The popularity of chick literature in Britain and U.S. has influenced some Indonesian female writers to write in this genre. One prolific Indonesian chick lit writer is Alberthiene Endah, who has published five novels in the period of two years. Her second chick lit, Cewek Matre (Materialistic Girl), published in 2004 is very much similar to Confessions of a Shopaholic (2000), which narrates on a single young woman’s obsession for shopping. Both female characters, Becky in Confessions of a Shopaholic and Lola in Cewek Matre are obsessed with shopping and lifestyles that they cannot afford. Most of the things they buy are intended for body adornment, which is very much related to their self-esteem in the social and professional circles they want to belong to. They believe that all the things they buy are essential weapons to raise their market value. At the same time they also treat the men as commodities in how they liken the men as commodities to choose from. In this paper, I would like to show that the shopping activities done by Becky and Lola, go beyond just consuming commodities such as cosmetics, fashion or lifestyles because “[e]verything can become a commodity”, including “all social relations, activities and objects [that] can in principle be exchanged as commodities” (Slater, 1997, p. 27). Thus, in these two novels, the bodies are treated as one of the commodities in a consumer culture that can be “bought and sold” with specific values attached to them by the cultures that share the values.
The body as a commodity in a consumer culture is not just “a neutral frame over which we drape the clothes”, but “invested with cultural meanings . . . The body we are aware of, as human subjects, is ‘an imaginary body’ imagined and experienced through the eyes and minds of our culture, and hence inseparable from the meanings and values with which it is endowed” (Crisp, 2000, p. 48). This means that the body is not a body in isolation exclusively possessed by its owner, but the body that is displayed in public spaces to be judged according to the norms and values shared. In this sense, the body is a bearer of cultural practices which Bordo (2003, p. 16) depicts as the “ “politics of the body” . . . the material body as a site of political struggle . . . focusing on the “direct grip” that culture has on our bodies, through the practices and bodily habits of everyday life.” This “direct grip” of culture on the bodies causes the body to immerse in cultural meanings and practices that regulate and limit the body with a series of do’s and don’ts; therefore, the body can become and be used as the site of struggle of various ideologies for power. When the body is put in the context of consumer culture, the body also becomes the site of struggle between the ideology of consumerism and other ideologies that challenge or negotiate.
In a consumer culture, the body is “proclaimed as a vehicle of pleasure and self expression. Images of the body beautiful, openly sexual and associated with hedonism, leisure and display, emphasizes the importance of appearance and the ‘look’. . . . [for] more marketable self” (Featherstone, 1982, p. 170-1). The market value is based on certain qualities that “the closer the actual body approximates to the images of youth, health, fitness and beauty the higher its exchange-value” (p. 177). The body in this sense cannot escape from the images invested to it by culture and the images are not value free. These images promote or demote the value of the body based on the presence or absence of certain images that are deemed worthy. The presence of certain images like youth, health, fitness and beauty in the context of consumer culture, will automatically raise the exchange value of the body. In line with this is Bourdieu’s theory of ‘body capital’[1], that certain physical assets can function as capital to be exchanged for profits. Therefore, a lot of efforts are made to improve physical appearance to conform to the idolized images of the body (1984, p. 201-8). Shilling (1997, p. 88-92) explains this concept further by giving examples on how the body is a form of physical capital that can be converted into other forms of capital such as economic, cultural and social capital.
From a postmodern perspective, class is not a determiner of one’s status in a consumer culture.
Self and the presentation of self become dependent on style and fashion rather than on fixed symbols of class or hierarchal status. Urban space becomes a competitive arena for presentational conflicts based on commercialized fashions and lifestyles. There is a sense in which the self becomes a commodity with an appropriate package, because we no longer define ourselves exclusively in terms of blood or breeding (Turner, 1984, p. 122)
Consumption of commodities should be alienated from class because “anyone can be anyone-as long as they have the means to participate in consumption” and they can choose and construct their identities based on what they consume (Jagger, 2000, p. 51-2). Slater (1997) explains that consumption in a consumer culture is an insatiable consumption for commodities that bespeak of the social position and identity of the consumer in their exercise of power. We become what we consume because in consuming we also says who we are, our taste, values and social membership (p. 4). Consumption in this sense becomes more than just consuming goods for its function or use-value, because attached to the goods is the cultural-value or sign-value. The consumer, then, has the power to construct the identity she wants to assume utilizing the wide range of commodities that are loaded with this sign-value. So, basically what is consumed is more of the sign-value of a commodity rather than its use-value. In the act of consuming, the consumer is not just passive dupe buying whatever is offered in the market, because there is the process of active choosing of goods that is best suited to the consumers’ taste. The consumer is an active agent as she has the power to choose. The insatiable consumption for commodities that can radiate the image of beauty, health, fitness and youth, become a necessary deed to always to ensure a high exchange-value. The concept of the body referred in this paper is the public body in a consumer culture, which is commodified in the form of convertible physical capital, free from class boundaries and which welcomes anyone with means. Using this concept, I will explore the ways the bodies are commodified, focusing mainly on the main female characters in the two novels as they participate in the game of consumption.
· Competing in the Market
It is necessary for whoever wants to gain high exchange value for any commodity
offered to the market, be able to compete with other similar commodities. As it is the body, which is offered as a commodity, it means that it is the body, which is closer to the qualities deemed valuable in a social hierarchy that will gain higher exchange value. The farther the body is from the desired qualities, the lower is its exchange value. So, to be able to be in a high social hierarchy, one has to possess the valuable qualities. In these two novels, the qualities that have high value are beauty, youth, taste, the knowledge for and the means to afford designer fashion and branded stuffs. In both novels, the main female characters are described as young women with limited means because of their not very promising positions in their career, but they have the expert taste and knowledge for fashion and branded stuffs. Around them are women who share their taste and knowledge and have the means to afford the lifestyle. The ideology of a consumer culture is that it marginalizes those without means or enough funds to join in the celebration of consumption and encourages credit under the pretext of empowering them to be at the center of the culture of consumption.
In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Becky shops with her credit cards and sometimes cannot even pay the minimum charges, thus she has a mounting debts. Her job as a financial journalist for Successful Saving magazine becomes an irony; as a person who is taken as an expert in money saving and investment is in serious debt. Mostly she cannot afford the designer fashions that mark a person’s stature in her circles and she feels marginalizes by the power of the other women who have the ability to afford these stuffs. It causes her to be in low self-esteem and to envy and admire these other women.
They’re all the same, the girls at Brandon C, as they call it. They are well dressed, well spoken, are married to bankers, and have zero sense of humor. Alicia falls into the identikit pattern exactly, with her baby-blue suit, silk Hermes scarf, and matching baby-blue shoes, which I’ve seen in Russell and Bromley, and they cost an absolute fortune. (I bet she’s got the bag as well.) She’s also got a suntan, which must mean she’s just come back from Mauritius or somewhere, and suddenly I feel a bit pale and weedy in comparison (Shopaholic, p.19).
The feeling that is evoked is very upsetting when facing another woman whose body is adorned with exactly the things Becky cannot afford. Reminded of her lack, Becky has mixed feelings toward Alicia. There is admiration for Alicia’s success in her career and marriage, and is envious that she cannot be like Alicia. To sooth this feeling of inadequacy, Becky sought to take a belittling attitude toward Alicia and all the other women who are like her. Becky’s judgment of Alicia is based on the high value commodities on her body and she is the one who bestows Alicia the power over herself. This means that the play of power as seen in this incident is done by consent by both who has the means and the one who does not, based on a certain shared criteria.
Without the presence of one who is considered to be more powerful, the feeling of inadequacy is absent. Just before she meets Alicia, Becky is perfectly satisfied with herself and is confident about her appearance.
I don’t look bad, I think. I’m wearing my black skirt from French Connection, and a plain white T-shirt from Knickerbox, and a little angora Cardigan which I got from M&S but looks like it might be Agnes b. and my new square-toed shoes from Hobbs. Even better, although no one can see them, I know that underneath I’m wearing my gorgeous new matching knickers and bra with embroidered yellow rosebuds. They’re the best bit of my entire outfit. In fact, I almost wish I could be run over so that the world would see them (Confessions of a Shopaholic, p. 14).
The brand names of Becky’s outfit are quite expensive, but not as exclusive as Alicia’s Hermes scarf or Russell and Bromley’s shoes. In a consumer culture, these commodities are also placed in a social hierarchy that put high price and exclusivity in the highest position. The prestige of these commodities will be transferred to whoever can afford them and with this prestige comes the power. When she has no competitors around, Becky is quite satisfied with what she wears and even wants the world to see her, including her underwear, if she can. But when there is a competitor and she is compared to another woman who has more exclusive stuffs, Becky is suddenly robbed of her self-worth and power. In these expensive and exclusive stuffs sit power for self-confidence and respect.
The competition with the other woman is not just in the respect of clothing, but also in the ability to earn more money. Becky’s journalist friend, Elly, used to be in the same shoes like Becky, using her credit cards to the limit and can afford to pay only the minimum charge, always out of cash and is as obsessed as Becky in shopping. But after she has a new career as a fund manager, her life is drastically changed because she is paid much more.
The truth is, I earn ₤21,000. And I thought that was a lot! I remember very well, when I moved jobs, I jump from 18,000 to 21,000, and I thought I’d made the big time. . . . But now it sounds like nothing. I should be earning forty grand, like Elly, and buying all my clothes at Karen Millen. Oh, it’s not fair. My life is a complete disaster. . . . I feel pretty morose (Shopaholic, p. 129).
The other example is her meeting with Lucy, Tom’s fiancée. Tom is the son of her parents’ neighbor, Janice and Martin, who always insinuate that she is secretly in love with their son.
“This is Lucy,” he says proudly, and pulls forward a slim girl with big blue eyes, holding about sixty-five carrier bags. I don’t believe it. It’s the girl who was buying all the stuff in Ally Smith. The girl whose boy friend was paying. . .
“You work for Wetherby’s?” I say agast. Why am I surrounded by City high-flyers?
“Yes,” she says. “I’m one of their political advisers.”
What? What does this mean? Is she really brainy, or something? Oh god, this gets worse and worse (Shopaholic, p. 149).
These two quotations reveal that Becky feels herself to be a failure due to her lost in the competition with other women in term of their success in getting prestigious jobs that pay well and in having a boyfriend who would pay for her shopping. It also shows that in a consumer culture, insatiable consumption is the main principle and however much money you have; it will not be enough to satisfy one’s desire for more and more new commodities. Even though Becky earns more in her present job, it is still not enough, because the more income she has, the more commodities she wants, and thus, her earning cannot keep up with her spending. Juliet Schor (1999) comments on this phenomena as the symptoms of the new consumerism as “an upscaling of lifestyle norms; the pervasiveness of conspicuous, status goods and of competition for acquiring them; and the growing disconnect between consumer desires and incomes.” In this new consumerism, there is a wide gap between consumption and income, as one’s pattern of consumption is not determined by one’s income but how to get more money to afford the lifestyle. Lola also has this problem when she is always in debts to her mother, sister and credit card companies.
In Cewek Matre, Lola is envious of her colleagues who can afford the designer clothes, shoes, handbags and trinkets. She mentions Verena, a script writer in her office whose lifestyle is supported by her fiancée, the son of a private airline owner; Linda, who has a rich husband; Bianca, who is the daughter of a private bank director; Miranda whose husband is the son of a high ranking government officer; and Saskia and Lita who choose to have several wealthy boyfriends to pay for their expensive lifestyles. Because of her inability to compete with the other girls in her office, she is pitied and it makes her hate herself for her limited means as seen in this quotation:
Suatu kali saya pernah melihat mata Evieta menancap ketat pada tas tangan
saya [Lola]yang murni saya beli di bursa tas murah di Tajur , Bogor. Tak berapa
lama kemudian dia mecolek Sisil, saling berbisik, sedikit tertawa, dan meneruskan mencuri lirik pada tas tangan saya yang malang itu. Sejak itu, saya membenci mereka. Dan membenci diri sendiri kenapa nggak bisa sekeren mereka (Cewek Matre, p. 20).
(Once, I saw Evieta looked at my cheap handbag that I bought at Tajur, Bogor. Then, she signaled to Sisil, they whispered, laughed a little and continued to steal glances at my poor handbag. Since that time, I hated them. And I hated myself for my inability to be as stylish as they are.)
There are two important points that are worth mentioning here. The first one is that the other women can afford their luxurious lifestyles because a wealthy man financially supports each of them. This suggests that a woman like Lola, who does not have any man to support her, has no chance in the competition. Basically, then, the men without whom they are powerless give the high social position and power to these women to be able to compete with their group. The second point is that it causes self-hatred for the sense of powerlessness. The concept that “we become what we consume” is not as simple as it seems because what Lola consumes is what she can afford not what she can choose. Her self-hatred comes from her powerlessness to choose and construct the identity she desires. It might go to say that she is not what she consumes. Yet, like Becky, she agrees to the idea that she deserves to be humiliated and willingly gives power to women like Evieta, Sisil and also Linda.
Aside from envy and self-hatred, the power of that with money is also acknowledged and admired. Lola is envious of Linda, but at the same time she also admires her and acknowledges Linda’s power over her.
[Linda] bawa birkin bag Hermes ke ruang rapat. Digeletakkan dengan kesan tak
sengaja tapi mereknya dibuat tampak jelas ke mata khalayak. Bukan main. Saya
lihat Linda begitu menguasai ruangan dengan siraman benda mahal yang ada di
sekujur tubuhnya. Jamnya Bvlgari. Kalung rantainya Louis Vuitton. Bajunya
kentara sekali keluaran Prada. Pernah saya lihat di majalah Cosmopolitan. Itu
belum termasuk kilau berlian yang dijamin asli. Saya menelan ludah. Betapa
sulitnya menjadi tabah. Selamat datang di dunia khayal ..... (Cewek Matre, p.
37).
([Linda] brought her Hermes bag to the meeting room. She seemed to carelessly
put it down but she made sure the brand was obvious to all. How wonderful. I saw how Linda dominated the room with the shower of expensive stuffs on her body. Her watch was Bvlgari. Her necklace was Louis Vuitton. It was obvious that her clothes were Prada. I had seen it in Cosmopolitan. On top of that was the sparkle of her genuine diamond. I swallowed my saliva. How difficult it was to be brave. Welcome to the fantasy world.)
Linda is aware of the power that is given to her when under the pretense of a careless action; she shows the brand name of her bag. The expensive stuffs displayed on Linda’s body automatically reflects Linda’s higher social position compared to those, especially Lola, who do not or cannot afford to possess the similar things. The position is for her taking as she has the qualities, which by consensus are deemed desirable and have high exchange value. Therefore she has the other’s admiration and together with that admiration she is given power over the other who are in the lower position of the social hierarchy. It is important that the other women who willingly take the lower position have the knowledge of the values of the clothes, bag and trinkets that Linda has for her to be able to occupy a higher position. Other’s failure to share or acknowledge the value of those commodities will deny her the power. The competition is played like a game in which every player has to go by the rules of the game for everybody to be able to play in the same game.
In Cewek Matre, it can be said that the power of a woman like Linda, is given by the men and by the other women who are in the lower social ladder. It means that anytime the power can be seized from her by any of the men and the other women who can afford more. This might mean that she is also powerless, depending on others to give her the power. Principally, the possession of power is just an illusion that is disguised as a reality by the dominant group, like the group with money. In its relation to the body, a woman possesses her body, but she does not own it because it is the other who asserts meaning over her by what she displays on her body. Yet, she is not totally in an objectified position as she also manipulates the means she has, money, men, other women and knowledge for commodities for the position of power.
In both Confessions of a Shopaholic and Cewek Matre, the competitions for power are done among the women. Even though not as obvious as in Cewek Matre, it is also suggested there is a rich man behind every woman who wins the competition for power and these men empower the women to gain power over their peer. The body is treated as an extension of the commodities that adorn the body and as a result, the value of the commodities is transferred to the body. As a consequence, the commodity and the body become an inseparable entity. The body will be perused as a commodity to decode its value. It becomes inevitable that the value of the outer body affects the inner-self, the sense of self worth; because they are conjoined. Sennet (quoted in Featherstone, p. 189) explains that “[i]ndividuals had now to decode both the appearance of others and take pains to manage the impressions they might give off, while moving through the world of strangers. This encouraged greater bodily self-consciousness and self-scrutiny in public life.” An individual cannot escape from being appraised by the other person as how she also appraises others and at the same time she also appraises herself as how others appraise her. Therefore, both Lola and Becky are upset when they compare themselves with the other women and come to evaluate themselves as how they are evaluated by others. Their lost in the competition for power is not only because of their limited means, but also because of their consent that they deserve to lose.
The efforts are considered as investments to gain higher profits and are defined in term of class in which the women of the middle class has more awareness in improving their physical appearance compared to the women of the working class. The symbolic consumption is a tool for distinction in the struggle for domination of different classes that impose their taste on others to legitimate their taste. What one consumes is based on one’s group habitus, whereas a postmodern perspective detaches consumption from class, arguing that in modern consumption, everybody, regardless of class, can choose to consume whatever they want as long as they have the means.
The body as a commodity in a consumer culture is not just “a neutral frame over which we drape the clothes”, but “invested with cultural meanings . . . The body we are aware of, as human subjects, is ‘an imaginary body’ imagined and experienced through the eyes and minds of our culture, and hence inseparable from the meanings and values with which it is endowed” (Crisp, 2000, p. 48). This means that the body is not a body in isolation exclusively possessed by its owner, but the body that is displayed in public spaces to be judged according to the norms and values shared. In this sense, the body is a bearer of cultural practices which Bordo (2003, p. 16) depicts as the “ “politics of the body” . . . the material body as a site of political struggle . . . focusing on the “direct grip” that culture has on our bodies, through the practices and bodily habits of everyday life.” This “direct grip” of culture on the bodies causes the body to immerse in cultural meanings and practices that regulate and limit the body with a series of do’s and don’ts; therefore, the body can become and be used as the site of struggle of various ideologies for power. When the body is put in the context of consumer culture, the body also becomes the site of struggle between the ideology of consumerism and other ideologies that challenge or negotiate.
In a consumer culture, the body is “proclaimed as a vehicle of pleasure and self expression. Images of the body beautiful, openly sexual and associated with hedonism, leisure and display, emphasizes the importance of appearance and the ‘look’. . . . [for] more marketable self” (Featherstone, 1982, p. 170-1). The market value is based on certain qualities that “the closer the actual body approximates to the images of youth, health, fitness and beauty the higher its exchange-value” (p. 177). The body in this sense cannot escape from the images invested to it by culture and the images are not value free. These images promote or demote the value of the body based on the presence or absence of certain images that are deemed worthy. The presence of certain images like youth, health, fitness and beauty in the context of consumer culture, will automatically raise the exchange value of the body. In line with this is Bourdieu’s theory of ‘body capital’[1], that certain physical assets can function as capital to be exchanged for profits. Therefore, a lot of efforts are made to improve physical appearance to conform to the idolized images of the body (1984, p. 201-8). Shilling (1997, p. 88-92) explains this concept further by giving examples on how the body is a form of physical capital that can be converted into other forms of capital such as economic, cultural and social capital.
From a postmodern perspective, class is not a determiner of one’s status in a consumer culture.
Self and the presentation of self become dependent on style and fashion rather than on fixed symbols of class or hierarchal status. Urban space becomes a competitive arena for presentational conflicts based on commercialized fashions and lifestyles. There is a sense in which the self becomes a commodity with an appropriate package, because we no longer define ourselves exclusively in terms of blood or breeding (Turner, 1984, p. 122)
Consumption of commodities should be alienated from class because “anyone can be anyone-as long as they have the means to participate in consumption” and they can choose and construct their identities based on what they consume (Jagger, 2000, p. 51-2). Slater (1997) explains that consumption in a consumer culture is an insatiable consumption for commodities that bespeak of the social position and identity of the consumer in their exercise of power. We become what we consume because in consuming we also says who we are, our taste, values and social membership (p. 4). Consumption in this sense becomes more than just consuming goods for its function or use-value, because attached to the goods is the cultural-value or sign-value. The consumer, then, has the power to construct the identity she wants to assume utilizing the wide range of commodities that are loaded with this sign-value. So, basically what is consumed is more of the sign-value of a commodity rather than its use-value. In the act of consuming, the consumer is not just passive dupe buying whatever is offered in the market, because there is the process of active choosing of goods that is best suited to the consumers’ taste. The consumer is an active agent as she has the power to choose. The insatiable consumption for commodities that can radiate the image of beauty, health, fitness and youth, become a necessary deed to always to ensure a high exchange-value. The concept of the body referred in this paper is the public body in a consumer culture, which is commodified in the form of convertible physical capital, free from class boundaries and which welcomes anyone with means. Using this concept, I will explore the ways the bodies are commodified, focusing mainly on the main female characters in the two novels as they participate in the game of consumption.
· Competing in the Market
It is necessary for whoever wants to gain high exchange value for any commodity
offered to the market, be able to compete with other similar commodities. As it is the body, which is offered as a commodity, it means that it is the body, which is closer to the qualities deemed valuable in a social hierarchy that will gain higher exchange value. The farther the body is from the desired qualities, the lower is its exchange value. So, to be able to be in a high social hierarchy, one has to possess the valuable qualities. In these two novels, the qualities that have high value are beauty, youth, taste, the knowledge for and the means to afford designer fashion and branded stuffs. In both novels, the main female characters are described as young women with limited means because of their not very promising positions in their career, but they have the expert taste and knowledge for fashion and branded stuffs. Around them are women who share their taste and knowledge and have the means to afford the lifestyle. The ideology of a consumer culture is that it marginalizes those without means or enough funds to join in the celebration of consumption and encourages credit under the pretext of empowering them to be at the center of the culture of consumption.
In Confessions of a Shopaholic, Becky shops with her credit cards and sometimes cannot even pay the minimum charges, thus she has a mounting debts. Her job as a financial journalist for Successful Saving magazine becomes an irony; as a person who is taken as an expert in money saving and investment is in serious debt. Mostly she cannot afford the designer fashions that mark a person’s stature in her circles and she feels marginalizes by the power of the other women who have the ability to afford these stuffs. It causes her to be in low self-esteem and to envy and admire these other women.
They’re all the same, the girls at Brandon C, as they call it. They are well dressed, well spoken, are married to bankers, and have zero sense of humor. Alicia falls into the identikit pattern exactly, with her baby-blue suit, silk Hermes scarf, and matching baby-blue shoes, which I’ve seen in Russell and Bromley, and they cost an absolute fortune. (I bet she’s got the bag as well.) She’s also got a suntan, which must mean she’s just come back from Mauritius or somewhere, and suddenly I feel a bit pale and weedy in comparison (Shopaholic, p.19).
The feeling that is evoked is very upsetting when facing another woman whose body is adorned with exactly the things Becky cannot afford. Reminded of her lack, Becky has mixed feelings toward Alicia. There is admiration for Alicia’s success in her career and marriage, and is envious that she cannot be like Alicia. To sooth this feeling of inadequacy, Becky sought to take a belittling attitude toward Alicia and all the other women who are like her. Becky’s judgment of Alicia is based on the high value commodities on her body and she is the one who bestows Alicia the power over herself. This means that the play of power as seen in this incident is done by consent by both who has the means and the one who does not, based on a certain shared criteria.
Without the presence of one who is considered to be more powerful, the feeling of inadequacy is absent. Just before she meets Alicia, Becky is perfectly satisfied with herself and is confident about her appearance.
I don’t look bad, I think. I’m wearing my black skirt from French Connection, and a plain white T-shirt from Knickerbox, and a little angora Cardigan which I got from M&S but looks like it might be Agnes b. and my new square-toed shoes from Hobbs. Even better, although no one can see them, I know that underneath I’m wearing my gorgeous new matching knickers and bra with embroidered yellow rosebuds. They’re the best bit of my entire outfit. In fact, I almost wish I could be run over so that the world would see them (Confessions of a Shopaholic, p. 14).
The brand names of Becky’s outfit are quite expensive, but not as exclusive as Alicia’s Hermes scarf or Russell and Bromley’s shoes. In a consumer culture, these commodities are also placed in a social hierarchy that put high price and exclusivity in the highest position. The prestige of these commodities will be transferred to whoever can afford them and with this prestige comes the power. When she has no competitors around, Becky is quite satisfied with what she wears and even wants the world to see her, including her underwear, if she can. But when there is a competitor and she is compared to another woman who has more exclusive stuffs, Becky is suddenly robbed of her self-worth and power. In these expensive and exclusive stuffs sit power for self-confidence and respect.
The competition with the other woman is not just in the respect of clothing, but also in the ability to earn more money. Becky’s journalist friend, Elly, used to be in the same shoes like Becky, using her credit cards to the limit and can afford to pay only the minimum charge, always out of cash and is as obsessed as Becky in shopping. But after she has a new career as a fund manager, her life is drastically changed because she is paid much more.
The truth is, I earn ₤21,000. And I thought that was a lot! I remember very well, when I moved jobs, I jump from 18,000 to 21,000, and I thought I’d made the big time. . . . But now it sounds like nothing. I should be earning forty grand, like Elly, and buying all my clothes at Karen Millen. Oh, it’s not fair. My life is a complete disaster. . . . I feel pretty morose (Shopaholic, p. 129).
The other example is her meeting with Lucy, Tom’s fiancée. Tom is the son of her parents’ neighbor, Janice and Martin, who always insinuate that she is secretly in love with their son.
“This is Lucy,” he says proudly, and pulls forward a slim girl with big blue eyes, holding about sixty-five carrier bags. I don’t believe it. It’s the girl who was buying all the stuff in Ally Smith. The girl whose boy friend was paying. . .
“You work for Wetherby’s?” I say agast. Why am I surrounded by City high-flyers?
“Yes,” she says. “I’m one of their political advisers.”
What? What does this mean? Is she really brainy, or something? Oh god, this gets worse and worse (Shopaholic, p. 149).
These two quotations reveal that Becky feels herself to be a failure due to her lost in the competition with other women in term of their success in getting prestigious jobs that pay well and in having a boyfriend who would pay for her shopping. It also shows that in a consumer culture, insatiable consumption is the main principle and however much money you have; it will not be enough to satisfy one’s desire for more and more new commodities. Even though Becky earns more in her present job, it is still not enough, because the more income she has, the more commodities she wants, and thus, her earning cannot keep up with her spending. Juliet Schor (1999) comments on this phenomena as the symptoms of the new consumerism as “an upscaling of lifestyle norms; the pervasiveness of conspicuous, status goods and of competition for acquiring them; and the growing disconnect between consumer desires and incomes.” In this new consumerism, there is a wide gap between consumption and income, as one’s pattern of consumption is not determined by one’s income but how to get more money to afford the lifestyle. Lola also has this problem when she is always in debts to her mother, sister and credit card companies.
In Cewek Matre, Lola is envious of her colleagues who can afford the designer clothes, shoes, handbags and trinkets. She mentions Verena, a script writer in her office whose lifestyle is supported by her fiancée, the son of a private airline owner; Linda, who has a rich husband; Bianca, who is the daughter of a private bank director; Miranda whose husband is the son of a high ranking government officer; and Saskia and Lita who choose to have several wealthy boyfriends to pay for their expensive lifestyles. Because of her inability to compete with the other girls in her office, she is pitied and it makes her hate herself for her limited means as seen in this quotation:
Suatu kali saya pernah melihat mata Evieta menancap ketat pada tas tangan
saya [Lola]yang murni saya beli di bursa tas murah di Tajur , Bogor. Tak berapa
lama kemudian dia mecolek Sisil, saling berbisik, sedikit tertawa, dan meneruskan mencuri lirik pada tas tangan saya yang malang itu. Sejak itu, saya membenci mereka. Dan membenci diri sendiri kenapa nggak bisa sekeren mereka (Cewek Matre, p. 20).
(Once, I saw Evieta looked at my cheap handbag that I bought at Tajur, Bogor. Then, she signaled to Sisil, they whispered, laughed a little and continued to steal glances at my poor handbag. Since that time, I hated them. And I hated myself for my inability to be as stylish as they are.)
There are two important points that are worth mentioning here. The first one is that the other women can afford their luxurious lifestyles because a wealthy man financially supports each of them. This suggests that a woman like Lola, who does not have any man to support her, has no chance in the competition. Basically, then, the men without whom they are powerless give the high social position and power to these women to be able to compete with their group. The second point is that it causes self-hatred for the sense of powerlessness. The concept that “we become what we consume” is not as simple as it seems because what Lola consumes is what she can afford not what she can choose. Her self-hatred comes from her powerlessness to choose and construct the identity she desires. It might go to say that she is not what she consumes. Yet, like Becky, she agrees to the idea that she deserves to be humiliated and willingly gives power to women like Evieta, Sisil and also Linda.
Aside from envy and self-hatred, the power of that with money is also acknowledged and admired. Lola is envious of Linda, but at the same time she also admires her and acknowledges Linda’s power over her.
[Linda] bawa birkin bag Hermes ke ruang rapat. Digeletakkan dengan kesan tak
sengaja tapi mereknya dibuat tampak jelas ke mata khalayak. Bukan main. Saya
lihat Linda begitu menguasai ruangan dengan siraman benda mahal yang ada di
sekujur tubuhnya. Jamnya Bvlgari. Kalung rantainya Louis Vuitton. Bajunya
kentara sekali keluaran Prada. Pernah saya lihat di majalah Cosmopolitan. Itu
belum termasuk kilau berlian yang dijamin asli. Saya menelan ludah. Betapa
sulitnya menjadi tabah. Selamat datang di dunia khayal ..... (Cewek Matre, p.
37).
([Linda] brought her Hermes bag to the meeting room. She seemed to carelessly
put it down but she made sure the brand was obvious to all. How wonderful. I saw how Linda dominated the room with the shower of expensive stuffs on her body. Her watch was Bvlgari. Her necklace was Louis Vuitton. It was obvious that her clothes were Prada. I had seen it in Cosmopolitan. On top of that was the sparkle of her genuine diamond. I swallowed my saliva. How difficult it was to be brave. Welcome to the fantasy world.)
Linda is aware of the power that is given to her when under the pretense of a careless action; she shows the brand name of her bag. The expensive stuffs displayed on Linda’s body automatically reflects Linda’s higher social position compared to those, especially Lola, who do not or cannot afford to possess the similar things. The position is for her taking as she has the qualities, which by consensus are deemed desirable and have high exchange value. Therefore she has the other’s admiration and together with that admiration she is given power over the other who are in the lower position of the social hierarchy. It is important that the other women who willingly take the lower position have the knowledge of the values of the clothes, bag and trinkets that Linda has for her to be able to occupy a higher position. Other’s failure to share or acknowledge the value of those commodities will deny her the power. The competition is played like a game in which every player has to go by the rules of the game for everybody to be able to play in the same game.
In Cewek Matre, it can be said that the power of a woman like Linda, is given by the men and by the other women who are in the lower social ladder. It means that anytime the power can be seized from her by any of the men and the other women who can afford more. This might mean that she is also powerless, depending on others to give her the power. Principally, the possession of power is just an illusion that is disguised as a reality by the dominant group, like the group with money. In its relation to the body, a woman possesses her body, but she does not own it because it is the other who asserts meaning over her by what she displays on her body. Yet, she is not totally in an objectified position as she also manipulates the means she has, money, men, other women and knowledge for commodities for the position of power.
In both Confessions of a Shopaholic and Cewek Matre, the competitions for power are done among the women. Even though not as obvious as in Cewek Matre, it is also suggested there is a rich man behind every woman who wins the competition for power and these men empower the women to gain power over their peer. The body is treated as an extension of the commodities that adorn the body and as a result, the value of the commodities is transferred to the body. As a consequence, the commodity and the body become an inseparable entity. The body will be perused as a commodity to decode its value. It becomes inevitable that the value of the outer body affects the inner-self, the sense of self worth; because they are conjoined. Sennet (quoted in Featherstone, p. 189) explains that “[i]ndividuals had now to decode both the appearance of others and take pains to manage the impressions they might give off, while moving through the world of strangers. This encouraged greater bodily self-consciousness and self-scrutiny in public life.” An individual cannot escape from being appraised by the other person as how she also appraises others and at the same time she also appraises herself as how others appraise her. Therefore, both Lola and Becky are upset when they compare themselves with the other women and come to evaluate themselves as how they are evaluated by others. Their lost in the competition for power is not only because of their limited means, but also because of their consent that they deserve to lose.
The efforts are considered as investments to gain higher profits and are defined in term of class in which the women of the middle class has more awareness in improving their physical appearance compared to the women of the working class. The symbolic consumption is a tool for distinction in the struggle for domination of different classes that impose their taste on others to legitimate their taste. What one consumes is based on one’s group habitus, whereas a postmodern perspective detaches consumption from class, arguing that in modern consumption, everybody, regardless of class, can choose to consume whatever they want as long as they have the means.
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