Social Phenomena of Consumerism in a Feminist Lens

Name:Pu Qi Zhao

Student #:1000401969

Word Count: 874

Title: Social Phenomena of Consumerism in a Feminist Lens

        Up until modern times, consumerism has steadily become a larger part of everyday life due to the advancements of the fashion industry and a variety of accessories such as bags and cosmetics on the market. People can now more easily purchase items with different styles and express themselves as unique individuals who have a fine taste in clothing, find a common group in which they belong, or even decently manage their culture capital to leave a positive and memorable impression and achieve a specific set of goals such as finding a significant other or acquiring employment. Although visible in both genders, consumerism occurs in women far more likely than men since most females were educated growing up to be well mannered and “lady-like,” and therefore more consumerism products are designed to target women. Because the world is mostly male dominated, girls were taught that by pleasing men with their exterior and suffering some sort of exploitation, they would lose their gender disadvantage and succeed more easily (Brym and Lie 2012).

Roughly five years ago, I had a cousin that was 25, cared incredibly much about her appearance and spent thousands of dollars purchasing expensive and stylish bags and clothes. Aside from that, she would even also spend up to an hour everyday applying cosmetics to her skin. At the time, I had no interest in decorating myself and believed a t-shirt, khaki pants, and sneakers were sufficient to most circumstances so I questioned her on why she spent all these resources and effort on her appearance. Now I see the answer is quite simple because her reply could almost directly replace the definition of consumerism. The Swarovski necklaces, Louis Vuitton purses, and lavish looking high heels “defined her” and made her look “classy” in front of her friends. I shrugged in reply at the time simply because I did not care, but now I question: should the goods we purchase really be our defining factor? If we must purchase certain goods to be part of a subculture in order to obtain these “friends,” are they real friends? These questions did not matter as much at hand because that day she was preparing for an interview as a secretary for a law firm. She specifically wore a low cut top showing parts of her breasts, a skirt and leggings showing her legs, and applied makeup heavily because decorating her physical appearance meant it would increase her probability of getting hired if the employer was male. Her outfit made her stand out compared to others in the sense that she was well-dressed and confident, and very high status because all her clothes and accessories were branded. In the end, her male employer showed significant interest and she received a phone call saying she got the job an hour after the interview.

In my cousin’s case, her success can be explained that she purchased branded clothes and accessories due to the social phenomena of consumerism, in order to leave a memorable and decent impression. Not only that, but she also dressed herself in a visually pleasing way to gain an arguably unfair advantage over others because she knew that the employer would most likely be male, and would probably choose her over others if she and those people were equally qualified. According to feminism, this can be explained that because she knew men are already used to dominating in the fields of society, she could cooperate and fulfill the expectations of men by becoming the sexual objects and submit to the males in order to please them. This occurs because society is so patriarchy oriented and she would have lost the job to a male if they were both equally qualified and she did not dress up (Brym and Lie 2012). Even if dressing up did not give her an advantage, feminist theory explains that she may have been at a disadvantage in comparison to males if she did not dress up and this inequality is just as important as class inequality in determining opportunities in a person’s life. This issue of gender inequality not only appears in job hunting, but also in legal institutions and various forms of politics (Brym and Lie 2012).