Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
“Get Rich Or Die Buying:” The Travails Of The Working-Class Auction Bidder, Mark A. Rademacher
“Get Rich Or Die Buying:” The Travails Of The Working-Class Auction Bidder, Mark A. Rademacher
Mark A. Rademacher
A critique of the popular reality television show, Storage Wars.
A Humanistic Approach To Understanding Child Consumer Socialization In Us Homes, Lucy Atkinson, Michelle R. Nelson, Mark A. Rademacher
A Humanistic Approach To Understanding Child Consumer Socialization In Us Homes, Lucy Atkinson, Michelle R. Nelson, Mark A. Rademacher
Mark A. Rademacher
We present findings from a qualitative, multisite, multi-method, longitudinal study of parents and their preschool-aged children that explores the intersections of marketing influences in the home and in the larger outside world of children. Findings indicate that preschoolers represent complicated and nuanced “consumers in training” beyond predictions based on their “perceptual stage of development.” Specifically, our data revealed interesting ways in which marketing and consumer culture can foster a number of pro-social consumer outcomes (e.g., charity, gift-giving, financial literacy). We also noted an emerging understanding by preschoolers of the social meanings of goods for identity construction and product evaluation. Finally, …
“I’M Here To Do Business. I’M Not Here To Play Games.” Work, Consumption, And Masculinity In Storage Wars, Mark A. Rademacher, Casey R. Kelly
“I’M Here To Do Business. I’M Not Here To Play Games.” Work, Consumption, And Masculinity In Storage Wars, Mark A. Rademacher, Casey R. Kelly
Mark A. Rademacher
This essay examines the first season of Storage Wars and suggests the program helps mediate the putative crisis in American masculinity by suggesting that traditional male skills are still essential where knowledge supplants manual labor. We read representations of “men at work” in traditionally “feminine” consumer markets, as a form of masculine recuperation situated within the culture of White male injury. Specifically, Storage Wars appropriates omnivorous consumption, thrift, and collaboration to fit within the masculine repertoire of self-reliance, individualism, and competition. Thus, the program adapts hegemonic masculinity by showcasing male auction bidders adeptly performing feminine consumer practices. Whether the feminine …