It is not surprising that I no longer have room in my closets, drawers, and other wardrobe space. I have the constant urge to shop, always desiring new, trendy “latest season’s” fashions. My room is cluttered with a superfluous collection of clothes, accessories, shoes, bags and other newly purchased items that still have their tags on. I am consistently buying new items of clothing, despite the complete and utter absence of necessity. As the photos suggest, I am indeed subject to a social order known as consumerism.
Looking at consumerism through a sociological lens, Grazian mentions that consumerism creates a cultural hegemony that is part of popular culture as a process of social control. Media and culture industries combined, foster these systematic false needs in consumers for them to want to buy new goods and in larger amounts.
While Grazian mentions the average adult in America buys 48 pieces of clothing items a year, the numbers may be even higher in this society.
Some people here go shopping every weekend, may be even everyday. Do we need to shop that often? And do we really need the items we purchase?
Why do ladies anticipate the latest fashions, trendiest looks, and ‘hot’ off the runway apparel? Who created this constant feeling of enthusiasm and rejuvenating excitement for these cultural products? Why do sales and promotions “easily represent what feels like a missed opportunity for fulfillment” and why does every purchase bring “with it a kind of relief however ephemeral”, (Grazian, p.61).
Grazian points out, it may have a lot to do with the culture industries that mass produce them, as well as the mass media in general that advertises these products.
An eye-opening project called “The Story of Stuff” offers an extensive critical study on the consumerist American society, and the effects of consumerism on the environment and its impact on society as a whole.
We’ve all heard the phrases “Must-haves” and “Must buys” and “Must” whatever it is to make us buy something. Are any of these deemed “Must purchases” really essential?
Well, even if they aren’t, we’re buying them!
According to the video below, in the U.S people are subjected to around 3,000 advertisements a day, which is compared to 50 years ago, more than people in America saw in a lifetime.
So what are the mass media and Ads really doing?
They’re basically telling us our hair’s wrong, our clothes are ugly, our skin is blotchy, our phone’s useless and our lifestyles need makeovers. They make us unsatisfied with ourselves. Then after feeling dissatisfied, we move to these products in order to fill that emptiness, that bubble of dissatisfaction that is created. This is what Grazian calls a “capitalist industry with exploitive motives”. We’re all part of one massive business. It’s all about making money ladies and gentlemen. Not satisfying real needs like creativity, happiness and freedom.
Mass media and mass marketing is the key. Generally people want to identify with a group and marketing sells lifestyle choices. They use the same tactics as religion. If you don’t do A, you won’t get B. Most people don’t have the courage to be unique. Cleverly, the people that market mass-produced “cultural products”, clothing and accessories etc. entice people by telling them if you wear this item it will set you apart and they will gain status when really the consumer pays to be a walking billboard.
It’s obvious if you look around that the clothing presents a sort of false ideal because most people wear things that aren’t necessarily flattering to their figures. You cannot look like Angelina Jolie by wearing the same clothes. Now the consumer goes a step further into body modification - and mass media then advertises plastic surgery.
So they tell you to get your plastic card, and buy more plastic stuff to set yourself apart. Stuff mass-produced, manufactured in third-world nations for a rate of a dime-a-dozen.
But the crafty schemes of culture industries, are not entirely dominating the masses. Even though my closets are crammed (maybe not to such an extreme) a light always shines when cultural innovation, and creativity, and real art does emerge despite the manipulative strategies of culture industries producing what we call “popular culture”.
