Single Women’s Use of Leisure Time: 

Over 100 Years A Part…..Same Concept

Society and its many aspects have certainly evolved since about the year 1900. Then, the first practical automobile had just been built fifteen years prior, most of the sports that we center our hearts around today were either just coming into their own or not invented yet, and the average salary for an American production worker in 1909 (which was the first record of the sort taken) was $3.80/hr. Now, there are well over one hundred different car, truck, and motorcycle manufacturers, sports have become quite ridiculous in their news coverage and revenue, and the average salary for a production worker taken in 1999 was $13.90/hr. We have undoubtedly progressed technologically as a whole over this time. But, when it comes down to it, some of our mannerisms, intentions, and behavior have not changed all that much in some aspects. Take working-class women for example; about that time in history women, in a broad sense, were just starting to realize that they could have a life that was not centered around the home and a family. They were capable of having some fun after a long days work. Peiss states in her book Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York:

“Not content with quiet recreation in the home, they sought adventure in dance halls, cheap theaters, amusement parks, excursion boats, and picnic grounds. Putting on finery, promenading the streets, and staying late at amusement resorts became an important cultural style for many working women.” (Peiss- pg. 57)

There were two places that were of little or no expense that women used to fulfill their desire to be socially engaged; one was called the “Streets”. Peiss explains the “Streets” as somewhere that the young women could freely express themselves. They did not have to worry about the restrictions of such behavior in the streets as they did either at school or in the boarders of home and the workplace. 

“In their teens, young women and men used the streets as a place to meet the other sex, to explore nascent sexual feelings, and carry on flirtations, all outside the watchful eyes and admonitions of parents.” (Peiss- pg. 58)

The second of the two were Social Clubs. These offered pretty much the same thrills as did the “Streets” only with more organization. They were basically what we know as a dance club or bar today. It was geared towards the women freely enjoying themselves, while also meeting men and showing off their new clothes.

My argument is that the philosophy behind what women intended on portraying during their nights out back then is almost dead on what women intend to do on nights out in this era. I spent three years working at a bowling alley. It provided the same settings as the “Streets” and Social Clubs did in the past. There was a bar area with room for dancing, every Saturday night we had a Glow-Bowl with lights and music, so that gave the women the same atmosphere. Through my time working there, I witnessed single and married women of all ages come out on a Friday or Saturday night and just have fun; the teens and college women more so than the married women. They would come in with their group of friends, I’d see them scouting out the men, just as the women of 1900 did, they danced and bowled while also spending some time with their significant others if they had them, or the group of friends they came with. Another thing that I really did not think twice about then, but have realized now, is countless times I overheard the women gossiping over the trends. They would talk about shoes, and clothes, and jewelry, and that new pair of jeans that they just had to buy. I saw all kinds of interactions between women and men while working there. Bowling and going to bars really is not all that cheap, but I do believe that it falls into the category of our era’s cheap amusements. Yes, times have changed. Yes, with the influence of technology our society has become much more evolved in the ways we interact with each other. Despite all that advancement and change, the overall intentions of a woman, single or married, when they “go out” has really not changed all that much.

--Casey Hatton 

Sources:

Peiss, Kathy Lee. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1986. Print.

Link to where I got the salary information

"Musics" Affects On Young Americans Consumerism

John M Westover

History 379

"Musics" Affects On Young Americans Consumerism

                Over the years I have noticed a growing trend toward how hip hop and the way it has affected the spending habits of young Americans. People like Lil Wayne, Drake, and Two Chains project their image utilizing materialistic lyrics. Naturally this want or materialistic mind set rubs off on the droves of young Americans that buy their albums, t-shirts, and concert tickets.  Allen Kanner, PhD states "that marketers manipulate that attraction, encouraging teens to use materialistic values to define who they are and aren't. In doing that, marketers distort the organic process of developing an identity by hooking self-value to brands." [1]

                So now we live in a society that has become obsessed with brand names and fashions and it does not matter if you are a good or bad person; if you have money it you can say anything and still have droves of fans. Lil Wayne has proven this time and again off his album Tha Carter III the song Playin' With Fire he states "When you're great, it's not murder, it's assassinate / So assassinate me, bitch /Cause I'm doing the same shit Martin Luther King did."[2] This Statement is clearly moronic and delusional but since he is famous his wealth continues to grow because as young Americans we have been sold on the idea that having lots of money means you get a free pass on being intelligent . I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people at work, people in class, and people in public using lyrics that revolve around absurdly expensive possessions like Maybach (400,000 dollar car), Louis Vuitton (2,095 dollar purse). More and more Americans are having these absurdly expensive things shoved in our face and there is no reason for any normal person to want to spend that kind of money on mundane items like clothes, cars, bags, etc. In conclusion, while the moral fabric of our society quickly deteriorates more and more young Americans who are desperately trying to fit in with the hip hop scene or look "cool" feel the need to spend money that they do not have on things that "Rappers" make them think they need. It is teaching our youth that there is one answer to all the questions and problems in life, money.

[1] http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/driving.aspx, Allen Kanner, PhD; American Pyscological  Association, Driving teen egos--and buying--through 'branding',A glut of marketing messages encourages teens to tie brand choices to their personal identity. June 2004, Vol 35, No. 6

[2] LiL Wayne, Tha Carter III, Universal Media

World Wide Shopping

Shopping Made Easy

Everyday millions of Americans shop in everyway possible.  Today customers can shop at stores, online, over the phone, off their phone, they can shop in malls and now they even have outlet malls.  The ability to shop and spend money is available and encouraged in every facet of our lives.  Blaszczyk clearly illustrates the evolution of the means of shopping in her book.  Earlier in class we read about the small shops and peddlers that paved the way for the stores we shop at today and have many more ways to access these goods.  Blaszczyk states, “… cities witnessed the birth and growth of these suave stores, which transformed the downtowns and made shopping into a fashionable pursuit (Blaszczyk 77).”  Starting out that people had to leave the house in order to purchase things slowly evolved into, giving money to the mailman to have your purchases dropped off at the house, now Americans are able to lay in bed and spend thousands of dollars and have them dropped off at their doorstep.  With all of the advertising on the streets and item placements in television and movies in addition to the accessibility of goods ready to be purchased makes it nearly impossible for Americans to not grab their credit cards and order away.

Reading this journal, “An Analysis of Factors Affecting on Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers,” by Mohammad Hossein Moshref Javadi, Hossein Rezaei Dolatabadi, Mojtaba Nourbakhsh, Amir Poursaeedi, and Ahmad Reza Asadollahi, I took in a lot of information on why people spend so much time shopping online.  “Compared to physical stores, online stores have many advantages: They are convenient and time saving and no more traveling and waiting in lines is needed. They are open in all time and they are accessible anytime and anywhere (An Analysis of Factors Affecting on Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers 83).”  With all of this convenience and accessibility at our fingertips, how would the United States be different if we still had to go to stores and shop?  Thinking more into it what else could evolve and change in the way we shop? In movies people have things materialize right in front of them out of thin air.  What do you believe will be the next step in consumerism?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kugv8UQ1hWU

Blaszczyk, Regina Lee. American Consumer Society, 1865-2005: From Hearth to HDTV. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 2009. Print.

Moshref Javadi, M., Dolatabadi, H., Nourbakhsh, M., Poursaeedi, A., & Asadollahi, A. (2012). An Analysis of Factors Affecting on Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers. International Journal Of Marketing Studies, 4 (5), 81-98,. Doi:10.5539/ijms.v4n5p81

                                      

--Taylor Williams

Victorian America

          In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s on one side of the Atlantic Ocean there was a big uprising about the Victoria Era. Since America was still kind following the trends from England, America was not too far behind England with their fashion icons.

            We all know about the Victorian Era and how it came to be about. It all mainly focuses on Queen Victoria herself. You can drive around older towns and cities and see the works of this Era. You can just drive around Hamilton and you can see these big beautiful “Victorian” homes. Those were the style back then. Also another thing that was in style were the clothes they wore.

 

Women in the Victoria Ear wore big, colorful dresses. The men wore silk suit s and big top hats. It was all about impressing someone. The bigger and more colorful your dress, the more men you could get or you could attract. Same thing for men, the more silk or the nicer your suit looked, the more ladies you could get. These are the type of clothes that they would wear back then.

          In this time period people also went out of their way to buy nice things to impress people. Things that they did not really need, but again it was all bought just so other people would like them. 

 The same thing is going on in the present. People buy nice clothes to impress the opposite sex. They buy nice items that they only have just to impress people. The items and clothing might be different, but it is the same idea.

 Again going back to what I just stated about all the items then and now are different yes, but it is the same idea. Like the dresses, the male clothes, and the random items like iPhones.

·         http://books.google.com/books?id=PCX90VYcj-UC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=victorian+era+consumer+culture&source=bl&ots=94ALOt1tIf&sig=uQ1sENMD7KKAf-jMRwM_XyPShRc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=smAEUdvQCcqhyAHkpoGgAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=victorian%20era%20consumer%20culture&f=false

--Jasmine Osman

New Ways to Shop

Regina Lee Blaszczyk provides us with a vast amount of information on department stores and their impact on American culture, especially during the Victorian period of America. “The vibrant commercial scene of Victorian cities, with luxury department stores and old-fashioned specialty shops, opened the doors to the wide, wide world. Shoppers wandered, browsed, and dreamed.” (p. 90) Reading this piece, often times I caught myself trying to image these stores, massive in size and laid out beautifully with an elegant window display to top it all off. These factors played a large role in the upper-echelon stores and five-and-ten stores bringing in customers and being able to sell their business through “window shopping”. Although we still see these department stores in large cities scattered throughout the United States, often times we are no longer drawn in by beautiful window displays and big department stores.

We as Americans have decided that we no longer would like to spend in our time in a department store, but rather acquire our items through online shopping. Rather than walking through downtown Cincinnati and window shopping through the stores, we choose to stay at home, a beer in one hand and a mouse in the other. Therefore, we no longer have to drive to downtown Cincinnati and go to Macy’s and pray that they have your size shirt you desire, you can check online, see if its available, and even have it shipped to your house the next day if need be.

Although these beautiful displays in front of stores would attract customers during this time period, what attracts consumers to online shopping?  Jifeng Luo, Sulin Ba, and Han Zhang found that “When product uncertainty is high, customer satisfaction is much higher when the website is well designed…better website design is able to alleviate the negative influence of product uncertainty.” (p.1140) We, society as a whole, are less concerned with the beautiful designs that our department stores once worked so hard to build, but are more concerned with products being easy to find at the tip of our fingers. American consumption is no longer driven by beauty, but driven more by how fast and easy we can find the newest pair of shoes or the next great technological advancement. Department stores have recognized this, and created websites that are easy to navigate and are typically fully equipped with every product that the American consumer could desire. Stores and malls alike are soon to be a thing of the past with online shopping only becoming increasingly more popular. It will be interesting to see what shopping will be like in the next ten to twenty years.

Source: 

Blaszczyk, Regina Lee. American Consumer Society, 1865-2005: From Hearth to HDTV. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 2009. Print.

Jifeng, Luo, Ba Sulin, and Zhang Han. "The Effectiveness Of Online Shopping Characteristics And Well-Designed Websites On Satisfaction." MIS Quarterly 36.4 (2012): 1131-A9. Business Source Complete. Web. 25 Jan. 2013.

--Todd Gottschall

A comparison of country stores to modern day "big box" stores

When you walk into a store like Wal-Mart, how do you feel? What thoughts come into your mind? Are you overwhelmed at the endless aisles of mass produced products, or are you in awe of the warehouse-sized store? Last time I was in a Wal-Mart, the place was in a state of pandemonium: products were scattered on the floor, there were countless skids sitting at the end of an aisle waiting to be placed on a shelf and there was one cashier trying to cater to the 10 people standing in line.

While reading “From Cradle to Coffin”, the visual details described made me think of my experiences in department stores and super markets. From the reading, I understood that there were many new products being introduced to consumers via the country store and that most products actually had a specific benefit applicable to daily life. How do you think that compares with what stores have today? 

Each time I entire a Big-box store, I always see a nearly infinite supply of trinkets, toys, candy, dollar DVD’s and other mass produced products, which makes me think that our habits as consumers have changed exponentially over the years. Upon doing some research, I found an article about sustainability and quality issues that plague Wal-Mart. In recent news, Walmart has been found to use dangerous chemicals in paints used for children’s toys and other applications. In the article, titled “Is your stuff falling apart? Thank Walmart”, Stacy Mitchell says, “I did, however, spot a toaster that retails for $6.24 — a price that renders its longevity virtually irrelevant. If it breaks, just buy another.” This is the motive of modern day consumerism, if it breaks buy another. This is the same concept related to the consumer technology obsession; when the new products come out, throw the old ones away. This is fueled by our rapidly expanding desire for consumer goods. Mitchell notes that “The average household now buys a new TV every 2.5 years, up from every 3.4 years in the early 1990s. We buy more than 2 billion bath towels a year, up from 1.4 billion in 1994. And on and on.”

While reading, I also noticed the amount of specialty goods that came from other countries. For example, there were “Tea chests… covered with Chinese characters. There was allspice form Jamaica and the East Indies; bags of almonds from Malaga and Valencia; just possibly some rare bananas from the West Indies, and indigo from Madras.” (Carson 201) Carson then goes on to describe more products from places around the world, such as Germany, Ceylon, Madagascar and Brazil. When Carson talks about “the visual demonstration in commercial geography,” we see what he means when he lists the products and their origins. If you spent a half of an hour in Meijer, could you easily identify products from as many countries as the ones Carson listed?

Country stores seem to exist only in legends today. I have heard folks from earlier generations speak of going “into town.” Moments like that seem lost in the past to me because daily life today is so fast paced and rushed. Artists have attempted to retrieve and recreate those lost moments through illustrations and renditions of the past. I think that the descriptions offered by Carson fit well with the artistic renditions of general stores, because going to the store used to be such a big deal, as it often required traveling a long distance very slowly and when customers arrived it was worth the trip to have access to the necessities of daily life and also to luxurious commodities not seen before. Today, stores are flooded with massed produced junk, which is a blatant product of consumerism. A notion that producing and importing more products will help the capitalist economy is the driving factor of this, but mass production and mass consumption harm the economy and consumers rather than help them, as pointed out with quality control issues.

Link to the Mitchell article: grist.org/business-technology/2011-11-11-is-your-stuff-falling-apart-thank-walmart/<o:p>

Clayton Gross