The other day, my mom went to a "Homemade Gourmet" party (think Tupperware party, but selling food mixes instead). Besides the obvious misnomer--it's neither homemade or gourmet, it's just extremely expensive mixes and seasonings, I got to thinking about how it's not really food that they're selling, it's a lifestyle. People are too busy (lazy?) to make their own food, but feel guilty that they are serving their family fast food or frozen dinners, or else they have no clue how to cook anything, and feel bad about it. As a result, they're is apparently a big market for products that let people feel like they are providing good homecooked meals for their families, without having to put up the time or effort required to actually produce a real homemade dinner. Products like Homemade Gourmet's line of mixes aren't about selling food--you can buy mixes at any grocery store for a lot less, but mixes don't claim to be homemade, with all the positive connotations that come along with that. If you buy their products, you can feel good about yourself and that you are providing your family with wholesome food, conjuring up images of the 1950s and June Cleaver and mom's apple pie and all that good stuff.
The popularity of Martha Stewart (well, before it turned out that she was a money grubbing hack just like everyone else), is also about selling a lifestyle. She got rich selling the idea of perfection in decorating, gardening, cooking, and all around good taste. Of course no one could actually do all the things that she did on her shows and in her magazine since none of us have a huge staff to do everything for us or a farmhouse/mansion in New England. Most importantly, the average person doesn't have the mega bucks that Martha has. That's not important though, because all she had to do was to sell people on the idea of living a lifestyle like hers. Is there any surprise that she named her magazine "Martha Stewart Living"? Since the average person cannot actually do all the things that Martha does, they're ripe for the picking when merchandise is introduced with her name on it. When people buy Martha Stewart products at KMart, they aren't really buying sheets or towels or bathroom accessories, they're buying the idea that they can be part of Martha's world.
To further add to the selling a lifestyle and not a product theme, the other day I went to a large craft store to look for some art supplies. A lot of the things that they sell there are designed so that even those with no artistic talent can look artsy craftsy. If you not only have no artistic talent but also have no creativity, there are tons of books, conveniently located right next to the product, that have tons of pictures so that you can just copy what other folks have thought up.
We live in a society where people want the appearance of authenticity but are unwilling to put in the effort to get it for themselves. You can come home and eat dinner at a table set with perfectly coordinated Martha Stewart(TM) dishware, tablecloth and placemats, eating your Homemade Gourmet(TM) meal with your children who were raised following Growing Kids God's Way(TM), and after dinner, clear off the table and work on your cute craft project using stencils and plans purchased at the craft store, and then go to bed between your perfectly matched Martha Stewart(TM) sheets, proud of yourself for all the wonderful things you did, when in reality you didn't do anything other than rely on what someone else did for you. Our culture is being manufactured for us and fed to us by people who tell us that if we do things their way, it will be like it was in that (non-existant) idyllic past. There is a backlash against mass consumerism, but it's running to an alternative mass consumerism masquerading as a something totally different. The lifestyle that they are trying to sell to us is just as inauthentic and manufactured as anything else.
Posted by kathryn at Noviembre 17, 2003 02:30 AM | TrackBack