Consumption as a mechanism to compensate the loss of ownership of self among women after marriage a life transition perspective

Abstract

It is not new and startling that Gender has been a point of debate across the globe in multiple setups, personal and professional. The transition a woman undergoes in her entire life has been tied to various consumption patterns and ideal consumption behaviors at every stage of development as a woman. (Kaplan,1987;Bordo,1993; Madaran,2000; Catterall, 2013). Given the developments globally beyond gender, few issues and cases remind us that the cultural and societal embodiment of what constitutes being a women remains a site to be contested. In societies undergoing modernity, how do women use consumption to negotiate the contrasting cultural values of tradition and modernity when their own Selves, bodies and lives are held to be sacred (Agnew, 1997; Mukherjee, 1983; Wadley, 1977)? Women are defined and located through social and moral parameters which serve as prominent markers of control and surveillance over their consumption choices. As Contested by the women who feel they have ownership over their bodies, lives and selves and haw they are perceived, versus how others, typically men, perceived the role of women and their lives. In the middle of this field lies the market, adapting, creating and nurturing change in an effort to open new market segments, opportunities and profit possibilities. newline