Megan O’Brien — Supplemental Post #1 in Response to Diana’s Core Response #1

**I was unable to initially comment on this post for some reason and our TA said that I should post it as its own post. Thanks!**

Hi Diana! I think you brought up some really interesting points. When you question if men are also targeted by capitalist consumerism at the end, I immediately thought about a discussion that I had in a previous class. In the reading “Reading the Code(s)” by Patricia White, the author states that the industry “worked to maximize profit and to define and maintain particular women's roles as consumers, sexualized spectacles, and domestic subjects within a patriarchal, white-dominant, culturally imperialist nation.(White 3)" I thought this was prevalent to this class and your post in particular, as we are able to see how calculated the industry was in putting women in particular into the box of consumers. In my opinion, making women solely consumers further objectifies them. It belittles them as an individual in the sense that all they can do is take from society and that they have nothing to add. This progresses the ideology of women needing men to be able to provide for them not only goods, but also funds to buy the goods. So while women were given the “freedom” to be consumers like you mention, it was really a facade to trick women into thinking the entertainment industry was/is being catered towards them. To answer your question, men wouldn’t experience this sense of “freedom” because they are not defined by objects, but instead by their accomplishments and net worth. While men still succumb to trends and various advertisements, there is a different connotation in that they don’t attribute the object to affecting their self worth. A real life example can be seen in clothing. Men can wear the same suit to every event and not bat an eye, while women are defined by their clothing and ability to keep up with trends and fashion. Overall, you brought up some really interesting points and I would be interested to hear if other peoples could find examples of men being targeted by capitalist consumerism in the same way as women like you mentioned.