Consumer Culture
Consumer culture during the early 20th century shaped American views and set in place idea's that drove American society for the first part of the century. An industrial revolution that had begun with the manufacture of cotton and woolen textiles had, by the beginning of the 20th, transformed the production of most everyday goods. From convenience foods to clothing, appliances to automobiles, the enormous output of industrial production led businesses to coordinate methods of distribution and sales and to forge the infrastructure of our consumer culture. Finally with corporate America plowing society with a huge supply of consumer products, a demand needed to be designed. This need for a demand, accompanied with a large male blue/white-collard work force, drove society to create women that consumed and spent the paycheck every week. This new consumption system was enabled by the creation of national homogeneous consumer markets, and the destruction of the traditional local and heterogeneous markets prior to mass production. Before this time of massive expansion of the corporate market, and the more then 3 fold increase of clerical, managerial, and engineering jobs. The problem with this new age flow of funds was that saving,
Advertising changed and influenced consumer culture, and through this adjustment in consumer culture, society molded men and women into what the advertising agencies depicted as the American Dream. As advertising catered to, and shaped American women, it less noticeably forced the American man into a picturesque business man that should go to work and bring home a handsome pay check for the wife to spend shopping. The pre-war definitions and American idea's on gender are not what they were during the roaring 1920's. People still want a sense of personal contact with the raw forces of modernization; that out there was a personality, shown as an advertisement, that one could address and have a personal relationship with. However, today this personal relationship is not limited to women and has expanded its horizons to include men and children. The new-age consumer culture consists almost of society in its entirety, as the person is objectified through consumption, her or his body is divided into many different parts, each needing a product, each posing a problem, and each having an identity different from the whole person. Advertisements today represent mini-dramas, making the care of the person quite paramount, and catering to such a large consumer base, has made the pre-war definition slide slightly into the shadows. Today, a simple, generic feminine consumer does not exist, now the consumer culture exists as an expansive populous which is beginning to become exceedingly difficult to capture. "Fie and shame on the improvident beauties... who fall in love... and lose their hearts... without first looking up his financial standing." (May p.140) In previous decades, there was no real debate on what the necessities of life were, or whether a man provided enough for his family. A husband either provided or did not provide for his family. It would be impossible for the huge change in consumer culture, to not have some effect on how family life was led. With the help of movies, which idealized the image of modern marriage and family life, Los Angelos became the warm suburban paradise, with many happy prosperous families. However, this was a false se
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Los Angelos, American Dream, consumer culture, american women, necessities life, expectations marriage, peaceful home, advertising agencies, consumer culture explosion, consumer base, shaped american, proper study, culture explosion,
Approximate Word count = 1463
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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