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(Post-)Human Nature v.2.1 |
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Helping Ourselves in the Consumer Culture:Women's Attraction to the Self-Help Industry and It's Commercial Appeal
by Winnie Mah or go home
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The Self-Help Industry We are in a culture of recovery where citizens constantly turn to various forms of media for reassurance and affirmation that what they are doing and feeling are “right” or “normal”. Because identities are social constructions based on cultural ideologies, the self-help industry is able to draw on a person’s feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt to sell cures and treatments for what ails the potential consumer. Self-help is an industry that sells itself to millions of people world-wide, paying special interest to women. Immersed in ideas of empowerment, liberation and independence, self-help gurus appeal to aspects of the feminist movement in order to successfully sell their “recovery program” to consumers: “Self-help literature presents itself as a method for self-creation, damage-control, and even revival, offering the women reader an internal makeover” (Grodin and Lindlof, 16). Self-help attempts to reconstruct the individual into an ideal identity that s/he can be proud of. It is through self-help discourse and its appeal to socio-cultural, and personal ideologies that makes the industry so pervasive and popular among consumers. By treating self-help as a money-making industry that perpetuates itself in the market through its appeals to ideology and subjectivity, we will be able to gain a better understanding of self-help as a marketing technique that motivates and persuades consumers to buy more commodities. I will first examine the appeal of the self-help discourse to consumers, followed by a discussion of the self-help discourse as a marketing force in the commercial industry. Self-Help Discourse All Dolled Up Self-help is a discourse that can be found not only in literature but also in the subject matter of talk shows, magazines, soap operas, and other forms of media. How to guides on assertiveness, confidence, patience, or aggression, as well as guides on how to attract the perfect mate, dieting guides, guides for impulse shoppers, and guides for recovering alcoholics are part of a psycho-analytical discourse which relies on ideas and slogans of the “inner self,” “inner child,” “dysfunctional family,” “working your program,” “recovering abuser,” and “addict” (Rapping, 17) to emphasize a sense of abnormality and insecurity in the consumer. The discourse of recovery relies on “experts” or persons of authority who either are psychologists, or who have experienced personal inadequacies and/or addiction and have proclaimed themselves healed or “rediscovered.” These experts and their discourse “is the site where subjectivity is constructed,” maintained, and distributed (Grodin and Lindlof, 4). Through expert opinion and psychoanalytical self-help discourse an individual may become dissatisfied with his/her identity. His/her dissatisfaction may lead the individual to desire some form of identity reconstruction or modification. Self-help appeals to the consumer because it offers the individual a variety of ways in which subjectivity or identity can be altered. Self-help discourse is a place where the “abnormal” are encouraged to “fit into” or adapt to normative culture through the consumption of the media that embody self-help. Deficiencies felt by an individual can be alleviated by a sense of belonging by becoming a member of a self-help group, or self-help culture: “Participating in a group may be seen as a specific anecdote that substitutes a sense of acceptance and understanding by others for suffering and isolation” (Katz, 33). The wish for treatment or a “healing” of the self motivates the individual to embody the notion of a “commodity self” by purchasing items that help to identify the individual as embodying particular ideologies and wants or needs. The “commodity self” as discussed by Philip Gold is based on the “conception of personal and collective existence in which one defines oneself and others primarily by consumption of patterns, and in which everyone addresses the dilemmas of modern life with a single all purpose solution: buy something” (Gold, 25). The self-help industry helps to create the commodity self by offering consumers solutions to personal dissatisfactions and “addictions” in a neatly packaged product: self-help literature. The notion of the commodity self is similar to commodity feminism, a term used to describe the way individuals identify themselves with their ideologies, and attempt to live up to their social and personal ideals by associating themselves with the types of commodities they buy. The self-help industry often embodies the concept of commodity feminism by marketing itself to the feminist movement wherein the social movement is used “to sell more capitalist goods, and thus strengthen the system and social movement or idea” (Corrigan, 72). Books commonly found in bookstores (in this case, Chapters) entitled The Reasonable Woman: A Guide to Intellectual Survival by Wendy McElroy, Assertiveness Skills by Sharon Burton and Nelda Shelton, and Yo-Yo Relationships: How to Break the ‘I Need a Man’ Habit and Find Stability by Doreen Virtue, appeal to the feminist movement by offering solutions to the “many problems and pains of female existence” (Rapping, 61). That is, self-help literature offers women a chance to better themselves through self-control and empowerment, and gives them the opportunity to gain a stronger foothold in a patriarchal society. Strengthening character and making dysfunctional relationships manageable are ways in which the woman can be empowered, thus allowing women to embody much more easily elements of feminist ideology. The various types of self-help books that exist in the market are books about self-esteem, assertiveness, relationships, New Age, religion, weight-loss, stress, anxiety, and motivation, among others. The attractiveness of self-help literature is strong, since like advertising, it “offers itself as therapy to the troubled, reassurance to the uncertain, and advice to the confused” (Gold, 25). It appeals to personal and cultural ideologies, and among women self-help discourse is directed mostly towards empowerment and liberation of the self—very enticing and attractive notions, especially to feminists. One of the functions of self-help literature can be to lessen the blow of “despair and anxiety and self-doubt which the post-feminist years brought to most women” in order “to help women with every conceivable kind of difficulty—from addiction to hopelessly sexist men to compulsive spending habits” (Rapping, 61). The ideology of feminism is about having control and power over one’s identity, removed from the thumb of patriarchy and away from a male-centred outlook/society. Women, with their self-help books are able to rely on themselves for “treatment” or “modification” instead of turning to a male-centred system. However, by turning to self-help literature, the woman is not gaining autonomy, rather she is limiting it. Self-help is an industry that is self-perpetuating: through its discourse it becomes “intrinsically linked to the governmental management of populations” where individual autonomy becomes limited rather than expanded (Rimke, 61). While a sense of liberation or power is evoked by the idea of “fixing it yourself,” identity construction and modification in self-help culture still relies on a set of rules and cultural norms that self-help authors draw upon. For example, let’s take into consideration a woman who is overweight. Issues such as self-esteem, depression, job satisfaction, and dysfunctional relationships might come into the foreground in her overall feelings of deficiency. She wishes to liberate herself from being enslaved by food, by taking on a regular routine of dieting and exercise as suggested by a self-help manual. The book she reads may suggest to her that thin people are associated with favourable “social attributions” and a higher socio-economic status (Cash and Roy, 214). Being overweight automatically gives people the impression that she is not a very successful career woman, nor does she have many positive “social attributions.” This information prompts the woman to change her lifestyle. In this case, the self-help literature has helped to motivate the overweight woman to conform to the ideological norm by making her feel inadequate, ugly, and abnormal. Her previous personal insecurities and problems that she had prior to reading the self-help book are confirmed and perhaps enhanced by the text she reads. The overweight woman, through self-help literature’s appeal to self-control and power attempts to liberate herself from the “problem” of excess weight, yet she does not gain autonomy since she becomes enslaved into cultural norms of beauty standards. Her control and/or empowerment, however celebrated, are short-lived as she becomes “enslaved” by cultural notions of acceptable beauty. Yet the woman’s happiness is not necessarily impeded upon; she may not notice that her actions and feelings are being controlled by cultural beauty norms since she feels that she is empowered over her body through weight loss. Grodin and Lindlof agree that “the self-help genre’s depiction of selfhood for women reflects and reinforces American cultural ideology about gender, sexuality, identity, and consumption” (Grodin and Lindlof, 15). Part of self-help’s persuasive and appealing manner lies within the way self-help is promoted and packaged, embodying notions of self-control and autonomy. Decked out in "the disguise of self-empowerment and control," the (unsuspecting) consumer allows him/herself to be directed or influenced by cultural rules and norms. The discourse of self-help invites women to evolve into the person they wish they could be by offering rules, advice, and suggestions that are packaged into an appealing and marketable product by psychoanalytical “experts.” Wendy Simonds describes self-help discourse as an “instrument of cultural commerce that is linked both with the proliferation of buyable therapy, in which assistance comes to be seen as a purchasable commodity, and [as a] marketplace for leisure consumption” (Simonds, 7). As “buyable therapy,” a demand and desire for self-help products is encouraged by selling to the consumers “the idea of a newer, purer, healthier self” (Simonds, 222). The norms and accepted rules of society are only altered to create the appearance of something different or new that consumers can obtain. Self-help discourse is a self-promotional and “self-referential” industry where its readers are able to claim autonomy and independence, yet through their “liberation” from dysfunctional relationships and unhealthy lifestyles they are continually being shaped and moulded by cultural rules. Self-help discourse is packaged in a manner so that autonomy and independence appear to be the main outcome of recovery programs. Self-help consumers are left with the illusion that they are in control of their own identities and so remain satisfied with the initiative they took to better themselves. Meanwhile, in their state of happiness the individual as the “commodity self” becomes “governable, predictable, calculable, classifiable, self-conscious, responsible, self-regulating and self-determined,” (Rimke, 63) perfect candidates for marketers to direct their campaigns. The Power of Self-Help As a commodity, self-help literature is packaged in a visually and emotionally appealing manner often featuring eye-appealing images and colours; catch-phrases and slogans that are embodied within twelve-step programs; enlarged “catchy” titles such as Chicken Soup for the ______ Soul, Dummies Guide to ________, or Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus by John Gray; as well as slogans such as “over 1 million sold” or “voted best-book of the year.” Even better for the book publisher is if the name of a best-selling author is attached to the book. The cover of a (self-help) book is vital in attracting consumers since there are often many bookshelves containing literature on “Self-Help,” “Religion,” “Beauty,” or “New Age.” A potential consumer must be able to distinguish one book from another and the cover is used as a “branding” device. The self-help industry is “enmeshed with the development of consumerism and its hegemonic permeation of culture. The decision making, selection, marketing, promoting, and advertising utilized in the trade and mass-market book publishing industry to sell self-help books indicate this” (Simonds, 7-8). However, it is not just books or literature that are marketed as being part of the self-help discourse. Diet programs such as Ultra Slim Fast, exercise equipment, make-up, seminars, and personal trainers all belong to the self-help discourse. In the consumer’s attempt to better the character, the individual will “buy what looks to [him/her] as if it will care about [him/her]… certain cereals and margarines care about health and looks… Ultimately [the consumer knows s/he] cannot buy care” yet s/he “will settle with buying approximations of it” (Simonds, 222-223). “Fat free” food products, and items that may help a consumer to identify further with his/her ideal image become commodities that advertisers will market. By association with the self-help discourse, a product will become more desirable to a consumer if it will help him/her to gain one step closer to a state of "liberation" or "recovery" from an "addiction" or “abnormality.” The discourse of self-help is a strong marketing tool that can be applied to not only products and services but also to various forms of media where discourse association can also occur. Aside from books and food, the self-help culture is saturated with a variety of other purchasable commodities. Self help books are part of “an extensive web of psycho-media, which includes women’s magazines, women’s fiction… audio and videotapes that offer advice; and ‘women’s television’—soap operas and daytime talk shows and a specially targeted smorgasbord of cable offerings” such as programs that explore teenage relationships, and special programming offered on the Women’s Television Network (WTN) (Simonds, 133-134). From personality quizzes in women’s magazines, to daytime talk show themes featuring abusive husbands or delinquent children, the media draws heavily on issues of self-help. The reason behind media’s preoccupation with self-help is that self-help discourse or the culture of recovery is emotionally gratifying and enticing. Self-help discourse, as mentioned above, is appealing and persuasive to the consumers and in addition it is also entertaining. The latest issue of Cosmopolitan magazine features a personality quiz titled “Are you a ball-buster?” The questions asked were in relation to assertiveness in regards to peer pressure and friendships where at the conclusion of the quiz, a personality assessment was offered by contributors of the magazine. The quiz, “Are you a ball-buster?” is a light article with little weight given to psychoanalysis and self-help, yet the appeal of taking such a quiz exists mainly because of it’s title—one cannot help but smirk or smile at such a title. Once the consumer picks up the magazine, the consumer is opening him/herself to a neatly organized package of ads. Articles and featured items in magazines, because of its highly commercialized environment are used as a way to entice readers to “conflate desire” so that the consumer will peruse through the pages and images of ads within the magazine (McCracken, 2). With the consumer market in mind, publishers promote content that is suited both to the advertiser’s and to the reader’s needs and wants in order to bring the two together in ideology so that buying and selling may occur. Cosmopolitan, in featuring such a quiz is appealing not to the distressed and anxious feminist but more to the laid-back, easy-going woman. The self-help discourse, in attracting a particular market of women is altered to fit the needs of the magazine’s goal. In a magazine like Ms., editors ensure that their material works to promote the feminist movement yet does not conflict with the messages of its advertisers. Ms. editors must also ensure that the magazine is also different enough from other magazines such as Mademoiselle, or Cosmopolitan, in order to distinguish itself from the competition. In comparison to Cosmopolitan, self-help takes on a less entertaining role and more of an instructional role—it is to be held more seriously. The discourse of self-help, as part of the feminist movement is often featured in articles that emphasize “the need for women to increase self-esteem, to assert their needs and desires and to gain knowledge and power in areas previously denied to them” (Farrell, 63). While the purpose of self-help discourse is the same (to attract readers), the way in which it is used is altered according to the type of ideology they wish to embody and according to the kind of consumer they wish to attract. Whichever manner the magazines decide to present self-help, self-help discourse is used as a marketing ploy to attract business. The “combined verbal and visual texts… promotes an identity that will cause it to be recognized, differentiated from its competitors, purchased, read, or at least leafed through” (McCracken, 15). The differences in the treatment of the self-help discourse act to distinguish one magazine from another. The melodrama of soap operas and talk shows act as a form of entertainment where the consumer is able to create his/her own identity through the act of negation. By watching families send their delinquent children to boot camp, couples who are mismatched in every possible way, and the misunderstood social out-cast take revenge on his/her persecutors, the consumer is able to create an “us” and “them” mentality. Media forms that embody self-help culture can act as a form of “assistance, reassurance, and sometimes amusement” (Simonds, 226), where women especially, can establish a better sense of their own identities and learn about other relationships. Because of the voyeuristic nature of talk shows, the mediation of addicts and/or dysfunctional people on television “create a pseudo-public version of [self-help] meetings in which [consumers] can all participate without leaving home or being seen” (Rapping, 35). This medium becomes a source of information for individuals who are dissatisfied with their lives and who need further incentive (other than personal will) to venture into the self-help culture. Talk shows such as Oprah feature top literary picks that include not only fiction books, but also self-help books. This commercial aspect of talk shows presents to a large viewing audience self-help books, various other commodities, and services where they are promoted to the audience through product placements, recommendations by the host, and through regularly scheduled commercials. The marketing power of self-help discourse is strong in altering personal perceptions of identity, and in altering consumption patterns. Self-help discourse can extend to products and other media where celebrities, slogans, and images from the media can act to affirm and promote particular consumption habits and beliefs. In a woman’s magazine, one might be able to “see the transformation of a grubby fat woman—via diet pills or exercise machine—into a slender fashion plate” (Grodin and Lindlof, 25). Messages like these ones help to fuel the commercial aspect of the self-help industry while also acting to perpetuate the ideologies and discourse of self-help to consumers. Conclusion Self-help, as a
discourse, appeals to a sense of “not rightness,” especially in women,
so that the “recovery movement” can continue to prosper and grow.
Rapping describes the culture of recovery as “a world in which more and
more, it is slogans, stories, and shifting feelings and ‘identities’
communicated through mass media forms that provide our common sense of who
we are and what we believe” (Rapping, 16). Feelings of inadequacy,
abnormality, dysfunction, and incompleteness are stimulated through
socio-cultural ideologies where consumers welcome voices of authority to
instruct them on behaviour and feeling since consumers have a
“willingness to believe that there are experts who can help us achieve
the good life, however it is defined at the moment” (Kaminer, xiii).
Our consumer culture is so pervasive in our self-consciousness that the
individual as the commodity self can only maintain a sense of “temporal
salvation, of metamorphosis, of authenticity, of meaning on earth” by
consumption (Gold, 25). The search for identity, and the maintenance
of that identity is motivated by constant reinvention or modification of
socio-cultural ideology and perpetuated by the bombardment of products,
and services that the self-help industry supports. Uncertainty about identity is part of participating in consumer culture: it makes us make ourselves into commodities offered up for consumption on the open market (Simonds, 223).
©Winnie Mah 2001
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