Consumption: Making America more “American”

The United States, along with other Western countries, is known around the world as a nation obsessed with consumerism. American society today measures success by the amount of material goods an individual possesses. In the Eastern world, materialism is much less significant in society, and in some places almost non-existent. Although the wealth of each nation is a very important factor in this disparity, American history and society have played roles in shaping this view of consumption. Consumerism has created a sense of involvement with the dominant society to minorities. In order to be a patriotic American, individuals in the post-World War II society were encouraged to consume goods and services in order to bolster the economy.

In her book, “A Consumer’s Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America,” Lizabeth Cohen describes, among other things, how this new societal combination of citizenship and consumerism affected African-Americans. Black males were denied the benefits of the GI Bill, but this new attitude toward consumption included all minorities, and improvements in the quality of lives of minorities could be seen across the board. Cohen writes, “Blacks’ frustration as consumers fed their sense of inequity as well as provided strategies for combating discrimination..” (A Consumer’s Republic, 2003). The author is saying this new emphasis led to African-Americans realizing ways to fight discrimination and created a platform for the Civil Right’s Movement of the 1960’s. Although consumerism did benefit minorities in some ways, it did negatively affect minorities indirectly. From this consumerism mentality came a way to determine how individuals lived.

Marcel Mauss is credited with introducing in the modern times the concept of the habitus, aspects of an individual’s culture that are portrayed through the individual’s body. Habitus can be used to determine how individuals live through physical characteristics such as having callused hands, being tan or pale skin, and being under or overweight. These descriptions can sometimes be representative of that individual’s culture, but will not always be indicative of socioeconomic factors. Generally, low-income individuals tend to have higher rates of obesity than well-off individuals. This phenomenon is due primarily to the cost of food. Healthy food is generally less processed than unhealthy food and costs significantly more. Also, according to a study done by Shannon N. Zenk et al., supermarkets that carry fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods are disproportionately located in middle to upper-class suburbs as compared to poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods. In Hispanic women, being overweight is seen as “bien cuidadas,” which translated means “being well-cared for.” This cultural aspect can be clearly seen through an individual’s body and is a representative example of the habitus theory.

Based on someone’s appearance, we sometimes come to inaccurate conclusions about their personality and values. Consumption can make individuals feel like they don’t belong if they do not have the some material belongings as the dominant society. Furthermore, I would argue the interaction between consumption and habitus can create discrimination and inequality against minorities based solely on physical appearances and cultural misperceptions. American consumerism was originally designed to include all races in order to jumpstart the post-World War II economy. Over time, however, this system has led to inequalities and discrimination based physical appearances resulting from consumerism.