Is excessive consumption gender related? Do girls consume more - and if so, why? I have been wondering if this translates into the gatherer vs hunter thing with women more inclined to collect and store stuff. I reckon we win hands down on the clothes and homewares front, but am not sure about anything else.
Have found it interesting that the response from a lot of guys when I talk about the Compact is that they don't buy anything - their wife/partner does it all.
What do you think?
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5 comments:
Darn straight it is!
At least, between my husband and me, I'm the shopper hands down. I'm also the one who tells my husband to throw out worn clothing (or I do it - he won't notice it's gone), buy new things when he needs them, and so on and on.
He's inherited thriftiness inasmuch as he won't buy stuff for himself; my thriftiness means I buy stuff for him, but never at full price!
I recommend Colin Campbell's The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism for a great analysis of how consumer culture has been made, and how in particular it has been gendered - hence, why I like shopping!
I have found that some men I meet wish their wife would become a compacter, others, whose wives are already compacting roll their eyes and think its gimmicky and don't want to make any rules about what they buy and don't buy.
My husband finds the not shopping thing easy ( he never shops anyway) but he has a weakness when it comes to computer gear and gadgets...
On the sock front- I'm constantly replacing his cotton socks... he won't wear anything else, and when they get holes, they are very hard to darn.
I think women are certainly encouraged by the media (which is owned and operated mostly by *men*, I might add) to buy more useless stuff, it is true.
Look at your typical shopping mall. There are dozens of shops that are aimed solely at women. Clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, perfumeries, homewares, candleshops (does 'Dusk' sell *anything* that is really useful or necessary?), shoe shops (mostly womens), and so on...
Most of the home budget and bdgetary decisions are also controlled by women. Women choose house style and size, car style and size (yes, really - even though so many car ads are still aimed at men, advertising anaylsis shows that most women are the key decision makers in choosing which car the family buys), and they do most of the food shopping as well. They also do most of the major purchases such as furniture and so on.
But men earn more, encourage women to spend more by being the execs that push the consumer society, and are largely the designers behind the disposable society that gives us whitegoods designed to last only a month past their warranty, food production methods based on animal abuse and poisonous chemicals, and cheap textiles created by slave labourers.
In short, neither sex can plead innocent. It is up to individuals to start using our brains, and saying NO to this madness.
Interesting question! My intial reaction was to say yes, but on reflection, we seem to have an extensive CD and DVD collection (very few of which I bought), and numerous other "gadgets" and "tools", none of which I was responsible for bringing home. Many were used only a few times. In fact, I think my other half would be on cloud nine if a Bunnings opened up within walking distance... So, no I don't think it's just a girl thing :-)
When I started Compacting, my husband started shopping....
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