blog 15

Consumerism is an interesting form of culture in itself. It is a form of culture that strongly represents the rapid and ever-changing state of popular culture and cultural power. Right off the bat, John Fiske presents two very interesting pieces of thought:  shopping as an act of cultural resistance or manufactured and managed by the – predominantly male – power-that-be. I can agree that shopping can be a form of everyday acts of resistance. Refusal to purchase something that is not what an individual deems culturally acceptable or stating their reviews on a product so others may follow. However, I think that the latter idea is much more apparent. Shopping is mostly a place of restraint and control. Despite what people are interested or want to purchase, they are limited by what the producer sells. People may believe that their style is their own, but we are constantly bombarded by influential persuasion from those businesses. The idea of shopping itself is gendered role trap. It is so common to associate women with shopping that girls are almost forced to adhere to that personality. While the active role of women out and about may have once been consisted a sign of resistance from the stay-at-home wife, today this is more a constraint. Like the Barbie doll problem, girls are influenced to view shopping as a necessary activity in order to fit into their gender identity. For immigrants, this can be something that creates conflict between generations that immigrate and generations that are born into this culture. While the parents are limited by working opportunity, government oppression, or lack of economic stability, their daughters may struggle to fit into this cultural identity of consumerism. This then leads back to the view of not shopping as a sign of cultural resistance more so than the act of shopping.