Consumption

Before I start, I’d like to say something: I am not a trend whore. By which I mean, I don’t buy things because they’re en vogue. In fact, as a general rule, I avoid wearing anything trendy until it’s been out at least 2 or 3 seasons, even if I already own it. Not that I attempt to purposefully look unfashionable, either – I usually aim for something in between cool/cute and mediocrity (unless I’m in a really bad mood…oh boy). The nicest compliment anyone’s ever given me clothes-wise is “You should be one of those people who dresses celebrities or something. You always look so original and fun, and you make things pretty without spending a lot.” At the time, I was wearing this sleeveless dress I got from Simons for, like, 5$, and converse boots coming to about mid-calf. Those were some great shoes. I had gotten a free shirt at some jeans store which I didn’t love, so I liberated its sleeves and fixed them up so I could cover my arms without putting on a cardigan. The dress had great lines so I didn’t want to break them up with an extra layer of clothing. I know I’m rambling, but that was a really great outfit, trust me. Suffice it to say, it’s clearly been a long time since I put any effort into being creative clothes-wise.

Anyway, I’m not a trend whore. But I’ve been walking by these amazing boots at Browns everyday…they’re those really tall boots that we’ve been seeing on the runway (anyway, I’ve been watching them on the runway, along with a lot of really structured pieces emphasizing the shoulders, shiny material, leather, plaid, some really interesting gathering, and stretch pants - again). Über trendy. But they’re also purple suede. Purple!!!! And they don’t have ridiculous heels on them either (like we’ve also seen on the runway and quite enough of that thankyou). I admit it: I’m infatuated with them. So, today I finally decided to ditch my trend-hating trend in favor of the boots. And besides, they’re eccentric enough to work for me. And although I might pay 5$ for a dress, I’ll spend ‘ridiculous’ amounts of money on shoes: I AM a shoe whore.

They didn’t exactly have my size, which is to be expected, so I didn’t get them. They did have another different-ish kind in this dark purple-blue color that are pretty awesome, but those are pressing my price limit close enough that I’d never think of getting them without active moral support and a second opinion.

While I was there, I decided to walk around to all the shoe stores in the vicinity to check out their boots. They were not super awesome…no purple anywhere *frowny face*. But what struck me the most was the complete lack of customer service anywhere except Browns. Did they think I couldn’t afford their shoes or something? And anyway, shouldn’t you try? I knew that I was willing to drop up to maybe 300$ on sufficiently amazing boots if they were made well and durable, and had a good balance (crucial: bad shoes are not made to naturally fall to the 'center' thereby taking some of the stress off your spine). I can justify the ridiculous price by being able to wear them for the rest of my life. I also knew there’s no way I’d buy anything at a store with crappy service.

It got me thinking: why were they so comfortable ignoring me, ignoring anyone? Is it that they think consumers are so indoctrinated that they’ll be desperate enough to buy their shoes without any convincing at all? What does it mean to turn the business of selling us stuff that we don’t need into a service so important that we have to go to it, rather than the other way around? It’s scary to think we’re a society that will gorge itself so much on consumption that anyone thinks it's okay to purchase something from just anyone – anyone with no investment in you or even in what they’re selling. We buy stuff all the time without ever being aware of why we want it, or where it comes from, or who it’s exploiting. They expect us to have no reflection…enough lack of concerted awareness that we’ll even be interested in things they don’t even bother to try and sell us. If we build it, they will come.

What does all of this mean theologically? It’s fairly self-evident to say that a perverse love for things and acquisition has replaced a love and desire for God in many people’s lives. But what about Christians? What does it say about us? The most dangerous thing about consumer culture is its insidiousness, its infiltration of every aspect of our lives. It runs alongside us, weaving through our lives, an unconscious incorporation of our things into our identities. We might not look at it or think about it, we might believe that things are utterly unimportant, but the truth is we’re all surrounded by this overwhelming cultural desire, we all live our lives in it, and we can’t escape our place in it just by telling ourselves that we’re different or that we’ve escaped it. Because even if we buy the 5$ dress that we think falls outside the clawing grasp of couture, that dress got there after a process in which high fashion gets transmuted down through ready-to-wear designers and retail stores into a variety of pieces incorporating ideas or patterns or materials from some designer’s collection…your original non-fashion dress that you thought nothing about when buying is actually just another element in a giant web of production that ultimately begins with some person telling us what it is they think we should want.

I don’t pretend to have a solution. I just think that we need to be aware that we play a part in a larger consumer reality and that, as Christians, and even as people who may reject the idea of things altogether, we do not stand outside this circle. If we want to see more clearly and perhaps attempt to refocus our society there needs to be some critical thinking about the ideas we live in. Because, frankly, no one group of people can change a social construct by merely shifting their behavior, because that rebellion already implicitly buys into the ideology it rejects; it is that reality that determines what constitutes rebellion. Just like how getting tattoos used to be a way of ‘rebelling’ against the dominant culture actually relied on the ideas of that culture in order to be meaningful, uncritical rejection that isn’t supported by a more sophisticated system of thought can never hope to survive or thrive or be meaningful outside the paradigm it pretends to be escape. Because it's only a juxtaposition, and not a re-thinking.

Having said that, I also found some really great colorful shoes in my long journey…maybe if I can’t find sufficiently amazing boots, I’ll consider those instead.