Women and Consumption

Veblen preaches wonders about the world of materialism. He talks about the value of possession and the value of consumption of possessions and the extra value earned from consuming extra value items and basically says the more expensive you are, the more you'll be respected. More interestingly he talks about a woman's intimate connection to this materialism, that it is her duty to consume and earn respect in the same way a man's duty is to be the breadwinner (and pay for all the lovely things the wife gets to use). And while gender equality has leaped forward drastically since Veblen's time, this connection of women to items to popularity definitely still exists today.

In all the magazines, commercials, billboards, and other media forms, it seems more often than not women are the main mannequins for promoting content. They're sporting the sexy new dresses, all dolled up for all the perfume adds, and are endlessly exploited to be used for advertisement purposes, dressed most glamorously when promoting the most glamorous items. And while all these advertisements obviously also use men as well, it's interesting to compare the gender roles men and women seem to play in the media to the stereotypical roles they play in society, both modern and old-fashioned.