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Consuming kids the commercialization of childhood 2014
Influences of fashion
Influences of fashion
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The image on the cover of Ed Mayo’s influential “Consumer Kids” (2009) (see Fig. 1) draws our attention to the controversial child consumer identity, which has formed the focus of a flurry of popular critical publications about children and consumerism in recent years (Klein 2001, Linn 2004, Schor 2004). The visual depiction of the child fulfilling and detained in his consumerist role captures the common concern that children have been trapped in compulsive consumerism. Cook’s (2008) study of children and childhood as constitutive elements of consumption theory, however, challenges this traditional view. Critically evaluating children’s access to the world of commodities, the meanings and significance of parents’ consumption on behalf of children, he argues that “the child consumer is made well before it is born” (2008, p. 232). Rather than sentencing children to consumption for life, this acknowledgement places under question the dominant construction of children as “adult-in waiting” and suggests reconsiderations of notions of consumption, childhood and motherhood. Aspiring to a more critical view on children’s consumption, in this essay, I seek to offer an analysis of Cook’s observation and illustrate with examples from children’s consumption of clothing.
https://ihaveadoubt.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/immagine-38.png
Fig.1. Consumer Kids (2009)
Aiming to define the nature of the child consumer, Cook’s (2008) observation approaches a fundamental question in the study of children’s consumption: “When does a child become a consumer?”. Research into children’s consumption of clothing has yet to address intensively this question, but writings on children of conspicuous consumption, consumer culture and the commercialisati...
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...ing Essentials - Marks and Spencer 2013. [video online] Available at: [Accessed 16 January 2014]
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Pollehn, S., 2010. Sewing Clothes Kids Love. Minneapolis: Quayside Publishing Group
Schor, J., 2004. Born to Buy. New York: Scribner
Taylor, J., S., 2004. Introduction. In S., Taylor, L., Layne and D., Wozniak, eds, 2004. Consuming Motherhood, 2004, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Thompson, C., 1996. Caring Consumers: Gendered Consumption Meanings and the Juggling Lifestyle. Journal of Consumer Research, 22, 388–407
Woolgar, S., 2012. Ontological Child Consumption. In B., Sandin, J., Sohanna and A. Sparman, eds, Situating Child Consumption: Rethinking Values and Notions of Children, Childhood and Consumption. Lund: Nordic Academic Press
The land of the free, brave and consumerism is what the United States has become today. The marketing industry is exploiting children through advertisement, which is ridiculously unfair to children. We are around advertisement and marketing where ever we go; at times, we don't even notice that we are being targeted to spend our money. As a matter of fact, we live to buy; we need and want things constantly, and it will never stop. The film, Consuming Kids , written by Adriana Barbaro and directed by Jeremy Earp, highlights children as this powerful demographic, with billions of dollars in buying power, but the lack of understanding of marketers’ aggressive strategies. Children are easily influenced and taken advantage of, which is why commercialization of children needs to stop. Commercialization to children leads to problems that parents do not even know are happening such as social, future, and rewired childhood problems. Government regulations need to put a stop to corporations that live, breathe and sell the idea of consumerism to children and instead show that genuine relationships and values are what are important.
There are many people who are driven by consumerism and many people who wish they can get in touch with that type of world. Consumers are often promoted to advertise more of the products that they are buying to get more people to buy more products. Hari Kunzru, author of “Raj, Bohemian,” creates a narrator who is obsessed with maintaining his individuality and free will in a world that is overcome with consumerism. Believes that the world takes away individuality when consumerism comes into play and how hard it is to maintain their true self. In her LA Times article “Teen Haulers Create a Fashion Force,” Andrea Chang writes about the phenomenon of teenage Youtube users who make videos that publicize their latest shopping binges. She expresses
According to Rocker- Gladen, while attempting to teach her students about consumerism, one recurring comment students normally make about consumerism, it is their parents’ responsibility to monitor their exposure to consumerism. This alarming fact is that not every child has parents whom are actively involved in their child’s development. Turkle emphasized that by parents giving their kids cell phones this can lead them to developing a new state of dependence. Instead of the youth seeking their parent’s advice about their ideas and attitudes, they are more likely resort to their inexperienced peers. This is as a result of the “always on, always contented” communication culture that is being the...
In regard to consumerism and gender, I find two figures—Hannah Hoch and James Rosenquist--connected. Hoch once worked for a women's magazine of the huge Ullstein Press while Rosenquist once earned his living as a billboard painter at Artkraft-Strauss. They had been working within the mass media during the day and using the fragments from the industry to create art works at night before they moved to their own studios. The Beautiful Girl (1919-1920) and The Light That Won’t Fail I (1961) are examples I will use to explore consumerism and the relationship between consumerism and gender. As insiders of the mass culture, Hoch and Rosenquist take both content and technique from the visual vocabulary of mass consumption and transform them into art. Their approaches of creating art pieces witness changes in the consumer world at different time periods of history. As manifested in their works, The Beautiful Girl and The Light That Won’t Fail I, photomontage and billboard-like painting resemble the forms of advertising. And their different kinds of juxtaposition embody the experience of the consumer world and the artists’ allegorical comment on consumerism and gender.
Swimme, Brian. “How Do Our Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism”. The Human Experience: Who Am I?. 8th ed. Winthrop University: Rock Hill SC, 2012. 155-157. Print.
...protecting it from weather. Youths may represent themselves with choices of fashion, maintain the acceptance from peers by dressing along with the fashion, differentiate themselves with stylish or luxury goods, and express themselves with preferences of clothing. The choices of young people may be affected by the trend, society, and the media. However, choices may also be a source of anxiety. For instance, that a function of advertising is to assuage the self-doubt that accompanies choice. Consumption would be a much less pleasurable practice if it was both subject to ever-expanding free choice and the decisions made were fundamental components of a reflexive process of identity-formation. Consumption may be anxiety-provoking for some groups; there is a real element of risk involved in choosing inappropriately. But there are many mechanisms that serve to compensate.
There is much debate on what constitutes as a family today. However, Ball (2002) states, “The concept of the traditional family…is not an immutable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture” (pp. 68). There is a growing diversity of families today including the commonality of sole-parenting. In order to explore aspects of sole-parenthood objectively, I need to reflect and put aside my personal experience of growing up in sole-parent household. Furthermore, this essay will explore the historical origins, cultural aspects discussing the influences and implications of gender identity, and social structures of sole-parent families, as well as consider the implications in midwifery by applying the sociological imagination. Mills (2000/1959) describes the sociological imagination as “…a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger social realities” (pp.15). In other words, the sociological imagination involves the ability to consider the relationships between personal experiences and those within society as a whole.
Throughout history the connection between consumption and capitalism has played an integral part towards social changes that have occurred. As society changed so did the theories used to explain why these changes seemed the way they were. The sociology of Consumption has been rooted within sociological theory since its earliest days for example from Karl Marx’s ideas of utilisation of use-values (Marx, Engels and Arthur, 1972). However even within in these roots the influx of research only began to occur within last few decades. The sociology of consumption provides another route in which theorists can study society. As Marshall (1998) believed that sociology theory had for a long time been eclipsed by theories such as alienation and social class to name a few that are constantly being used to explain the basics of the social order and conflict with it. Although consumption has grown within the last few decided it’s not an easy term to define as there is not a standardised definition as many people believe when talking about consumption they already understand what is meant by the world. However it’s more likely they understand the word in terms of what it means to “consume” as the majority of society consumes on a daily basis.
According to Slater (1997), consumer culture can be defined that the relations between needs and social structures as well as it would be a power and identities in commercial system and society. In other words, it can be meant how people want to live and organize the society in various social conditions such as commercial and industrial capitalism. Capitalism means that “an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods and wealth are held primarily by individuals and corporations” (Sturken and Cartwright, 2001: p.350). Besides, globalization leads to increase commercial and industrial capitalism which includes economic knowledge to global markets and people can purchase goods manufactured in another country. However, because of the process of commodities, some problems might come up. It is because consumer culture can be involved in diverse fields in terms of ethics, identity. Moreover, despite industrial problems reveal in the market, consumers still have focused on consumption of products. Advertising helps to hide the problems with glamorous images. Therefore, this essay shows how consumer culture can be represented with industrial problems. Consumer culture will be addressed regarding to child labour which is occasionally carried out illegally in the world. In the essay, firstly, it will look at both child labour and consumer culture and then coherence of them with focusing on capitalism. The series documentary of ‘Blood, Sweat and T-shirts and Luxuries’ will be mainly analyzed in the second part with some examples. Lastly, it will discuss what benefits consumers and companies gain from exploitation of child labour.
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage, Page 30, Page 126, Page 132, Page 133
The historical exploration of material culture includes examining modes of consumption, the meaning and life of objects, as well as actively “reading” material objects as historical texts. Alternative to the “simple maxim that supply creates its own demand,” historians have examined the way consumption is generated, motivations for different objects’ mobility within social hierarchies and cultures, ideas of fashion and fashionability, and definitions and limits of consumption (Vickery, 274-75). Mary Douglas, in “The Uses of Goods,” discusses consumption and the way in which objects reflect the culture and context of their production but also are subject to change. Douglas’ redefining of consumption, consumption being a sort of universal frame
Consumerism has always been a big part of society back in the golden days. In today’s society, the ongoing debate of wants and needs are not justified by an individual’s wealth, but it is rather opinionated by the generalized public. Not only are the consumers getting caught in this mess, but many retailers are being sucked in as well. Retailers, have to stay up to date with the latest trends, to make sure they get their products across. Human identity is no longer determined by how much a person makes an hour, but by the commodities they possess. Consumers are so centralized on the materialistic items, that they forget what is more valuable and important. Unfortunately, the frivolous consumption has taken over the
Children use clothing as a form of identity, and when their families cannot afford the latest trends, it can lend itself to feelings of low self-worth and can even make children targets of bullying. Children are inundated every single day with advertising and marketing, and these kids are connected to media a good portion of their day. This allows advertisers to creep into our children’s lives and target them multiple times every day. Corporations are guilty of putting financial gain ahead of children’s health and well-being, and the fashion industry has been identified as one of these industries (L...
For several decades, as if, a typical undergraduate dream has been characterized with few major steps – getting prestigious high education, taking or buying a diploma, and consequently becoming a successful rich careerist with intuitively main goal to consume as much as possible in order to boost one’s utility at highest potential level. In this way of thinking, development of personal individualism and pursue of human values are left behind the curtains. Everything that can be seen on the scene of our being is mass consumerism, which slowly, gradually, but surely is transferring us into a hedonistic consumer society. According to an article in European Journal of Marketing, “A consumer society is defined as one directed largely by the accumulation and consumption of material goods. The term "consumer society" is used in a pejorative sense, coming from the perception that such a society will inevitably be hedonistic. It is the search for instant gratification that we traditionally associate with hedonism….”(41 Issue: 2007). In our way to gain deep pleasure, we are over purchasing items and gadgets which once were thought to be extreme luxuries. Most of the times, we are interested in what kind of IPhone we possess, whether to buy a tablet or a laptop, are we are driving more expensive and fancy car than the others, what is more fashionable – a pair of Armani jeans or a pair of Dolce and Cabaña trousers.
The act of consumption has been the primary means through which individuals in society participate and transform culture. Culture is not something already made which we consume; culture is what society creates through practices of everyday life and consumption involves the making of culture. When attempting to understand certain acts of consumption it is necessary to observe the relations involved in production and consumption. Through technological innovation, the fashion industry has been expanded to play a prominent role in consumers’ purchasing decisions and styles are becoming less difficult to obtain. With the expansion of department stores and shopping being viewed as a leisurely activity, this has continued to transform the act of fashion consumerism. The functional interests feature a rational attachment to clothing items. Symbolic benefits involve status and prestige to fulfill the achievement for positive self-esteem. Further benefits include a provided experience for the individual consumer and the created use of imagery and desire used to enrich one’s life.