Women Consumption and Paradox

<p>Women are the world’s most powerful consumers, yet they are largely marketed to erroneously through misconceptions and patriarchal views that distort the reality of women’s lives, bodies, and work. This book examines the contradictions and mismatches between women’s everyday experiences and market representations. It considers how women themselves exhibit paradoxical behaviour in both resisting and supporting conflicting messages. The volume emphasizes paradox as a form of agency and negotiation through which women develop dialogical meanings. The contributions highlight the ways in which women transform inconsistencies and contradictions in advertising and marketing, global consumption practices, and material consumption into positive practices for living. The rich range of ethnographic accounts, drawn from countries including the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, Japan, and China, provide readers with a valuable perspective on consumer behaviour.</p> <p>Introduction: Women, paradox and consumption; <strong>Part I:</strong> <b>Gender engagements, consumption interactions and marketplace ambiguities; </b>1. Women and chocolate: identity narratives of sensory and sensual enjoyment; 2. ‘Shapewear or nothing to wear’: The ambiguity of shapewear in the plus-size fashion market; 3. Creating interactional alignment in call center customer care; 4. Financial technology and the gender gap: designing and delivering services for women; 5. Being connected: mobile phones in the lives of domestic workers in Mexico City; 6. Untangling women’s braided relationships with music; <strong>Part II:</strong> <strong>Histories of gender imageries and practices in flux</strong>; 7. Women under control: advertising and the business of female health, 1890-1950; 8. Company uniforms and gender dynamics in the Japanese workplace; 9. Women’s consumption of cosmetic products in China: between logistics, conflict and symbolism; 10. Shifts and paradoxes of gender over the course of a career; 11. Little luxuries: decency, deservingness, and delight </p>