The Essay

1
Camelia Elias
2
taste

• a matter of education
• a matter of aesthetics
• a matter of economics
• social class is the elementary social fact

3
Attitudes towards shopping

• Love
• Hate
• Indifference
• emotional or rational?

4
variations

• Love liking
• if women are positive towards shopping they are
  likely to love it more than dislike it
• Hate disliking
• if man are negative towards it they are likely to
  hate it rather then dislike it
• Indifference neutral
• not always neutral, but tends to tilt either on
  one or the other side

5
Consumption as a Western gendered activity

• Shopping according to men ? linked with the
  female role of housewife
• Shopping is feminine
• Shopping is effeminate
• Men linked with the role of breadwinners
• Resistance to shopping ? fear of being labeled
• Acceptance of shopping, even liking it ? comes
  with a disclaimer

6
stereotypes

• the result of ignorance
• produced by fear
• deny pleasure
• express lack of interest
• based on emotion not reason

7
Shopping as philosophy and ideology

• Justify
• Define and find ways of shopping ideology that
  are consonant with the idea of manhood
• Revise the feminine aspect of shopping
• Distinguish what men are doing from the activity
  that women are dominant in
• Men produce women consume

8
instrumental vs. expressive dichotomy

• Purchase-driven ? related to the satisfaction of
  need
• Means to an end no intrinsic value ? torture
• Pleasure-seeking ? related to the gratification
  of desire
• Means to an end intrinsic value ? recreational
• Work-frame
• shopping time kept to a minimum
• Leisure
• time extended ? metaphors express the extended
  time associated with leisure shopping trips,
  shopping spree, shop until you drop

9
Shopping as an aesthetic activity

• Need
• natural
• basic
• follows reasoning that denies pleasure
• produces ideology
• has no imagination
• conservative

• Desire
• aesthetic
• sophisticated
• follows reasoning that justifies pleasure
• resists ideology
• creates fantasies
• modern

10
Shopping as a modern activity

• self-explanatory
• it has its own reasoning machine
• it produces knowledge
• is competent
• is for both sexes to take in in equal measures if
  the common goal is personal enlightenment
• is the condition of being part of a modern
  society, as conservatism always marginalizes, not
  only others but also itself

11
Paco Underhill

1. From what perspective does Paco Underhill write
   his essay Shop Like a Man?
2. Does his point of view enforce, support, or deny
   the stereotypes about gender differences related
   to shopping?
3. What does it mean to shop like a man? What
   implication has that kind of shopping for women?
   What about the store?
4. Do women fall for the strategy Sell to the
   woman, close to the man?
5. If we were to invert Underhills titles, how
   would you answer the question what do men want?
6. Do women force men to play house with them, or
   do they stay neutral on mens desire to stay
   erect about their need?