Material Girl
Lessen my relationship with material things, was one of the affirmations, that up until recently, I had stuck to the side of a bookshelf. One of my first understandings of the fact I was such a capitalist was my obsession with the song Material Girl by Madonna. I was enamoured by her Marylin Monroe adaptation, her character development to a woman marrying men with money to being the woman with money and the amount of pink and shiny jewels which the film clip had.
As this song demonstrates, the media has both helped and hindered my consumerist tendencies. Dependant on which way you look at it, it does both simultaneously, constantly.
I read Vogue magazine from the age of 13 which means that my ideas of success are tired up in a power suit and designer label-tote. I have been on many a shopping trip where I have been frustrated coming home empty handed. And I am without a doubt one of those people who thinks shopping is fun. My not-so-secret talent is the catalogue of shop locations I have in my head. I could be a tour guide at Chadstone. Last year I read this book, the name of it escapes me but it was about womanhood, and it suggested not going to the shops when you were hanging out by yourself. What did this book expect me to do? I’m very good at shopping and that has come from years of practice. It also put guilt where there didn’t need to be any. One thing it did do, was highlight the fact I need a hobby. One that doesn’t revolve around the browsing and purchasing of new things.
Alongside magazines, growing up I had Amazing Face by Zoe Foster Blake and two or three of Bobbi Brown’s makeup books. In some cases, I purchased the exact products that the books spoke about. In others I just needed the product in general. Highlighter! A round-bristle brush! I wasn’t worried about money, skin types, practicality. I was a ‘beauty-junkie’ and needed these things.
YouTube, Influencers, and social media had their own time to get me to spend money. Much like the books I just discussed, it wasn’t that I needed to have that item entirely but more if I had an idea that I wanted something (probably seen in another YouTube video or magazine), if I saw it elsewhere it just affirmed this idea and so the hunt began. These are the same platforms that taught me about minimalism, conscious consumption, and decluttering.
So, for quite a while I was in a heavy cycle of consume, thorough clean out, consume, massive declutter… you can see how this is going. I was almost so addicted to the clear out there was a part of me that was shopping for a reason to put some music on and clean out that wardrobe. Even better if I could watch a decluttering or wardrobe organisation video on YouTube whilst I was clearing things.
I still have that taste to declutter. But I am slowly shedding the desire to consume.
As I have mentioned in this newsletter before, I am on a no-buy year. The restriction on buying clothes etc. has meant an increased spending in other areas. I think this is largely because I don’t know how to break this cycle. Recently my boyfriend and I were discussing redoing our house. Like on a big scale. He encouraged me not to get caught up in keeping up with the Jones’, ‘but I am my own Jones’!’ I informed him. The pressure felt like a lot. I don’t know how I came to think that more expensive, more and more and more is better. But untangling it is not easy.
The other side is that I feel the need to defend myself. What should it matter if I have a designer bag or a leather jacket that cost more than my first car? If I choose to do that with my money, then why should I feel embarrassed by it? I think it is because of a few things. The mad desire I have when I want something blurs into NEED, and let’s be real, we only need a few things. The habits I have developed over a lifetime which I am now unpicking have meant that my media consumption habits have had to change.
More people who love fashion as opposed to just buying clothes, people who love organising instead of only owning one t-shirt and just loving what you have and anything else you bring in.
Next week, we will discuss the ultimate Material Girl, Madonna herself.