Woman as the Consumer
As was outlined by Marx and Engles, Man has historically been the “owner” in the family, having possession over his wife, his children, his land, and his money[21]. For Woman to purchase things it had to be done using Man’s money or she would have to trade some of her own goods. Based on this idea, suffragists, around the time of the First World War, got together to hold large bazaars such that they could sell goods. “Baking, sewing, and other tasks associated with the private, domestic life became the tool for claiming and creating a greater public sphere for women”[35]. The bazaar was a place for woman to meet new people and expand her interests and abilities. Some people believed that because the suffragists did such a good job at selling the things that were domestic, only proved that women did belong in the private sphere since she did such a good job at making these products.[35] Yet, these bazaars became a good way to teach women about business management, organization, planning, publicity and bookkeeping[35].
Woman has successfully made her way into the public sphere since the time
of these suffragist bazaars. Women have become large consumers in the market.
Women are the primary shoppers in 85% of all American homes and they
account for more than 70% of all consumers spending in the United States[36].
Advertising is at the heart of consumerism because of the great influence that it has on consumers. Advertisements tap into people’s uncertainties, their needs, and their desires. Throughout this assignment, I have concentrated on advertisements of the western culture, but my attention was called to an incident that happened in a poor part of Brazil. On August 2, 1994, a television show called TV Nation documented a campaign by Avon Beauty products to win new consumers among dirt-poor women in the Amazon basin of Brazil[37]. Avon saleswomen made door-to-door house calls in the remote village of Santarem. In this village, the women were thin, aging, wrinkled, and broken down by years of childbearing. They were living with their bare footed children in little shacks with dirt floors. These women were not literate and their family income was an average of $3 daily[37]. The Avon sales women were there with the intent to sell a new product called Renew that sells at a price of $40 per jar, and worked by burning off the top layer of the user’s skin[37]. The saleswomen told the village women that this product would make them beautiful and they followed this up with visual advertisements digitally illustrating what Renew would do to the user’s face[37]. According to this television show, the women were stopping everything to purchase this product although it was not affordable. The women stopped purchasing clothing, shoes and other necessities such that they could afford this cream. These women thought that it was a miracle product because it was on the television.