Sociology 2172A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter week 4 readings: Thorstein Veblen, Conspicuous Consumption, Georg Simmel
20 Oct 2018
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Consumption: the paradoxical phenomenon: consumption touches upon many aspects of contemporary life, it is integral to policy making (ex. Sales tax), and it can be social, cultural, psychological, economic, political, historical -all depending on which aspect of consumerism we address and how we interpret it. Fashion is a phenomenon of social class that stratifies and distinguishes individuals. Is usually manifested by social status with accumulate wealth and conspicuous consumption. =refers to consumption patterns prompted by symbolic significance more than material utility: the sense of extravagance or uselessness is invoked in the pursuit of social status through unnecessary material goods or lavish entertaining. Looked at how women were owned and commodified: consumption was regarded as explicitly gendered work because women gained their own. Shopping at hardware store is masculine: stereotypical concepts and commodities appear in a complex package of marketing and advertising to reinforce and normalize gendered practices of consumption, gendered production, division of design for men and women.
