Unit 2: Site B Retail Therapy
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Unit 2: Site B Retail Therapy |
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Retail Therapy Powerpoint (courtesy of Richard) Retail Therapy Site B Popular Music - songs that saved my life
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What is retail therapy? You are what you buy! The definition of retail therapy is
shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer's mood or disposition. What sort of shoes do you wear? What sort of phone do you have? How do you listen to your music - iPod Nano or plain old MP3 player? However, we are not just talking about the act of acquiring possessions here, we are talking about the activity or pursuit called shopping. What kind of gratification do we get from going shopping? Why do we enjoy it? Sample Unit 1 Exam Question (related to this topic) The following is an extract from Bauman’s Legislators and Interpreters. Read the passage and answer the question that follows it: Click here for resources to help with Unit 2 coursework ACTIVITY If you could choose five items which belong to you to define who you are for other people, what would you choose and why? What do they say about you? I would choose my house, my holidays, my books and music, some of my clothes and my phone. Why? Because I regard each of these items as defining aspects of my personality and the identity I want to portray to other people. I am a 48 year old woman - my identity is going to be very different to yours - or is it? Look at the Flickr profile for a young woman called Miss Peach - her I....series, where she defines herself by her possessions, by the contents of her handbag, her room, her music etc. Fascinating. This page is just called "What's in my make-up bag"
Do all these things that I have bought communicate the real me? If so, what am I like? Would I be the same person without them? Click on the image to read a little bit about each item and why it means something to me.
There is a lovely powerpoint on CJ's Media, Communication and Film blog on shopping in the Trafford Centre - click here and then scroll right down to the bottom of the page.
"What makes this project particularly poignant is that Michael is part of a generation of artists who, like Damien Hirst, has produced so much work and money for themselves. This is quite a philosophical and radical work. We are all conditioned that our material belongings define us in a way, and this is really the reversal of all that." Try a little test on your classmates - put together a collage of your belongings - as I did above. Print them out and have the class mix them up. See if you can find the person to go with the collage! Unit 2 Coursework Resources and Ideas I shop, therefore I am Balm for the Soul For many shopping is an act of naked greed, a panic-inducing chore or a bewildering waste of time. But for Linda Grant, as for her mother before her, it means something else entirely: pure pleasure What was it like to shop in past eras? Did people treat it as a leisure pursuit? Is it part of British culture? Read what people have to say here. Have a look at this archive footage on the BBC website and find out! Woolworths - how the shops have changed over the years, architecturally and culturally How does value relate to shopping? Do we only value what we buy? Do we value things by how much they cost? Is culture becoming devalued? Marxist Perspective of Shopping The Marxist view of shopping is that all consumption is merely a way to keep the masses happy - we consume because we are pursuing false needs, created by wicked capitalists, intent on keeping us hooked on 'stuff' - more and more of it, to make us happy! Read this article from the Socialist Worker magazine, "Consumerism: I shop, therefore I am" An attractive site with a number of interesting articles on consumerism, from a Marxist perspective, David Report Feminist Perspective of Shopping Read this article Is the High Street Really a Liberating Arena for Women?
by Diana Goss & Ian Pace |
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