Thoughts on Spendin’ Girls and Sense of Belonging

Kakka Pylly

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Thoughts on spendin’ girls and sense of belonging

Introduction

My own consumer habits seemed reasonable until preparation of the list with all my spending analyzed and scribbled neatly on a page of a journal. I wanted to find out more about the dissimilarities in consumer behavior based on gender. Why the men in my life seem to handle their finances better than the women? I also wanted to understand more about the harmful messages pointed towards young adults to spend their little money they have on big corporate products. Whilst other half of the population being exposed to harmful portrayal of ultra-feminine commercials and stereotypes, the other still has the upper hand on better wages and job positions. Why women are not spending money on investments and instead splurge their hard earned cash on makeup, jewelry and clothes?

Thesis statement

The society is reinforcing the stereotypes of women enjoying spending money more than acquiring it. This can be seen through numerous self-obsessed makeup and style blogs, massive spending on fashion and beauty industry and reality shows pedestaling the latest trendsetters. Women are expected to love shopping or be addicted to shoes, bags or other non-important but necessary products. Throughout history, misogyny has functioned to explain, justify, or reinforce women’s exclusion from economic institutions by labeling women as spenders, not savers. Economics is traditionally focused on topics said to be "culturally masculine" such as autonomy, abstraction and logic (Ferber and Nelson, 2003).

Unfortunately it seems society we live in thrives from people mirroring themselves through consuming, and judging others by theirs. It might seem peculiar that a person’s self-depiction relies on the concept of what they purchase and wear, and less with what they accomplish or how they treat each other. Using certain brands or products (that have distinctive label or attributes) contributes to a positive image of oneself thus reinforcing the cycle of purchasing and momental happiness. Still unfortunately superficial and simplified message is for the women to look beautiful, young and desirable and for the man to be rich, strong and intelligent (Fischer 1994).

What has been found out is that men and women in general have very different ways of spending and saving and thinking about money and what brands they view desirable and Gender moderates many effects as men and women respond differently to stimuli including marketing communications (Meyers-Levy, 1989, Putrevu, 2001). According to the scientists, the crucial differences are linked to biology, socialization, and data processing style. An assumption that is present in the general public, consumer research and marketing strategies is that men and women are very different in aspects of their consumer behavior. The differences can be seen ranging from the brands they have a habit of buying to the response (buy or not to buy decisions) to advertising and product positioning. These kind of assumptions and beliefs have led companies to aim different advertisements to the genders. The selectivity hypothesis suggested that gender differences emerged because men look for overall message themes or schemas, whereas women engage in detailed elaboration of message content (Meyers-Levy, 1989 ). Women seem to enjoy “the little things” and buying and consuming enforces their perception of self - more than for men through details and personalized products and services.

The brand and the message it gives out applies more to women than functionality and overall using experience (Meyers-Levy, 1989). One study found out that while both men and women form relationships with brands, the relationships of women and brand are more affect based for women and more cognition based for men. This applies for the younger generation, but as the time goes on the difference between men and women narrows and by the age of 35, women's brand relationships tend to become relatively less affect based and more functional (Sahay et al., 2012). It seems that women tend to lose the peer pressure of buying and consuming certain brands to fit in. Starting from the early social situations as children, women have greater need to ‘fit in’ as they have greater exposure to brands and are expected to own certain possessions in order to form relationships with other women. The social element of ‘fitting in’ is so strong that the young females spend their money on clothing. It is harmful, that in advertising women are also subordinated in various ways, as indicated by their facial expressions, body positions, and other factors….they are shown in traditionally feminine (i.e., stereotyped) roles (Collins, 2011). These roles are key factors of growing up as a girl - the mentality and expectations of the group that they feel the sense of belonging might give strongly polarized views on womanhood and acceptance.

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