no shopping

I think it’s time someone denounced recreational shopping.

Have you seen those car stickers that are all the rage right now? People stick them on their back windscreens and they represent each member of the family unit. They are EVERYWHERE here in Newcastle. On the back of every proud, carbon-emitting, oversized family vehicle.

You can buy them at the newsagents and they have a selection of stickers for each family member: for “dad”, “mum”, “girl”, “boy”, “dog”, “cat”, “grandma”, “grandpa” etc. You choose the one from the selection that most profoundly and intimately represents who you are. For example the boy might be on a skateboard, the girl might be wearing a bikini.

Anyway, I have noticed that a lot of times you see the family of stickers on someone’s car and the “mum” sticker is carrying bags, that, (since it is unlikely they indicate bags of her belongings suggesting she is homeless and must carry around her possessions at all times) one can only assume are shopping bags. The sticker that represents “mum” shows that she is shopping. And, shopping… her love of shopping, is what profoundly and intimately describes who she is.

 

Mum’s favourite thing, that which symbolises her personality more than anything else, is buying stuff. It doesn’t even matter what the stuff is, it’s just that she loves buying it.  It’s nothing new to “love shopping” – female characters in the mainstream media have long been depicted as “loving shopping”. Think of Sex and the City. There were four beloved women who “loved shopping”. The shit they bought (expensive clothes, shoes etc) practically defined them.

Why are women depicted this way? Can writers not think of a female character that has enough interesting personality traits such that they have to fall back on her consumption habits to give her supposed substance?

How is “buying stuff” a character trait?

And, moreover, why the fuck is shopping a recreational activity at all?

-Oh, that’s right, because we live in a society obsessed with excessive consumption, and most people don’t give a thought to the environmental degradation involved in obtaining the resources, the vulgar misuse of human labour in manufacturing the product, not to mention the pollution created in this process, or the fact that the product will spend more time as landfill than the relative five minutes it does being your prized possession…

(And for the record, I think that lots of men love buying stuff as much as women, but for some reason it is women who are depicted this way in the media.)

Do people not know what to do with themselves in their “leisure time” other than go and buy stuff? Consuming is perhaps the most immediately gratifying but ultimately unfulfilling way to pass the time… Were we to invest our energies into creatively engaging with the world (socially, artistically, physically or otherwise) we would probably have less need to “shop” for fulfillment.

Don’t even talk to me about “retail therapy”.

Capitalism, as we know it, promotes rampant, excessive, vulgar consumerism (just look at the ads, the media), and little time or energy is left for creative engagement with the world. It is so much easier to buy than to create.

Anyway, I think that the idea of “shopping” as a recreational activity, one that represents a person’s character, or something to “do” for “fun” should be put to rest. I think we all would do well to dig deep and figure out how we can creatively engage with the world and quit buying stuff for enjoyment.

But wait, what about the economy? Surely it will collapse if we stop spending money on needless products and then people will have no jobs. I know, I know. But this lifestyle is unsustainable, and something’s gotta give. The economy needs to be different and not built on needless consumption.

I denounce recreational shopping!