"Assuming that the behavior of many males in patriarchal society is largely shaped by death denial, I often wonder whether women in patriarchy confront their mortality any more successfully and with fewer damaging ecological consequences. The obsession that many American women exhibit regarding the condition of their bodies, specifically with regard to their weight and appearance, suggests that such women have their own fears and resentments about age and death. The Western world's extraordinary 'consumerist' mentality is supported in part by women who are fixated not only on improving their wardrobes and cosmetics, but also on somehow filling up the internal 'void' experienced by so many people in materialistic societies. To be sure, female preoccupation with physical appearance is greatly influenced by the male gaze, but the situation is probably more complex than this. Men are themselves influenced by and seek the approval of the female gaze, particularly of those females whom men consider attractive. Arguably, so many Western men have been obsessed with acquiring wealth and power because these often prove effective in gaining the interest of women whom those men consider desirable. Perhaps by attempting, with markedly little success, to fulfill sexual-romantic fantasies, men and women alike are concealing more disturbing issues about personal identity, life purpose, and mortality."
-Michael Zimmerman, Contesting Earth's Future
(emphasis mine)
It should be no surprise that we're addicting to buying stuff. Zimmerman isn't the first one to suggest that this may be due to a lack of any sort of cultural grounding outside of the capitalist mentality, but his posturing of the argument as a psycho-sexual/ identity dilemma is compelling.
So what's the answer, if we're doomed to unsuccessfully buy our way into a fantasy we don't even really want fulfilled? Well, we could all go out and buy a some Tom Ford products (the ad above is one of the more tame in a series that was released for a Fall 2007 campaign). A more constructive move, and a more existentially and ecologically responsible one, might be to recognize our own obsessions with wealth and power, question their origins and endless futility (i.e. the fact that they're a cultural construct) and tackle head-on Zimmerman's "disturbing issues about personal identity, life purpose and mortality." Admittedly easier said than done, but we've been living the alternative for a while now and we know what that looks like.
1 comment:
i wonder about a gaze-less media sometimes. what if there was just a picture of a bottle of men's cologne. we know what cologne is and we know the implications (to pick up chicks and improve self-esteem) so why not be honest? maybe we as consumers don't believe honesty and have to be shown obscene and absurd images to shock us into buying the product. who doesn't want to smell shockingly sexy?
i think the media is on the top of many lists of things that need to change. it's just enormous and there are so many things that need to be different but no one knows how to go about this change or what it should look like (including your truly).
i mean...whoa, i'm kind of d.
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