Gender, Consumption and the Media

Gender, function and the MediaConsumption is a social practice which subconsciously communicates ideas about sexual urge. In turn, sex intersects with the realm of consumer behaviour as a cognitive, cultural and semipolitical construct (Ross, 2010, pp.13-39). In this instance, the media provides an important sphere to observe the social constructions of sexual activity that, by routine, substantiates certain performances of sex (Hirschman Stern, 1994, pp. 576-81). Within the context of Home loge Offices television series, Sex and the City (1998-2004, hereafter SATC), this idea leave analyse coeval depictions of femininity and demonstrate how these interpretations coincide with drug addiction. It will further discuss how sex fluidity allow the characters of SATC the liberty to flow and transition in the midst of the essentialist attributes of feminine versus masculine, distorting the conventional boundaries and constructions of femininity when they consume collection plates, take aim in breathing in related to sex, and struggle with reliable love and spousals in their search for authenticity. Each character discovers approaches to simultaneously reconstruct and honour their sex activityed identities as they construct contemporary roles with the assistance of employment. However, it is this inspiration that can fuck off new tensions.The home is often associated with the sexed notions of the domestic sphere. Within the home, production and consumption be conventionally defined, with men buying the home and women buying for the home. This shapes the home as a site of patriarchal oppression and control (Schroeder Borgerson, 1998, pp. 105-231). However, Caldwell and Kleppe (2006, pp. 22-40) reason out that inglesidehold members can subvert, conform to, or negotiate ideas about sexual urge. while discourses on home featureership are traditionally related to the labor union of a man and adult womanish, SATC represents home ownershi p as allowing the female characters independence to explore the expectations that are associated with conventional sexual activity roles in the home and their ain desire to demarcate new sex activity roles as whizz women, without children, overwhelming living spaces.For Miranda, sexuality fluidity is communicated to encompass the baron roles of men and women as professionals, lovers and homeowners. In light of this, Miranda experiences tensions when she confronts the vestiges of conventional gender roles when buying her home. Initially, Miranda had visualised that her acquisition of a home would satisfy her identity as an independent even so professionally accomplished superstar woman. However, the possession of a home for Miranda is shown to do imbued with sexism. This reflects the cultural assumption that a woman without children or a keep up would simply not possess sufficient financial funds or knowledge to invest in real estate and would not shoot purchasing her home alone. In effect, the challenge a womans achievement in the conventionally masculine, public sphere of buy the farm as a corporate lawyer poses leaves Mirandas character hazardous about her performance of femininity. Here, SATC communicates how the subversion of traditional feminine ideals will inevitably involve a negotiation of the gains of feminism. By purchasing a house without a man, Miranda is portrayed to challenge the norm which results in a self-reflective grapple regarding her performance of femininity. Mirandas experiences of tension demonstrate that changes to gender norms come slowly. The consumption related to domesticity and the home is therefore denoted in SATC as simultaneously liberating provided rep permite with tensions of the gender norms in everyday life.Another theme of gender that SATC communicates is how gender and consumption discourses are interlinked with the confines of sexual practice. Gender is advocated to be interlinked with sex activity as an individuals gender guides their sexual practice while at the same time an individuals sexuality validates their gender (Fracher Kimmel 1995, p. 367). Schroeder and Zwick (2004, p. 34) argue that consumer behaviour regarding everyday products reflects on the messages of sexuality, lifestyle and identity. In SATC, themes of sexuality are intently interlinked with gender and consumption discourses although the cultural messages imbued in the consumption choices are neither essentialist nor direct. The women of SATC represent a contemporary adaptation of the single girl. This new standard for contemporary women is less opinionated on chasing spousal relationship as a fundamental end, but more focused on career and relationships. While conventional media representations of women primarily exhibit traits of femininity as that of passivity and helplessness (Stole 2003, pp. 65-80), the narrative of single girls in SATC mirror the changes in the norms of femininity over time.Fo r Samantha, her gender status as a single female and cosmos the eldest of the four women, welcomes her attempts to control and preserve her primeval days through the performance of aesthetic labour (Pettinger, 2004, pp. 165-84). However, this narrative of Samantha struggling and bedevilment about her changing sexuality because of aging is brought to a halt when she realises the power her gender status provides her over the notions of beauty and youth. Samantha is characterised as empowering when she withstands the influence of the stereotypical images of female sexuality she is enveloped by as an exuberant consumer of forge and executive-owner of a public relations firm. Through the portrayal of Samantha, the performance of female sexuality is suggested to involve an aesthetic that changes as a woman physically and emotionally matures. The aesthetic of femininity links female sexuality and power as SATC frames the aesthetic and its associated power to be about Samanthas power to wee-wee and use it. In essence, Samantha embodies the tensions that emerge when a female must let go of youth and acknowledge her own power to determine her own beauty with age. In turn, the performance of female sexuality is highlighted to relate to go through pleasure which may or may not involve sharing that pleasure with a man, either because men cannot provide it, or women prefer to experience the pleasure alone. Nonetheless, views of masculine power and predatory sexuality, the correlation sexual performance has with conglutination and dating that will eventually result in wedding party remain evident notions in SATC. This stresses gender as a social construct and how consumers will require time before being able to perform a more fluid notion of gender, without the anxiety, disdain the idea of gender equality. SATC therefore communicates the tensions experienced by females that relate to these norms during their consumption of goods (for Samantha, the consideration of plastic surgery) which, in turn, affect the females performance of their sexuality and creating their desire gender identity.The final theme of gender communicated in SATC is the tension between an ongoing ambivalence for an authentic gender identity and the stereotyped female longing for true love and marriage. Potter (2010, p. 4) holds that authenticity and the consumption of true love and marriage is about individualism and a movement representation from the masses to seek an individual gender status. However, consumption can never deuce-ace to an authentic gender identity because of what is consumed is considered to be inauthentic. As gender is a natural and pre-cultural social construct (McCracken, 2008, p.186), the pursuit of an authentic gender identity and the performance of gender fluidity that may offer self-transformation and opportunities by being enacted through consumption may require the shelving of the authentic gender along the way. In SATC, the real self and the real love are framed as the female authenticity. By consuming to pursue authenticity, the female characters alter the power structure traditional gender roles apply conventional through femininitys contemporary self-sufficiency as the women of SATC acknowledge between the fakes and real of love and self-knowledge.In Season 3, Charlotte escapes from the authenticity of refreshing York City to experience the superficiality of Los Angeles. The change in setting allows Charlotte to view the authenticity of the conservative gender messages she embodied in New York City. In effect, Charlotte is shown to become frustrated by her pursuits of authentic love and marriage as following the conventions of how to take hold of married and pursue her views of true love and marriage to establish an authentic gender identity have been unsuccessful. Through the characterisation of Charlotte, SATC communicates the view of a conservative, gender identity where unmarried women should not have se x with their unmarried partner until after marriage. In effect, work, sexuality and consumption are conveyed as gender roles to be performed for the goal of true love, marriage and a gender identity. However, Charlottes later frustrations over her marriage with an ineffective husband indicate that her pursuit of true love and marriage through following conventions may have, in itself, been inauthentic. This expresses the contemporary idea that gender identities in relationships are unstable and unscripted. Tensions between the conventional and contemporary norms are conveyed in SATC to be part of new gender performances yet the ending of fixed models or frames of references for true love, marriage and gender identity inherently gives anxiety.Constructions of gender in the media influence the understandings of gender in reality. These constructions provide points of analysis as they legitimise certain performances of gender and reflect broader discourses in society. The themes of g ender in SATC focus on questions of the freedom of femininity and the changing notions of female sexuality in a dynamic social landscape. By examining SATC, insight is provided into the contemporary performativity of femininity in relation to consumption in public and traditionally masculine spheres. With the notions of family and work having changed in society, it has brought simultaneous changes in the understanding of gender roles. SATC provides a new independent woman, who despite subverts their traditional gender role, even-tempered struggles with similar issues prevalent in traditional notions of gender. The gender fluidity of post-feminism gives the characters of SATC the freedom to be multifaceted in their performances regarding consuming the home, experiencing sexuality and maintain and communicate an authentic self. However, this fluidity is often fraught with tensions between traditional models of gender and the gendered performances of the characters. The characters in SATC find ways to simultaneously re-establish and reinforce their gendered identities as they create and occupy new roles (with the aid of consumption) in a world of competing discourses of gender which are grounded in prior notions of femininity. Yet this consumption can lead to a sense of anxiety as well from the complex negotiations of gender expectations.ReferencesCaldwell, M. Kleppe, I. A. 2006, Gender identity and perceptions of femininity in everyday life A multi country study of contemporary young female achievers, Gender and Consumer Behaviour, vol. 8, pp. 2240.Fracher, J. Kimmel, M. 1995, Hard issues and soft spots Counselling men about sexuality, Mens Lives, pp. 36574.Hirschman, E. C. Stern B. 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