Gender & Women’s Studies 320
Special Topics: Feminism and Consumer Culture
Spring 2014
Jane Collins
Office: 312 Agricultural Hall
Class distribution list: genws320-1-s14@lists.wisc.edu
2104 Chamberlin Hall
MW 2:30-3:45
jcollins@ssc.wisc.edu
Office Hours: W 10-12
What does it mean to consume? How is consumption related to gender? Is consumption about
desire? How much agency do we have as consumers? Is shopping political? What models do
we have for challenging or changing consumer culture? Over the course of the semester we will
be tackling these questions as we explore how consumer culture evolved in the U.S. over the
20th and 21st centuries, its institutions and sub-cultures, and its global reach. These questions
take us to the heart of feminist theory, as they delve into the terrain of identity, value, power,
and privilege. They provide a nexus where the struggles against many forms of oppression are
linked—from labor activism to queer/trans organizing. This course will provide new tools to
address perennial feminist concerns about the meaning of fashion, beauty, spectacle, bodies,
citizenship, and the relationship of personal to political, as well as new angles of vision on a wide
range of consumer activist practices.
Class Practice
The quality of our collective experience in this course depends on your participation.
Participation means ATTENDING class, as well as keeping up with the readings and being able to
discuss them thoughtfully in class. I encourage debate based on careful reading of materials and
we will work to cultivate an environment of respect for one another and for one another’s
views. We will spend some time on the first day of class discussing how to create such an
environment.
I will not post lecture notes on-line, although I will post any power-point slides presented in
class. As a general rule, I will present background material and lead discussion for the first 3045 minutes of each class session. After that, student teams will make a presentation related to
the day's readings.
Books
[available at Room of One's Own, 315 W. Gorham, and elsewhere]
1. Celia Lury, Consumer Culture, 2d edition. Rutgers, 2001.
2. Sharon Zukin, Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture, Routledge, 2004.
3. Course Reader available through electronic course reserve system.
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Assignments
I. Research Paper (40% of grade). Due May 7.
II. Critical Consumption Reflection Paper (10% of grade). Due 3/12.
III. Culture Jamming Project (30% of grade). Due 4/28 (written component).
IV. Participation/facilitation (20% of grade)
I. Research Paper. In this paper, you will analyze some aspect of historical or contemporary
consumer culture in relation to gender/sexuality. This could take many forms including the
study of a particular commodity or consumption trend, the creation of a new marketing
practice, or an example of consumer activism. Work will be completed in 3 phases:
a) Prospectus, with preliminary bibliography (1-2 pages): A description of a topic and why you
are interested in writing about it, along with a few key sources you have identified. Due: Feb 24.
b) Thesis Statement and Outline (1-2 pages): Identify the main argument of your paper (one
paragraph) and provide an outline showing how you will present the material. Due: Apr 7
c) Final Paper: The final paper should be 6-8 double-spaced pages and include a bibliography of
sources. We will talk more about the paper as the course proceeds. Due: May 7
For general information on good writing see the UW Writing Center website
(www.wisc.edu/writing) or visit the Writing Center in 6171 Helen C. White.
II. Critical Consumption Reflection Paper. For this assignment, you will write an "autoethnography" of one of your consumer practices [see Eichler article as an example], reflecting
on the material, social, and cultural meaning of the example you choose. The reflection should
draw on course themes. I will provide more detailed information on the assignment in class.
3 double-spaced pages. Due Mar 12.
III. Culture-Jamming Project. This is a group project (ideally 3-4 persons per group). Choose an
ad or ad campaign that contains messages about gender and sexuality that you would like to
challenge. Design a culture-jamming campaign directed at the ad. This includes designing
materials, such as counter-ads, but also developing a plan for circulating them. Your write-up
should include an in-depth analysis of the original ad and its messages (the semiotics of the ad);
an account of what the ad advertises, when it appeared, and how it fits with the corporation's
mission. (For example, if you were studying the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, you would
research who owns the Dove product line, how much revenue Dove products bring in per year,
and any other relevant information about marketing strategies, target demographic, etc.). 5-7
double-spaced pages and class presentation. Write-up due Apr 23, presentations Apr 30-May 7.
More information will be provided in class and groups should meet with me at least once.
IV. Participation/Facilitation
Small groups of collaborating students (2-3) will be assigned to make presentations related to
each class session's readings. These presentations should illustrate or generate discussion about
main points in the material. This can take the form of presenting examples of key concepts and
themes drawn from print or television or online media; illustrating themes or concepts through
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skits or performance art; or of leading an in-depth discussion of some point made in the
readings. This is not a complete list of possibilities--feel free to invent others. Presenters should
consult with me beforehand to coordinate activities. Your participation/facilitation grade is
based on a combination of your everyday participation and your presentation during a class
session.
Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate students enrolled in this course will only be
required to turn in the final research paper. Graduate research papers should be approximately
20 double-spaced pages in length. A prospectus and outline are also required, due at the times
listed on the syllabus. Graduate students will meet separately with me once a month at a time
that works for all of us.
Accommodations: I wish to include fully any students with special needs in this course. Please
let me know (the earlier the better) if you need any special accommodations in the curriculum,
instruction or evaluation procedures in order to enable you to participate fully. The McBurney
Resource Center will provide useful assistance and documentation.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Introductory Concepts
1/22
Introduction
Getting to know each other. Basic concepts. Developing our class practices.
1/27
Feminism’s Complicated Relationship to Consumer Culture
Elizabeth Wilson, “Feminism and Fashion”
Georgina Gittins, “Shopping Is a Feminist Issue”
Michelle Goldberg, “Feminism for Sale”
Matthew Eichler, “Consuming My Way Gay”
Why are feminists conflicted about consuming? What is the relationship of consumption
to desire? To identity? To gender performance and sexuality? How much agency do we
have as consumers?
1/29
Culture and Political Economy
Dan Irving, “Elusive Subjects: Notes on the Relationship Between Critical Political
Economy and Trans Studies”
Why do we think of culture and political economy as separate domains? How are
they linked? What is the difference between identity and subjectivity? What is
neoliberalism and how is it involved with the intimate dimensions of the self?
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2/3
Commodities, Markets, and Value
Myra Strober, “Well-Being and Value”
Marilyn Waring, “A Woman’s Reckoning”
What does consumption mean? What is commodification? Does everything we
consume come from the market? What alternatives are there?
2/5
Material Dimensions of Consumer Culture
Celia Lury, Consumer Culture, chs. 1 and 2
What is material culture? How do things link people? What are “possession rituals?”
What is a “consumer attitude?”
2/10
Communicative Dimensions of Consumer Culture
Lury, chs. 3, 4, and 5
What do we mean by lifestyle? Taste? What does Lury mean by “stylization?”
Who are the “Captains of Consciousness?” What is “habitus?”
2/12
Sociological Dimensions of Consumer Culture
Lury, chs. 6, 7, and 8
How do different patterns of consumption mark race, class, gender identity, and
sexuality? How are ideas about social status and consumption transmitted?
2/17
Inequality and the Politics of Consumption
bell hooks, “The Oppositional Gaze”
Rachel Moran, “Consumerism, Conformity, and Sexual Identity”
Imani Perry, “Bling Bling…and Going Pop: Consumerism and Cooptation in Hip Hop”
How do markets “capture” liberatory movements? How can we (can we?) separate
liberatory and conformist elements of popular culture?
THE EMERGENCE OF CONSUMER CULTURE IN THE 20TH CENTURY
2/19
The Emergence of Mass Markets
Sharon Zukin, Point of Purchase, chs. 1, 2, and 3
What factors enabled the growth of the mass market? How did the mass market
alter the “cult of domesticity” and reshape gender relations? Did mass consumption
eliminate differences between social classes?
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2/24
Creating (Gendered) Consumers
Zukin, chs. 4, 5, and 6
How does advertising fragment mass markets? How is shopping related to performance
of social identities?
Final paper prospectus due
2/26
Intensifying Consumption
Zukin, chs. 7, 8, 9, 10, and epilogue
How does the relationship between shopping and identity change in the late 20th
century? How was shopping related to emerging ideas of lifestyle and choice? What
role did brands play in that process?
NEOLIBERAL CONSUMERISM
3/3
Consumers vs. Citizens
Lizabeth Cohen, "A Consumer's Republic"
Inderpal Grewal, “Neoliberal Citizenship, The Governmentality of Rights, and Consumer
Culture” (esp. pp. 26-34)
Alison Hearn, "Brand Me Activist"
What is consumer citizenship? How did this concept arise? How is it different from
other ways of thinking about citizenship? How is it gendered? How is consumer
citizenship reworked in the neoliberal era? How are ideas about consumer citizenship
circulated transnationally? Has consumer activism become commodified?
3/5
Bodies/Market
Josée Johnston and Judith Taylor, “Feminist Consumerism and Fat Activists: A
Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign”
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, "Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminism" (pp. 9-17)
Susan Bordo, “Hunger as Ideology”
What obstacles do social movements around bodies face in creating effective alternative
representations? What role has consumerism played in struggles for disability rights?
How has advertising guided us to think about hunger, desire, and control in gendered
ways?
3/10
Sexuality/Market
Amy Gluckman and Betsy Reed, “The Gay Marketing Movement”
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Dan Baker, “A History in Ads: The Growth of a Gay and Lesbian Market” [please notice
that the Gluckman/Reed and Baker articles were scanned together in a single PDF]
Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, “Trans (In)visibilities in Bogotá, Colombia”
How has Madison Ave. targeted gay and lesbian consumers? What opportunities does
this status as a new market segment open and foreclose? What kind of transgender
visibility does the Colombian government support and what are the implications?
3/12
Treadmill of Consumption
Juliet Schor, "Unsustainable Consumption and the Global Economy"
Juliet Schor, “Beyond Business-as-Usual"
What institutional arrangements have led to a “speeding up” of consumption in the
neoliberal era? Does consuming more contribute to a higher quality of life? What are
the societal and environmental costs of this speed-up?
Critical Consumption paper due
3/24
Globalizing the Model
The Modern Girl Research Group, “The Modern Girl as Heuristic Device"
Inderpal Grewal, “Traveling Barbie”
Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, images from "Material World"
How do ideas about consumption “travel?” What does ‘indigenization’ mean?
How do people make use of consumer goods in new, perhaps unintended, ways?
THE CASE OF FASHION
3/26
What is Fashion About?
Rebecca Arnold, “Status, Power, and Display”
Minh-ha T. Pham, “If the Clothes Fit: A Feminist Take on Fashion”
Marjorie Jolles and Shira Tarrant, “Feminism Confronts Fashion” (pp. 1-4)
How would you characterize the feminist debates over fashion? What positive values
do feminists see in fashion? What harmful or negative effects? Might course concepts
help us frame this debate in a less polarized way?
3/31
Queering Fashion
Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline Davis, “The Butch-Fem Image of
the 1940’s and 1950's” [From Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold]
Astrid Henry, “How I Learned to Dress from Reading Feminist Theory”
Shira Tarrant, “Dressing Left: Conforming, Transforming and Shifting Masculine Style”
Tricia Romano, "Transgender Model Carmen Carrera ... Victoria's Secret"
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How do individuals and sub-cultures appropriate and reinvent fashion norms?
What is the potential for these innovations to change the larger culture?
FEMINIST CONSUMER ACTIVISM
4/2
Feminism and Fair Trade
Laura Raynolds, “Consumer-Producer Links in Fair Trade Coffee Networks” (pp. 404-5
and 409-20)
Kathryn Wheeler, “The Rise of the Fair Trade Consumer Citizen”
Guest Speaker: Sarah Besky
What is the “fair trade” model? What strengths and limitations do these authors
identify? What does feminist theory have to say about fair trade interventions?
4/7
Early Feminist Consumer Activism
Kathryn Kish Sklar, “The Consumer’s White Label of the National Consumer’s League”
Dolores Huerta, “Proclamation of the Delano Grape Workers”
How was early feminist consumer activism grounded in notions of femininity? How did
it challenge them? How would you describe the class and race politics of the
movements?
Final paper outline due
4/9
Feminist Critiques of Consumer Activism
Sarah Banet-Weiser and Roopali Mukherjee, “Commodity Activism in Neoliberal Times”
Isabel Molina-Guzmán, "Salma Hayek's Celebrity Activism"
Roopali Mukherjee, “Diamonds (are from Sierra Leone): Bling and the Promise
of Consumer Citizenship”
Why are some feminists skeptical of consumer activism? What limitations do they see?
Under what conditions do they believe it can be successful?
4/14
Students against Sweatshops
Kitty Krupat, "Rethinking the Sweatshop"
SLAC/USAS website
Guest Speaker: Lingran Kong
Why are sweatshops a gendered issue? How does anti-sweatshop activism open
the “black box” of the commodity? What are the movement's strengths/limitations?
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4/16
Feminists Confront Brands
Klein, “Culture Jamming: Ads under Attack”
websites by Carly Stasko and Carrie McLaren
Why have brands become more important over the past few decades? How is this
changing the way we consume? What is culture jamming? How have feminists
participated?
4/21
Voluntary Simplicity and Gender
New York Times, “Voluntary Simplicity Reemerges”
Anonymous, "Feminism and Simple Living"
Juliet Schor, “Will Consuming Less Wreck the Economy?”
How does adopting a simpler or “off-the-grid” lifestyle challenge market economy?
What gendered contradictions have emerged in the movement?
4/23
What about Walmart?
Liza Featherstone, “Attention, Wal-Mart Shoppers”
Jane Collins, "The Age of Walmart"
Allison, Kilkenny, "Activists are Arrested Protesting Walmart's Low Wages"
NOW, "Walmart: Merchant of Shame"
Do the benefits that Walmart's low prices provide to consumers offset the low wages
they pay to retail workers in the U.S. and production workers abroad? How do some
argue that Walmart reproduces and extends poverty? What are the gender dimensions
of the critique of Walmart?
4/28
Reclaiming Food Chains and Urban Space
Film segment [in class]: “Urban Roots”
Monica White, “Sisters of the Soil: Urban Gardening as Resistance”
Andrew Herscher, “The Unreal Estate Guide to Detroit”
How do community gardening, urban squatting, and cooperative practices challenge
market economy? Do these practices have a gender/sexuality politics?
Culture Jamming Write-up Due
4/30
Culture Jamming Presentations
5/5
Culture Jamming Presentations
5/7
Culture Jamming Presentations
Final Paper Due
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