Gender Development Of Consumerism

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The growth of consumerism and the commodification of the female image has led to the development of two disparate female gender roles. The first, caused by the commodification of the female image, is that women themselves are products to be used by men. This role is reinforced both through ads targeted to men to attract women and ads targeted to women to objectify and beautify themselves to be wanted by men. The second treats women as the specialized consumer. This gender role is that the woman should serve her family by buying specialized products. However, instead of conflicting, these roles combine into a single role where a woman is expected to serve her husband both as an object and as a caretaker.
The female gender is commodified in order
This development for consumerism makes the female role also be one that shops for the family and cares for the family. Corporations can then sell the image of their products being child-safe or family-friendly in order to individualize their products and increase sales. This gender role is then solidified on the institutional level. In one toy store, employees are trained to serve their ideal customer, a “middle-class white mother”, by treating her as their own mother. In fact, the manager of this toy store instructed the employees to give mothers special treatment, because “mothers made the purchasing decisions” (Williams, 2005, p.197). The building of this female role demanding women be the main consumer for their families enhances product sales of specialized items that must be bought, in addition to the other products the woman must buy. Many times appearing after depictions of women being objectified, commercials show women shopping for the family, buying products specially designed for the family. In fact, the two apparently disparate roles for women to both be an object for men and a caretaker for the family is used to promote consumerism through ads depicting a caretaking female letting loose and becoming the object that her man wants. This then promotes consumerism with products that will allow this paradoxical woman transform between these roles through makeup, revealing clothing, and other

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