Many of women's everyday experiences and pleasures are tied up inextricably with consumption. Women have had a lifelong relationship with the marketplace. In research into consumer culture, it tends to be the activities, interests and expertise of women who take centre stage. This collection provides a range of different perspectives on women as consumers. The volume focuses on popular culture and its female consumers; this includes examinations of popular media and their targetting of female audiences, issues and themes associated with produce purchase, placement and promotion, and commodification.
Introduction, Maggie Andrews and Mary M. Talbot; "all the world and her husband" - the Daily Mail, 1896-1936, Deborah Ryan; new disciplines for women and the rise of the chain store in the 1930s, Janice Winship; modernity tamed? women shoppers and the rationalization of consumption in the interwar period, Mica Nava; "the greatest invention of the century" - menstruation in visual and maternal culture, Alia Al-Khalidi; the historical romance and consumption of the erotic, 1918-1939, Sallie McNamara; "a material girl"? adolescent girls and consumer culture, 1920-1958, Penny Tinkler; Mrs Housewife and her grocer - the advent of self-service food shopping in Britain, Barbara Usherwood; decisions in DIY -women, home-improvements and advertising in postwar Britain, Jen Browne; "as seen on TV" - design and domestic economy, Alison Clarke; advertising difference - women and "consumer citizenship" in Western Europe, Anne Cronin; strange bedfellows - feminism and advertising, Mary M. Talbot; "thanks for stopping by" - gender and virtual intimacy in American shop-by-television, Mary Bucholtz; a self off the shelf? consuming women's empowerment, Deborah Cameron; fashioning the career woman - power-dressing as a strategy of consumption, Joanne Entwistle; "non-occasion" cards and the commodification of personal relationships, Jane Hobson; girl power and the postmodern fan at Boyzone conferences, Maggie Andrews and Rosie Whorlow.
