I. Linking Consumption, Class, and Taste

A. Holy Cross dress dynamics: democracy/belonging versus hierarchy/distinction; desire and anxiety
B. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)

1. Highly critical study of American society
2. Evolutionary explanation of fashion, consumer society
3. Evolutionary explanation of gender differences with respect to fashion, consumption

 

II. Conspicuous Consumption and Conspicuous Leisure

A. Cherished values of American society: efficiency, utility, pragmatic simplicity
B. America had become land of pomp, showy display, obsession with money. Had lost pride in honest, productive labor
C. Predatory culture: strong exploit weak to become wealthy, society praises those with wealth
D. Class exploitation ==> "the conspicuous consumption of the leisure class"
E. Lower classes emulate upper classes: "The leisure class stands at the head of the social structure in point of reputability; and its manner of life and its standards of worth therefore afford the norm of reputability for the community" (70)
F. Even among poorest groups, women engage in status consumption

 

III. Veblen on the Evolution of Gender Relationships

A. "In the earlier phases of the predatory culture the only economic differentiation is a broad distinction between an honorable superior class made up of able-bodied men on the one side, and a base inferior class of laboring women on the other" (61)
B. Evolutionary explanation: Marital relations grounded in historical exploitation of women
C. Three stages

1. Savagery: peaceable, little competition or social differentiation
2. Barbarism

a. Rise of predatory pursuits, e.g. hunting, warfare
b. Admiration for hunting, warfare ==> rise of predatory culture
c. Exploits (brave, violent, aggressive acts) vs. productive work (gathering, agriculture) = men vs. women
d. Women become men's chattel to relieve them from labor
e. Men focus on status: conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, and conspicuous waste
f. Emulation explains why lower status groups buy into system, see own labor as low status

3. Industrial society: class system (rather than gender) becomes primary basis for social distinction

a. Workers versus non-workers
b. For non-workers, conspicuous leisure and consumption become primary way to display status
c. Men support vicarious leisure of servants, wives, and dependents
d. Instinct to work and necessity prompt men to work
e. Middle class and upper middle class housewife performs vicarious leisure and consumption: household decoration, preparation of complex meals, gardening, volunteer work
f. Wife's duties are social and aesthetic, not subsistence
g. Lower classes: no leisure, but women continue to consume conspicuously: "Very much of squalor and discomfort will be endured before the last trinket or the last pretense of pecuniary decency is put away" (70)

 

IV. Marx and Engels's Influence on Veblen

A. Karl Marx (1818-1883): evolution of capitalist exploitation

1. Production as vanguard of history: change in the means of production changes social systems
2. Labor theory of value

a. Labor imparts value to products
b. Capitalists alienate value from labor and keep profit

B. Veblen shares disdain for predatory culture

1. moral: property class doesn't do or create anything, doesn't deserve wealth
2. political: wealthy exploit workers

C. Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

1. The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State, 1884
2. As technology changes, family structure changes because family is primary unit of labor in pre-industrial societies
3. Transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture

a. private property: men domesticate animals, cultivate land
b. men want to secure patriliny and paternity
c. Impose monogamy on women = "world historical defeat of the female sex"

E. Veblen agrees that modernity has entailed the enslavement of women

 

V. The Conspicuous Consumption of Fashion

A. Clothing is easy to display: "our apparel is always in evidence and affords an indication of our pecuniary standing to all observers at the first glance" (119)
B. Dress can indicate idleness: women's high heels
C. Women can indulge in this more than men because they don't work
D. Fashion as wasteful

1. Discard clothing before worn out
2. Spend too much on clothing

E. Innate tendencies: abhor waste, distinguish self, fit into society
F. Fashion change as way to combat recognition of its futility

1. See last year's fashions as absurd, ugly, and wasteful
2. Solution: new styles
3. Reject new styles, cycle continues

 

VI. Fashion as Trickle Down Emulation

A. Lower groups want to be like upper groups
B. Lower groups adopt upper group fashions
C. Upper group seeks new fashion to distinguish itself