The Phenomenon of Consumerism

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Today sociologists and historians actively discuss the development of the phenomenon of consumerism in the modern society with paying much attention to its positive and negative aspects. Consumerism is one of the main features according to which it is possible to characterize the contemporary society in the developed countries.

It has a long history of its development, and different periods had various impacts on the formation of the customers’ behavior and the progress of the social phenomenon. The World War II era provided the society with possibilities to transform the attitude to the traditional aspects of consumerism.

Women and African Americans became the influential figures which could regulate and change the peculiarities of the social consumption.

The peculiarities of consumerism during the World War II era developed depending on the fact that in the new situation women became the major consumers on whom the whole market was oriented, and they could influence the market’s price policy, and African Americans acquired the right to reduce the discrimination with expanding their possibilities as consumers.

These two social categories changed their consumer roles being affected by the alternations in the consumer economy and culture during the wartime.

The economy during World War II was transformed in order to contribute to the war issues. The consumer economy of the World War II period affected women in such a way they changed their social roles and began to work in the war industry because of the significant demand for workers. They also worked as clerks and in service industries.

However, women traditionally were considered as the audience on which the market of goods and services was oriented. During the war women had to change their shopping habits because of the total shortages within the market (Cohen 66). The main task was to purchase effectively according to the peculiarities of the situation when the prices were rather high, and the variety and availability of goods were limited.

Women, as mothers and homemakers, tried to find the most economically advantageous solutions in order to meet the demands of their families. Meat, sugar, and butter shortages made them change the home menu and search for some scarce products.

Moreover, definite services were not acceptable and women had to refuse the usage of such service as, for instance, laundry. Much attention was paid to recycling at home and expanding the possibilities to satisfy the family’s needs with minimal resources. Thus, the changes in the national economy influenced the changes provided by women in their domestic economy.

The peculiarities of consumerism as the social notion of the World War II period influenced the development of the women’s movements against the growth of the prices and even led to their controlling role within the market.

In spite of the fact women was traditionally considered as housewives who were not interested in the aspects of the policy, economy, and social life, they began to take the leading positions in controlling the development of the markets during the wartime. This shift was affected by the whole situation of the development of society during the war.

Social positions of women were changed by the necessity to become the laborers at the wartime, and this fact contributed to the shift in their awareness of the peculiarities of consumerism. It was necessary to control the prices and prevent their growth.

That is why women established the organizations and ruled the movements the main task of which was to protest high prices and control the situation in the market (Cohen 84). Women had no obvious rights to influence any political issues and their opinions were not discussed.

Nevertheless, the role of women as consumers was evident, and now they could affect the development of this aspect of the social and economic life with concentrating on the expansion of their liberties (Cohen 84). That is why the actions of women were directed toward changing the situation according to their definite visions.

If the role of women as active consumers was emphasized by the history of the social development, the positions of African Americans in society were unclear during the wartime. The discrimination of African Americans in relation to many aspects of the social life was the controversial question for the American society.

This discrimination was also reflected in the character of providing the prices for the “whites” and “blacks”. The accents on the higher prices and worse conditions and goods for African Americans were put according to the peculiarities of consumerism before the war.

The changes in social roles and the aspects of economy gave the chance to realize the intentions of African Americans to take the social positions equal to the positions of the “whites”.

Thus, many African Americans received the opportunity to get the job positions which were earlier occupied by the “whites” because of the fact the most of white men served as soldiers and because of the lack of workers and the general job availability in different industries.

In the situation of the war African Americans got the opportunity to share the shift in the positions experienced by women (Cohen 65). The actions of women in providing their visions of the situation with the growth of prices were rather active.

Now it was impossible to increase prices higher than the definite established level, and this fact made marketers to preserve the equal prices for all the categories of the population in spite of their ethnic peculiarities.

The period of World War II contributed to the development of the notion of the ‘citizen consumer’ as opposite to the notion of ‘purchaser consumer’. The citizen consumer directs his or her actions toward gaining the conditions suitable for the whole nation but not only for him or her as a person.

Thus, the citizen consumer acts not only within the definite market but he is also involved in discussing the consumer issues in the larger economic and political context (Cohen 63).

From this point of view, those women who led the consumer movements and conducted the boycotts in order to prevent the growth of prices and significant changes in the policy of consumption can be considered as citizen consumers because the results of their activities affected the whole development of the phenomenon of consumerism during the World War II period.

The concept of the citizen customer is also connected with the progress of the women’s ‘customary responsibility’. Thus, women used all their energies and powers in order to turn “a customary responsibility into a new political opportunity” (Cohen 83).

The peculiarities of the women’s lives during the wartime when they were responsible for households, purchases, and laboring were also associated with the necessity to economize, to plan the budget according to the new economic issues, and with experiencing significant shortages within the markets.

In this situation women did all the possible in order to preserve the freedom to consume in spite of the lack of the goods and services’ availability and price changes. Those roles which were played by women as consumers opened the perspectives to influence the public policy and realize the opportunity to establish the definite norms of the progress of consumerism during the World War II period.

“Suddenly tasks that had been viewed as private and domestic were brought into the civic arena and granted new political importance” (Cohen 67). Customary responsibility as the first step to realizing the political opportunity affected the main features in regulating the products distribution, price policy, and the standards of the markets.

World War II had a lot of impacts on the development of the American society including the shifts in the social positions of such categories of the population as women and African Americans and the progress of the phenomenon of consumerism.

During the wartime, women had to act not only as housewives but also as the active members of the society and laborers. In this situation their role as consumers became more significant because the peculiarities of the market development were oriented on women as the potential customers or the target audience of the definite products and services.

In spite of the fact women experienced a lot of difficulties in functioning within the society under the influence of the new conditions, they acquire the opportunity to realize their ambitions and affect the real situation acting in the field of the market and concentrating on the consumer issues.

Women reached the results in regulating the price policy with the help of providing the protests and boycotts against the growth of the prices. Moreover, not only women began to take the active positions in the society. African Americans also got the opportunity to reduce the discrimination them as consumers in the field of the American economy.

That is why it is possible to note that the notion of ‘citizen consumer’ became the characteristic one for determining the positions of the definite social classes in realizing the economic relations during the period of World War II.

Works Cited

Cohen, Lizabeth. A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. USA: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008. Print.

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The Phenomenon of Consumerism

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