1st Edition

Women, Consumption and Paradox

Edited By Timothy de Waal Malefyt, Maryann McCabe Copyright 2020
    276 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    276 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Women are the world’s most powerful consumers, yet they are largely marketed to erroneously through misconceptions and patriarchal views that distort the reality of women’s lives, bodies, and work. This book examines the contradictions and mismatches between women’s everyday experiences and market representations. It considers how women themselves exhibit paradoxical behaviour in both resisting and supporting conflicting messages. The volume emphasizes paradox as a form of agency and negotiation through which women develop dialogical meanings. The contributions highlight the ways in which women transform inconsistencies and contradictions in advertising and marketing, global consumption practices, and material consumption into positive practices for living. The rich range of ethnographic accounts, drawn from countries including the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, Japan, and China, provide readers with a valuable perspective on consumer behaviour.

    Introduction: Women, consumption and paradox  Timothy de Waal Malefyt and Maryann McCabe

    Part I: Gender engagements, consumption interactions and marketplace ambiguities

    1. Women and chocolate: identity narratives of sensory and sensual enjoyment  Maryann McCabe and Timothy de Waal Malefyt

    2. ‘Shapewear or nothing to wear’: the ambiguity of shapewear in the plus-size fashion market  Daiane Scaraboto and Maria Carolina Zanette

    3. Creating interactional alignment in call center customer care  Margaret H. Szymanski, Patricia Wall and Jennifer Watts-Englert

    4. Financial technology and the gender gap: designing and delivering services for women  Erin B. Taylor and Anette Broløs

    5. Being connected: mobile phones in the lives of domestic workers in Mexico City  Carmen Bueno and Sandra Alarcón

    6. Untangling women’s braided relationships with music  Barbara Olsen                 

    Part II: Histories of gender imageries and practices in flux 

    7. Women under control: advertising and the business of female health, 1890-1950  Marina Frid and Everardo Rocha

    8. Company uniforms and gender dynamics in the Japanese workplace  Tomoko Hamada

    9. Women’s consumption of cosmetic products in China: between logistics, conflict and symbolism  Dominique Desjeux and Yang Xiao Min

    10. Shifts and paradoxes of gender over the course of a career  Patricia Sunderland 

    11. Little luxuries: decency, deservingness and delight  Russell Belk

    Biography

    Timothy de Waal Malefyt is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at the Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University, New York. A trained anthropologist, he has over 15 years of business experience working in advertising firms.

    Maryann McCabe is a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Rochester, New York. She is Founder and Principal of Cultural Connections LLC, with over 20 years of consumer research experience.