plate lithography at the mall

I am looking at the surveilled, private space of the mall as a “suitable” feminine space.

I am also taking a look at consumption, often portrayed as a mindless and passive form of leisure, as a form of productive labor for many american women. I am specifically examining the ways in which traditional women’s work in a family economy is no longer done start to finish by hand; instead tools/products are sold to women.  Many purchases like cleaning supplies and food are further transformed through labor; or they replace older forms of labor such as the provision of clothing, gifts, cultivation of food and fibers, etc.  When I write that tools/products are sold to women, I mean this not just literally ( because I recognize that many- even most- men also shop, cook and clean) but also that we are the primary targets of advertising and the resultant work is deemed feminine.

I find the idea of passive consumption unnuanced; and an example of a prevalent and negatively valued femininity in a culture where women do more than 80% of consumer spending. This is not an attempt to exonerate our gross and harmful over-consumption.  I do mean however to examine this particular gender stereotype, and in turn the ways in which women exercise authority and are, contrary to popular representation, in fact producers.