5/29 Fiske

            In the excerpt “Shopping for Pleasure”, John Fiske discusses the counter idea of patriarchal consumerism with consumerism itself. Normally divided amongst the Masculine vs the Feminine, consumers of each gender are subjected to stereotypes such as men being in position of earning, empowered, and freedom, whereas women are in spending, disempowered, and slavery based on historical accounts. However, consumerism allowed women to cross the boundary between public and private, thus breaking such gendered binary. This action empowers women, and it reminds of me how Kelly, from “Kelly Loves Tony”, had tried to empower herself by obtaining education to become self-sufficient. It is relevant to draw parallels of consumerism to the American Dream (of independence) because they are both related to capitalism. The slogans “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping” being a parody of the historically more masculine quote “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”, reminds of me Omar’s lecture on comedy. Specifically, this parody is an example of decoy, where one’s prejudice is countered with one’s own image. Whereas the feminine uses shopping, which was originally masculine, to counter masculinity, Omar counters terrorist acclaims, normally attributed to brown skinned middle Eastern people, with a white terrorist example.

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