When Abercrombie started homoerotic advertising in the '90's America was in the middle of the AIDS epidemic and homophobia was widespread. Extremely widespread. Jesse Helms/God's wrath on perverts widespread. Granted A&F wanted a "scandal" for publicity, but still all this dramatic and beautiful gay photography making men into sex objects for other men came at just the right time for gays to get a breather from the doom-and-gloom and despair.
Racially, it's cart and horse. Preppy clothes were not on any Black man's shopping list and the only Blacks in an Abercrombie store would be their employees and models. Also, if a gay white man had started photographing young Black males sexually back then not all Blacks would have considered it a compliment by a long shot. Weber used Black models in A&F ads but was careful to not make them mainly homoerotic sex objects. Maybe Weber was racially prejudiced, maybe A&F was, IDK. But for it's time the A&F quarterlies and ads were a major achievement for gays that is getting swept up in today's cancel culture.
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