American Culture's Influence On Consumer Culture

Improved Essays
The start of this unknown American culture was the influence advertisements had on consumers. They were on television, magazines, and a part of an Americans everyday lifestyle. Lynn Peril speaks of cosmetics for example and explains how make-up, grooming, and dressing up creates joy to all women. She states, “Cosmetics companies were quick to back up the experts’ claims linking personal appearance and happiness” (Peril 169). A lady needed to properly maintain their hair, personality, makeup, and have charm in order to conform acceptance in society. This created woman to fill high standards of how they needed to become a proper lady and following these guidelines they were taught what true beauty in society for femininity should be. Another …show more content…
Being financially stable started the idea of Suburbia, the accelerating consumer culture, automobiles, and the baby boom. All these events included in some way the feminine ideal of a woman and how females were to be happily married, having children, going shopping, being the homemaker, and maintaining their appearance simultaneously. In Suburbia, housing was meant to be maintained by no other than the woman, and how every female dreamed to be a housewife. Peril states, a “good wife” is a “good housekeeper” (Peril 37) and how the proper way to think pink was by becoming a homemaker and making that your one and only true career. Being a housewife was seen as “a woman’s skill” and it was just as if they had an “ego-rewarding as a successful profession in the business world.” (Peril 38). Being a housewife also meant to be a mother and during the baby boom between the years 1946 to 1954 women were to get married, have babies, and stay at home nursing their children as well as maintaining the household. Another word a female was defined as were shoppers, and how that was in their feminine culture. Peril explains how the women had to make sure they “Park and Shop” (Peril 36) and that meant women needed to shop in a hurry in order to get back home before their husbands did. Not only doing this assured your feminine role, but looking the part was also needed. In order to fit the feminine gender role was by beauty and learning how to be perfect by your appearance. From head to toe a woman’s body needed to be prioritized, and beauty needed to be “learned…and earned” (Peril 42). These beliefs based on femininity needed to be done, and if they were not you were seen as an outcast, better known as

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The cult of domesticity is what defined a true woman in the mid to late 1800’s. With this mindset of true womanhood, a lady was expected to be pious, pure, domestic, and submissive. Piety was an important quality for a woman to have, because she was supposed to be the spiritual leader of the family. A woman’s purpose, as far as piety went, was to bring her husband back to God. Next, a woman was to be pure.…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1945 the United States was able to put the past behind them, and pick themselves back up after a five-year war, and a decade long economic depression. During World War 2 Americas economy produced many war products, but in the 1940s after the war was over the economic frame worked switched to produce goods for the consumers. Consumerism was significant in the late 1940s and 1950s because many people could enjoy goods that were made for them, as well as new products that they would be later introduced to, and wages were increasing steadily for workers. Because of the money America had saved during the war, America was able to take care of the veterans that had returned from the war. The GI Bill of Rights was passed in order to support the Veterans returning from war, the GI Bill of Rights allowed veterans to achieve a higher education, and have affordable housing.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Women's Suffrage In Canada

    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages

    “It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. ”- Emma Watson (Ferguson, 238). In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, women did not have the right to vote. The dominion act of Canada stated that “no woman, idiot, lunatic, or criminal shall vote”.…

    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Turning Point for American Women The role of American women began to change tremendously during World War II, affecting the American economy and their personal lifestyle after the war. During World War II, the majority of men were away fighting, which forced women to fill the empty slots of the workforce. The assistance of women to the economy became crucial to gender roles changing over time and created a women workforce, allowing the women to start make a living outside their home.…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, Crittenden fears that due to all those opportunities, women are so busy that they started to neglect their true job as housewives. They are expected to take care of their husbands and be a role model to the children. ( Crittenden) In Crittenden’s discussion she argues that when women get married, they chose their career over their children.…

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Depression in the 1930’s was a wearisome time for Americans, mostly due to the stock market crash on October 29th, 1929. While people struggled financially during 1930s, there were social aspects that corresponded with the obstruction of American lives. As men were without jobs, women were often forced to conform into more than “homemaker” to keep with family demands. In the United States, women felt the social bearing of misfortunes between 1929 and 1939 through discrimination upon entering the labor force and through reinforcement of gender roles within their homes.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “ ‘Housewife’ was the only suitable role because society frowned on women earning a living” (Alexander). Women were not supposed to work in the “man’s world” because it was too harsh for a respectable lady to bear. Up until the 1920s women were not allowed to smoke because it was deemed manly (Moore 72). “Before national suffrage was achieved, a great many women—equally excluded from this basic right of citizenship—could…

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In comparison to the statistics, many middle class housewives were not happy, even though they had relatively easy lives compared to working women of this and later decades. They were restricted in so many ways that many suffered from anxiety and depression (Coontz 2). There was a full fledged system that kept women from working, or living by themselves. In many states they were not allowed to serve on juries, get loans, or get credit cards. Unwed childbearing was ostracized to the point where women gave up the child, and returned to life as normal.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Society’s structure relied heavily on religious doctrine that determined gender roles. According to the Bible, the female body was created from a man’s body. Thus, this was interpreted as women being inferior to men because they were created second and from man. Moreover, a woman is also responsible for the first sin in the world; Eve offered the forbidden fruit to Adam in the Bible. Women were supposed to be silent, obedient and submissive.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Consumer Culture Analysis

    • 1145 Words
    • 5 Pages

    INTRODUCTION “Consumer culture” is a culture and lifestyle where personal social status and individual values are based around the consumption of goods and services, with an extremely large area of what you do, what you value and how you are defined and recognised in society all revolving around the consumption of goods. The article that will be discussed in this literature review is: “Low-income families and coping through brands: Inclusion or stigma?” which is written by Dr Kathy Hamilton, from the University of Strathclyde, in 2012. This article outlines research that was implemented and carried out in order to view the struggles that people encounter every day to avoid being socially stigmatised, and focuses primarily on low-income families…

    • 1145 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Westward Expansion has often been regarded as the theme of American history, and gender was shaped by the everyday interactions in the nineteenth-century West that made history. Westerners found what motivated them to construct gender roles, and came up with a single definition for femininity and masculinity. Even with the influence of gendered ideas on social life, Americans thought the West would offer women uncommon opportunities to reinvent themselves like so many men did. Women were considered physically weaker but morally superior to men, and they were tired of being looked down upon.…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the last few decades technology has taken leaps forward in both depth and breadth on the impact it has in the lives of everyday consumers. From the creation of the email system in 1971, to the making of the first Ipad in 2010, various advances have changed the way in which companies connect with consumers. New discoveries and advancements change the way people live and communicate; things such as ads, need to adapt to these changes and become more accessible to the new consumers. The internet has increased the efficiency of advertisements and allowed them to adapt to the fast paced life most people live. Some believe that the new ways of advertising on the internet is changing the American culture.…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Oral Sex In Ancient Egypt

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Rarely did women have responsibilities outside of the house, as time went on women began to take more active roles such as, managing house hold finances, however they remained work in the…

    • 1759 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Societies gender roles have changed dramatically over the centuries. A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, a contrast can be made between women of that era and the women of the 21st century. Women were subsidiary to their husbands. The role of the women was to care for the husband and children. Women were also expected to adhere to societal expectations.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gender Roles through Mid- 20th Century Rewind to late 19th century/ early 20th century America. A woman’s identity was largely defined by religion and culture. At that time period, men were perceived as having the power. They were expected to be socially, politically, and financially dominant. Women were subservient.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics