FISKE:
While Fiske attempts to argue that women hold power through
shopping, this idea is not easy to agree with.
By establishing first and foremost that women have power in the spending
sphere, Fiske appears to play along with the stereotype that women are
leisurely creatures that consume more than the create. Furthermore, there is the question of whose
money the women are spending whenever they go to the mall. Though owning property is an archaic, but
still arguably relevant way of determining status, if women are using money
that the male figures in their lives bestow upon them to obtain property, then
I’m not so sure that this could be called an act of resistance, since it
emphasizes the dependency women still have on men. Even if a woman is spending her own money on
things that she wants, what is she supporting with the things that she
buys? Hegemonic corporations? Still, as we’ve seen through “Merchants of
Cool”, consumers are not entirely mindless.
Just as consumers depend on companies for their products to fit
society’s ideals, companies depend on consumers to know what to sell.
JORDAN
When reading about DIY as a form of protest, I thought of
crafts rather than blockades on road construction. Crafts, however, are a good way of deviating
from consumerism. For example, rather
than buying scarves and beanies in the winter time, I often like to crochet
them instead and I’ve found there is some kind of satisfaction to be had in
making something for yourself in place of spending money on it.
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