Welcome back,
My thoughts from this week's readings have to do with consumerism and the grand scheme to get us to conform to "the norm".
Why are we judged by what we wear, what we drive, and where we live? How much of our identity is entwined within the products we buy? Perhaps, we have been strategically spoon fed by advertising companies that we have become unaware that we have digested a whole cake.
This is becoming even more clear to me after moving to LA. As I started to assimilate into the community of West Hollywood while walking to Trader Joe's or the gym, I had feelings of inadequacy. Every time my husband encouraged me to go hang out at the local coffee shop my first thought was "I can't, I'm not apart of them", "I don't fit in.", or "I don't measure up." Why did these thoughts persistently plague me? Well, it was because I felt I didn't have the right clothing outfit to sip coffee at the local watering whole. You may snark at this revelation. Thinking of me as shallow or small minded, but could it be that you too have these thoughts programmed within? I believe so.
Thinking about what you wear to the super market is a much deeper issue than we might want to admit. We learn how to interact by interacting, we learn what not to say when we receive a negative response from another, we also know what to wear by watching what others are wearing. We are constantly being taught a "Code".
In discussing "Code", Jean Baudrillard states "Within 'consumer society' the notion of status, as the criterion which defines social being, tends increasingly to simplify and to coincide with the notion of 'social standing'. Yet 'social standing' is also measured in relation to power, authority, and responsibility. But in fact: There is no real responsibility without a Rolex watch! Advertising refers explicitly to the object as a necessary criterion: You will be judged on... An elegant women is recognized by... etc. Undoubtedly objects have always constituted a system of reference (reperage)" and "Obviously this code is more or less determinant given the social and economic level; nevertheless the collective function of advertising is to convert us all to the code. Since it is sanctioned by the group the code is moral, and every infraction is more or less charged with guilt."
From Baudrillard's theory, I was reluctant to go to the coffee shop because I was feeling condemnation from a code I didn't intellectually know existed, but I felt it. Felt the judgmental eyes from a panel of jurors that had found me guilty for breaking a law I was unaware off.
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