I let you know last week that I picked up a few books at the library, each within the theme of consumer culture and consumerism in the United States.
This topic fascinates me because while I am eagerly questioning my spending habits, I’m looking at the world around me, wondering if I’m the only one who has been mindlessly shopping myself out of control.
consumer culture
One of the reads I’m finding truly alluring for its heavy research based in American History is by Dr. Shannon Hayes, a woman who holds a PhD in sustainable agriculture and community development.
In her book, Radical Homemakers, Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, Hayes catalogs the ways in which work within the home has become isolated from both our communities and families. While the life of a homemaker used to be about raising children, growing food, creating ecological sustainability, cultivating nutrition, and creatively serving family and community, it is now reductionist and less meaningful.
Hayes notes that being a housewife in the 2000s has morphed right along with our nation’s development. Following our progression through the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted manufacturing, development, and capitalism via the rise of the corporation, what it means to raise a family and curate a home has been drastically altered. Hayes writes,
“The middle-class American housewife’s life had become, essentially meaningless. The industrial revolution and subsequent rise of America’s consumer culture had demoted homemaking from a craft tradition to the mindless occupations of primping the house, shopping, and chauffeuring ” (29).
let’s not forget betty!
Hayes even quotes Betty Friedan, whose world changing book, The Feminine Mystique, explained how the role of a housewife…
“…is to buy more things for the house. In all the talk of femininity and woman’s role, one forgets that the real business of America is business….Somehow, somewhere, someone must have figured out that the women will buy more things if they are kept in the underused, nameless-yearning, energy-to-get-rid-of state of being housewives.”
I’ve never referred to myself as a housewife for this reason. I don’t want to be referred to as a woman stuck at home, subservient to my husband and children, caught in a mindless cycle of buying shit and driving my kids across town. I don’t think this is a clear representation of what it means to be a housewife, but I also don’t want to be associated with it.
There have been times when I even avoid calling myself a “Stay At Home Mom,” thanks to the negative perceptions and connotations that come along with the title. While I think the American housewife or SAHM’s life is much less reductionist that Friedan suggested, I do believe these women offer ideas to consider, especially when it comes to consumption.
we consume when we can’t create
Women, whether they’re SAHMs or working, remain powerful, active consumers. And goods can be pushed upon us readily, steadily, each and every day. While we used to be capable of making many things (cooking various healthy foods, baking goods, growing vegetables, making our own clothes), I find myself eager to buy almost anything our family might need.
I’ve been naive not to question how many goods have been marketed directly to me. The marketing of goods is so powerful in the US that our population of 335 million people spent a whopping $16.1 trillion dollars on consumer products last year (2024). In China falls just behind us, spending $7 trillion, but they have a population of 1.41 billion people. For comparison sake, here is the list of the 5 top consuming countries and the dollars spent last year:
- #1- USA – $16.1 trillion
- #2- China – $7 trillion
- #3- Germany – $2.3 trillion
- #4- India – $ 2.2 trillion
- #5- UK – $2.1 trillion
When I look at this kind of spending, I can’t imagine what the heck we’re all buying. And, I can’t imagine how much waste we’re producing as a result. It’s kind of insane, isn’t it?
a new way of thinking
At this point in the challenge, I’m starting to think less about the “stuff” I buy and more about the ecological impact I might have as a result of senseless spending.
If you want to weigh in on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’m sure everyone has an opinion about consumerism and a woman’s role in it.
What do you think?
And as always, namaste every day
MinimalistMama #NoBuyChallenge #MindfulConsumption #BuyLessLiveMore #OverconsumptionAwareness #BreakTheCycle #IntentionalLiving #MinimalMom #SimpleLivingJourney #ConsumerCulture #ResistThePressure #MindfulMotherhood #LessIsLuxury #SlowLivingMovement #AntiConsumerism #DeclutterYourMind #MinimalistLifestyle #AmericanGreed #UnlearnConsumerism #StopTheScroll #MoreMeaningLessStuff #MomMinimalist #FinancialFreedomJourney #PeerPressureProof #MinimalismInMotherhood #overconsumption #createlesswaste #consumption&waste
4 the Love of Peace 