Consumer Culture and Identity Construction

99 Cent II Diptychon by Andreas Gursky, 1999, captures the epitome of consumer culture depicted through the mass advertisement of goods in a supermarket.

Consumer Culture

Today, consumer culture , or the idea that there exists an endless range of products, built to satisfy the needs and wants of populations of people, inherently drives, shapes and molds our societies. According to Statistics Canada, in 2015, the average household expenditure in Canada was approximately $82,697 annually , with the expenditure covering everything from food, to education costs, to clothing and accessories. Comparatively, the average household income in 2011 was $79,600 , immediately presenting a conflicting and somewhat ironic situation that very clearly depicts the problematic role consumer culture plays within a postmodern and neoliberal society. In a society where people are going into debt in order to be able to purchase the products and services they are convinced they need or want, the concept of product produced satisfaction and identification is mirrored within their own lives in terms of how they define themselves and construct their own identities. This can create confusion and uncertainty as consumer culture is tailored towards a constant dependence on products for happiness and an endless seeking for the perfect product. This depicts that not only does consumer culture negatively affect the economic pursuits of individuals but even more so, that it contributes to a confusion and uncertainty experienced by individuals when trying to understand what it means to be one gender or another as defined by the society within which they live.

Gender Identity

The image depicts the complexities of gender construction and the fluidity of gender identities. Retrieved from https://learn.uvm.edu/blog-education/complexities-of-gender-identity.

Gender identity refers to how an individual personally experience's their own gender, whether it be male, female or whether they don't identity with either or both. This identity can be completely separate from the biological sex that they are born with and the way in which it is constructed for each individual differs greatly depending on the society within which they live.

Identity surpasses simply a person’s awareness of being female or male but rather goes beyond to individuals interpretation of themselves and the way in which they interact with their social environment based on their notions about gender roles.

Effects of Consumer Culture on Identity Construction

Consumer culture also plays a role in the uncertainty many individuals face when constructing their own idea of self and identity within their own societies. By encouraging an ideology that temporary is necessary in order to find perfect and permanent, consumer culture forces people into a psychological space where the precariousness of romantic relationships causes individuals to question who they are and what they really want. In their article “Technologies of sexiness: sex, identity, and consumer culture,” Adrienne Evans, Sarah Riley and Avi Shankar discuss the connection between neoliberalism, consumer culture and female sexuality arguing that within neoliberal discourses, consumerism has reconceptualized the idea of sexuality and femininity for many women. Through the sexualization of culture and products marketed towards aiding in women’s sexuality and therefore femininity, the consumer culture has taught women a different way in which to form their identity, one that involves constantly seeking satisfaction through products.

Impulse Buying

“Impulse buying is influenced by one social category only (gender)...” (Dittmar et al. 1995)

Impulse buying, a large aspect of consumer culture that at some point or another an individual will give in to, discreetly plays a role in gender identity. This is primarily seen as the selection of goods made when impulsively purchasing something.

In their study, Dittmar et al. (1995) found that the categories of goods that were most likely to be bought by students aged 25-35 were music and clothing, followed by magazines, ornaments, body care, jewelry, and sports clothing. This indicates that because these items are most often used for “self-presentation, self-expression, mood adjustment, diversion and entertainment.”

Pattern of Choices

Gender is a significant factor in the consumer good categories that are chosen when impulsively purchasing something, depicted in women and men’s differentiating “pattern of choices." These differences were seen both quantitatively and qualitatively within the analyses. Men were found to have a functional or “leisure-oriented” perspective on impulse-buying whereas women were primarily focused on appearance and body-related concerns when making their impulsive choices

Men are more likely to buy a good impulsively in order to express their uniqueness and as a way of conveying a part of their personal identity. Comparatively, women’s main concerns were related to the mood and enjoyment that was associated with the product.

Pattern of Considerations

Men were found to consider the financial factors of a product while women took into consideration stylistic and physical features of products. Men also tend to impulsively buy products that are more instrumental while women tend to impulsively buy goods that convey both emotional and appearance concerns.

Symbolic Self-Completion Theory

This theory, formed by Wicklund and Gollwitzer (1982-1985), proposes that amongst other things, individuals utilize material goods in order to compensate for self-perceived inadequacies that they believe comprise certain aspects of their self-concept. An example of this might be a male wearing a typical symbol of masculinity, such as a black leather motor-bike suit, in order to compensate for a possibly discerning lack of masculinity elsewhere in his life.