Welcome Back!
Midterms 1 & 2 ...
Final Exam:
30 min presentation vs.
Traditional paper?
• Must let me know group
& topic by March 8th if
you want to do
presentation...
March 24, 27, 31
• First come, first choice
Conspicuous
Consumption
Veblin:
From 1899 to today!
Criminology of Leisure?
The effects of “wasted effort” (aesthetics
• Ontological Insecurity pleasing to us chiefly because we have b
• Vocabulary of Motives taught to find them pleasing...
(Veblin, [1899] 1994: 56)
• Edgework
• Culture of Narcissism
Historical Materialism
Why do people behave
in ways that are ‘bad’
for them/others?
Economic – Social Relations
False Consciousness
• Needs/wants
• Communication
Commodity Fetishization
Conspicuous
Consumption
Predatory Culture
Social Identity is fashioned
mainly and often
violently around the
excesses of marketing
and consumption...
History of women & work
• Labour for who’s
comfort?
Indulgence
& Class
Some beverages are
strictly reserved for the
use of the superior
class...
• Intoxicating use
• Enforced ‘self control’
for others...
Chattle:
should consume, but...
Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a
means of reputability of the gentleman of leisure...
•Vicarious consumers...
Wasteful Consumption
Consumption as evidence of
wealth (prestige/branding)
Production beyond Need
Wants beyond Production
Ostensibly purposeless
leisure.... presenting
‘desirable things’ in these
times of global
ahistoricism
Subtlety...
“In order for it to be reputable
it must be wasteful”
(Veblen,1899: p.66)
Conspicuous Waste
How is ‘risk’ and ontological security incorporated in
maintaining conspicuous consumption & waste?
Critiques ?
Postmodern liquidity =(
Consumer behavior shaped
by lifestyles that defy social
hierarchy?
Autonomy...
Dynamic nature of lifestyle...
Struggle with social mobility
Critiques ?
Assumption of trickle
down =)
• Bourdieu
Trickle-round!
Aesthetics of Economic &
Cultural Capital
“Weighing in at near $250,000[ ....]
To justify the price tag, Dussault
added 16 single carat and 26 halfcarat rubies, eight half-carat
diamonds and more than a kilo of
18k white or rose gold.”
Just Do It:
Killers Consumers
& Violence
“The glossy
phantasmagoria of
youth and beauty,
freedom and pleasure,
obscures widespread
devastation and
suffering [...]to
‘consume’ is to devour
and destroy, to waste
and obliterate.”
Covert affinity
between the
‘monstrous’ serial
killer and the
‘normal’
consumer....
Commodification of
Violence
Culture Industry
(not “society” not “media”)
Murderbilia: “merely a
hardcore version of a
mainstream obsession with
the serial killer”
Shockvalue has translated
into surplus value.
Masking Violent
Consumption
“we treat people like objects,
and objects like people...”
Hegemonic – gender dyad
•Masculine = mastery, virility
& control
•Feminine = victim/object
‘Policing’ through selfobsession
Advertising = create
needs/conspicuous
consumption
Androgony
“While serial killing is
both literally and
symbolically a male
affair, the
paradigmatic
consumer is of course
female ...
....in consumer culture
there is a ‘general
tendency to feminize
objects . . . All objects
. . . become women in
order to be bought”
The Dream of Becoming:
Consumers are ultimately
encouraged to consume
themselves....
“[a] negation of the flesh at
the exaltation of the
fashion”
Blurring of capital and
corporeal
Body fascism
Collection...
‘New Slavery’
At the national level the consumer economy produces
radical inequalities that encourage violent crime. At the
international level, consumer capitalism depends heavily
on a ‘new slavery’ for millions in the developing world
who are incarcerated in dangerous factories and
sweatshops and subjected to the repetitive violence of
Fordist production.
(Jarvis, 2007: 329)