Description

"Shop 'til you drop" is the rhetoric of the modern consumer society and refers to a world in which one sale merges seamlessly into the next, in which department stores, chain stores and boutiques offer an infinite product palette, not to mention the internet, which allows us to shop anywhere and anytime. Shopping is no longer a task carried out simply in order to buy food and groceries but is celebrated as a pleasurable pastime. How did consumerism gain such central importance in everyday life and, more importantly, who are the actors in this consumer drama? Why are women so frequently associated with the activity of shopping? Monica Neve approaches this question by asking how the development of specific ideas about the relationship between women and shopping at the turn of the twentieth century contributed to shopping becoming widely accepted as a gender-specific activity. Using advertising and trade journals and drawing upon the advertising strategies of four Munich firms, she examines how shopping became established as a female responsibility for the maintenance of cultural and aesthetic norms.