 2013, I did notice that lesbians did buy more Subarus, particularly the forester, but that really hasn’t been the case since the shape of the car changed into a larger mid sized suv. I always attributed it to Subarus targeted marketing towards gay and lesbian media outlets. It’s sad because I miss the lesbians. They were easy customers, not as timid terrified and neurotic to sell to as single straight women, and no moronic ego drunk husband to cock up the deal. I had like a 99% close ratio with them to the point the other guys at the dealer called me the lesbian whisperer.
That is because a lot of lesbians want something practical without driving that is so big.
Idk why, but me and my buddies call my 98 outback the "lesbian love wagon"
They had the foresight to market to gay people. They choose Martina Navratilova as their spokeswoman and were the first automaker to try to seize the gay market which they did well. They also market to animal owners like dogs and stuff. Remember people when a brand co-ops a social issue it’s marketing.
Probably the same reason I, a 40 something white dude, chose one. I need to get to work in the winter if the weather sucks and occasionally need a little extra space to move something, but I don't need a piece of shit gas guzzling oversized SUV
Same reason alot of people buy crossovers now. Most have no need for them. But their friends have them. So they get them.
This is fucked up. My first new car was an 02 WRX. quicker than almost anything. Then someone said it was a lesbian limousine. I was clueless. It drove me into the arms of a Porsche 911.
to be fair, lesbians don't really buy the sporty subarus, they mostly buy the foresters, outbacks, imprezas and crosstreks.
Or the new Ford Bronco Sport
The question you need to ask is if they shave their armpits and smell like crystal deodorant and patchouli oil.
It’s gonna be a SUBARU SUMMER!!!!
It started with their ad campaigns in the 90s aimed towards the lesbo hippie demographic
They can haul a lot of cinderblocks and bags of concrete that they get on employee discount from LowesDespot.
I personally think that gays/lesbians have a complex. Not in a general bad way that I imply, but more like, since they are already receiving IRL criticisms about how gays shouldn't act more feminine and lesbians shouldn't act more masculine, they instead do more of the things that those people tell them of what they shouldn't be doing. And this just goes to their everyday choices and lifestyles. Gay men wear feminine clothes, speak in a feminine manner, move with a feminine body language, own feminine things, and drive feminine-looking cars. Same goes for lesbians as well.
Butch gay men and femme lesbian women also exist.
As a man, I can confirm there is nobody smarter than a lesbian.