“If we all hate consumerism, how come we can’t stop shopping?”
There’s a great deal of difference between a popular idea and a popular practice. Anti-consumerism is alive and well in the minds of North Americans. But few walk the talk. The theory is attractive - anti-consumerism means fighting against worker conformity, sexual repression and most importantly, conformity in consumption.
There is a common desire to be unique, to reject the mainstream. Or as Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter put it, “distinction.” The problem is, that’s what capitalism relies on. People consume with the intent of cementing a particular image that is superior to the perceived mainstream. The general public has agreed that being cool means expensive clothes, fine food and handcrafted décor. All this stems from a desire to disassociate one’s self from the perceived mainstream/boring/unhip individual with little wealth, no taste and no individuality.
There’s a great quote in Heath and Potter’s The Rebel Sell from Pierre Bourdieu: “taste is first and foremost distaste.” Our individuality is based more on discarding what we deem too ‘normal’ and less on things we actually find appealing. Companies are profiting from their own (imaginary) rejection by the public.
For a brief time, there was a collective sentiment of distaste for the ‘hipster’ subculture. The idea of “I did/knew/wore [blank] before it was cool” was seen as elitist and snobby. And now, like dye stirred into water, it has homogenized. It has become acceptable and commonplace. What is notable is that the hipster subculture represented a brief surfacing of a pre-existing and quite commonplace notion. This concept of individuality courses through the veins of all North American subcultures, but a stigma arose against those who openly admitted it.
The irony is that the hipsters, supposedly all for anti-consumerist individuality are the same people fuelling the evolving consumer market for new things. As soon as a bandwagon reaches capacity, the initial members abandon their once distinctive quality in search of something non-mainstream. Thus, they create a new wagon for the population and companies to jump on. All while denouncing consumerism.
I would be guilty of this too if I were more of a trendsetter. I’m typically among the last few to jump on a bandwagon before it becomes passé. The one exception here is tight pants. I remember the initial stigma for the style of dress as it was associated with the emo kids. When I started wearing tight jeans, I was branded as a member of that stereotype. Since then (early high school), tight pants have become far more commonplace. I’ll have to wait and see whether I decide my tight pants have become too mainstream and it’s time to get thuggy.
No comments:
Post a Comment