Successful Development of Consumerism - Essay Example

Even into the nineteenth century, women's roles in society were strictly constrained to domestic sectors with very few respectable exceptions. The ideological middle class woman, including those who worked, were mentally restricted to the private sphere, and respectable women were not to be seen within city life such as bars and other such public places. Through globalisation and its psychological effect, women had more roles available in the public sphere. The Industrial Revolution, itself a product of globalisation, drew workers of both genders into the cities to work, changing the prevalent ideology that women's roles were purely domestic. Women began to use dresses to express their identity. "Fashion and style may be regarded as expressive or oppressive, but nobody could argue that fashion reflects expression of woman's identity, creativity and sensuality, and is connected to a sense of personality on the levels of class and gender". (The Fashion Plate and the Rise of Consumer Culture) This fashion had features of modern urban culture, which percolated into the contemporary fashion magazines. They focused on brightness, sophistication, metropolitan culture and commerce. There were some famous UK magazines that represented a French world of haute couture - The London and Paris Ladies' Magazine of Fashion, Le Follet and The World of Fashion. The women's clothing in the early nineteenth century is the reflection of their persistent watch over their own public identities, and that of other women. Because clothing and adornment has always been a means of identifying tribe, status and awareness, it is not surprising to discover fashion emerged as a dominant force within the city. "A whole range of exciting yarns, new fashion fabrics, protective materials and engineered fabrics became widely available after 1960. New materials and fabric finishing techniques are at first exclusive and expensive. Initially, they are offered to the world of haute couture. A couple of years later they filter to the mass market" (Thomas, 2001). In addition, women had more need to present themselves through their clothing and other means as belonging to a certain social class when they were seen in public. The impact of the internet has only served to increase the areas in which women can take up public residence, but, while this led to increased interaction and increased pressure for women's rights, this does not necessarily mean women were quick to accept each other or other classes. With the addition of more women to the workforce who had some degree of control over the money they earned, retailers began to recognize a tremendous new market. During the last part of the nineteenth century women were targeted for successful development of consumerism. Accordingly, pictures in fashion magazines either for advertising purposes or images were as the prototype of a show window. The models on these pictures never looked into the eyes of the reader, representing a feeling of superiority, and expressed sexuality, modesty and self-consciousness at the same time. (Brewer) Development of department stores in the 70s and 80s provided women an escape from their dull living of housewives, and in the 90s the process of shopping was "sexualized". All this was complemented throughout with various genres of advertising. These tendencies in marketing and advertising flourished in the modern world. Myra Macdonald notes in her book "Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media": "As evidence grew in the early decades of the twentieth century that the developing arts of retailing and advertising were attracting a predominantly female clientele, marketers and advertisers became significant definers of twentieth century women's desires and aspirations. " (p. 180) Women as potential consumers are studied now with the help of numerous market researches and surveys. The power of consumer decision-making is changing, and advertising now describes a woman as the person who decides how to spend her money on herself and her family. With the changed status of women, more and more advertisers pay attention to marketing strategies to address modern women. They depolarise the two accepted stereotypes of financially independent women, and those totally absorbed in family life. A contemporary woman plays multiple roles within an integrated personality in her life. (Brewer) With a greater concentration of consumable income, by the late nineteenth century, the church was replaced by shopping as an important activity for women; "the rise of the department store and of the consumer society providing a highly legitimate, if limited, participation in the public sphere" (Wolff, 1985). "The high point of the nineteenth century shopping revolution was the creation of the department store this was an environment half-public, half-private, and it was a space that women were able to inhabit comfortably" (Wilson, 1992). Elizabeth Wilson (1992) discusses in detail the relationship of women to cities. The birth of the modern cities or the metropolis offered hitherto unheard of possibilities to wealth and changed living for women. The abundance of interesting, acceptable places of interest invited women from all social classes to mix as they found a meeting place within these spaces. "Their financial position notwithstanding, women's independence does seem to have increased when they lived in towns. Nevertheless, they certainly remained badly off by the comparison with men of their own class. The majority of women led insecure lives at best" (Wilson, 1992). Although patriarchal societies thought of women as an enigma and outside of the male language, "the special provisions to ensure that women felt comfortable" spread rapidly, "ladies-only dining rooms, and the opening of West End establishments, such as the Criterion (1874), which specifically catered for women" (Wilson, 1992). The city and its markets and squares propelled women into the public as never before and their new status as public figures, ratified by both the marketplace and increasing progressive political and social activity. That they were ratified was reflected in the response of the fashion community to continuously change and adapt to the rising social awareness, preference for functionality and increasing sexuality of women as they are seen within the city. In turn, these fashion trends helped to ease the breaking of new ideas into more traditional mindsets and contributed in its part to the redefining of still further ideologies regarding women. The rapid transit of information via the cinema, television and internet demonstrates the changing attitudes and ideologies concerning women's roles while easing traditionalists into the new ideas. "In the comfort of one's own home, the television monitor scales down the stark newness of an idea, especially the impact of a fashion concept and this makes it easier for us to accept more quickly when worn by others even if we can't see ourselves wearing a similar item" (Thomas, 2001). Read More