Face it - advertisers always follow the money. And,
yes in the 90's female internet usage was definitely inferior to male internet usage.
When females began to approach an equal --if not greater -- internet usage than
males, advertisers without hesitation, began to pitch to the women (as long as women
had buying power). Advertisers' overwhelming control of online female
communities is a display of the negative influences of capitalism. This creates excessive consumption by
girls, and increases greatly with more use of the internet by girls.
Advertisers can seriously damage girls’ self-esteem
with unrealistic identities, but even online commodity driven communities
create class systems grounded in income inequality. Most global capitalism exists because
advertisers control a commodity audience, and it is sad because girlhood is the
point of identity formation for generations of women.
Yes, we haven't discussed girlhood based on ethnicity or economic background very much.
ReplyDeleteDo you think male identity formation is at a later age than female identity formation, for example later teens or twenties?
It's hard to say. I just have a gut feeling that female identity is formed much quicker than male identity. I feel that girls are more mature than boys at a younger age. Certainly we are both bombarded with advertisements and popular culture messages that mold our formation and it takes a while to sift through what is genuine and what is fluff. I would say probably early 20s is when males have a sense of identity.
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