Gender and Consumption: Transcending the Feminine?
Author(s)
Firat, A. Fuat
Abstract
That there are close relationships between consumption and gender in contemporary society goes without saying. Who consumes what is still largely dependent on the performance of feminine and masculine roles in many cultures (Gould & Stem, 1989; Schmitt, Leclerc, & Dube-Rioux, 1988; Taylor-Gooby, 1985). However, the historical foundations of the relationships between consumption and gender have not been systematically studied. The study of the history of relationships between gender and consumption requires an analysis of not only the collapse between the categories of sex and gender-that is, male with masculine and female with feminine-but also the origins of the separations between production and consumption as they relate to gender and sex. In this chapter, I will attempt such analytic recount. A brief discussion of postmodern transformations that seem to be taking place currently in the relationships between gender and consumption follows. I will then attempt to examine the consequences of the break between gender and sex categories-when female and feminine, male and masculine, are no longer exclusive representations-for consumption and the study of consumer experiences.
