Day 164 – Mindless consumerism, yet still I want it!
When my friend and I were kids, just passing the 9-10 year old barrier we developed a game for ourselves. We had moved beyond playing with dolls but thanks to social conditioning our behaviour was already woefully womanly. As I understand it as boys reach this age they start to become more and more interested in women, earlier in some cases (see seduction and intrusion – January archive) at the same time I believe that girls also become more interested in women. We play more with dressing up, trying on shoes, pinching make up when mummy looks the other way, baking and thinking about what it will be like when we grow up.
Obviously if you are a healthy human being this fascination with traditional notions of woman as home soon recede providing one has intelligent parents and lives in a society which encourages females to embark on an individualistic rather than a collective and subservient role. In this way a girl soon leaves fantasies of playing the little woman behind and takes to learning, sports and boys looking to develop themselves as a whole and worthwhile member of society, whether this means they become a mother early on or not I like to think that at some stage every woman wants to be more than just a child bearer.
Yet here we were my friend and I playing a game based purely on these notions of woman as home maker. Even more unhealthily the whole game was based purely on consumerism. We would take an argos catalogue, or an “I want” book as my mother always called it and setting ourselves a pauper and a rich womans budget we would choose what we would have in our home when we were older. I will not deny that it was fun, looking at all those pretty colours and useless objects that to our ten year old selves seemed so necessary to our future homes.
It is the consumerism I guess which currently concerns me more than the leaning towards the home. As I said I believe this is a phase which in most cases we all grow out of, please God in good time. 
I have been reading a book of late, I wont go into details as usually I dismiss this stuff myself as a load of hippy crap but I am trying to give it a chance so don’t wish to receive a rage of comments on that’s brilliant or a heap of £$%^% before I have given it a chance myself.
Anyway the basis of this book is that one must always ask the question will this bring me pleasure or will it bring me happiness. A healthy individual in search of contentment must choose the things and make decisions based not on the momentary pleasures in life but on one’s overall happiness. In this instance and in the case of an affair, though it may give you momentary pleasure to cheat on your partner, the coupling however pleasurable will in most cases lead to feelings of guilt and self loathing as well as the knowledge that one has hurt another human being. In this way the sensible, though not always easy option is to not because it will not bring happiness.
The logic is also applied to consumerist tendencies and our constant need for the latest trend, the nicest food, a bigger salary or a hotter husband. The writer challenges this idea as it is based on the principle that objects can bring happiness. If one, the guru says, bases one’s happiness on such a system it will eventually lead to disappointment as one will not always be able to get the next greatest thing. Even if money is no object, there are waiting lists which if one is totally centred on consumerism and getting the next iphone, mulberry bag or Kurt Geiger shoes then one’s life will always be seeped in disappointment.
I use these examples because if truth be known one of my saddest but greatest ambitions is to one day own a Mulberry bag. yes I know it is tragic but I really want one and its such a status thing that I think I would use nothing else and if ever someone tried to steal it from me I’d choke them with its bag handles and beat them with its soft leather till they apologised. Equally I acknowledge that my obsession with shoes may be a tad unhealthy but for this I blame society and a mother who just never seemed that interested in ridiculously impractical heels.
Though I have tried to smother my own leanings towards greed in recent years, mainly because redundancies and NCTJ course fees have left me with nothing but a penny and a piece of flint to rub together. Now though I am getting paid again and as I proved on Saturday left unchecked my needs and wants are insatiable. Yes I could technically afford four pairs of shoes but did I need them, I would argue yes but I think the guru I’m reading about would probably say no. Though he is a man and lets face it if men understood these things we might think they were a bit of a girl.
The problem I find myself with is that at the moment the office is awash with smart phones. Nearly everyone seems to have a new phone with free internet, kick ass camera and all sorts of things called “apps” which I understand means amazingly awesome bits and pieces to play with for sure. I nearly bought myself an iPhone at the weekend, I have never in my life bought a phone so this would have been a big step for me. The boy unfortunately cock blocked me and told me he thought I should think about it. Though I did not speak to him for an hour following this appalling judgement call after a coffee and lemonade I started to see his point, the meanie.
It has now however been four days since and still I find myself wanting the iPhone. Yesterday I was so determined to finish work in time to zip over to the apple store that I bashed out 11 stories, skipping my lunch break and fueling myself on coffee and consumerist pride. Due to a “dog in hot car” situation and a certain car company’s determination not to answer mty press enquiry it was 8.10pm when I emerged out the doors. I did consider driving over and breaking in but on reflection it seemed excessive and I was hoping I might get to see Ronaldo cry again so I hot footed it home.
It might be mean but it brings me pleasure and happiness to see this grown man cry like a child. I should exercise forgiveness, but unlike Wayne Rooney my tolerance for tantrum throwers on the pitch is minimal. Leave it till your in the dressing rooms lads.
To remind me to avoid the perils of consumerism I found this quote, it made me laugh but in a sinking economy which is literally spilling money on to its coasts while unemployment continues to fall I thought it was actually rather sad but telling of how far we have fallen.
Carlos Cortez who has an iPhone
“I pay 150 dollars per month. And now they want me to pay another $12?” said Carlos Cortez, a 28-year old bricklayer from Jersey City, N.J. “And I don’t need it. I treat my phone better than I treat my woman.”
- Today’s dress is from Ocean Club, an old friend of mine Danielle Star who I went to primary school with gave it to me along with a bag of other dresses. I am not usually a bandeau dress wearer as it often leaves me looking a little top heavy but its boiling and I need something which looks smart but has as little material as possible. I figure that the stripes give it the appearance of stripy 80′s power house glamour but this is possibly challenged by the blister plaster clad feet dressed in, dare I say it – flip-flops. I apologise but the pain has been too great.
