Core Post #2- Megan Henckel

     In engaging with this week’s readings, I was fascinated by the way in which consumerism intersects with the “social type” of the star and how these specific types, evident in both the star’s character on screen and in off screen press coverage about their personal lives, reinforced aspects of consumerism during the early twentieth century. Dyer defines a social type as “a collective norm of role behavior formed and used by a group, an idealized concept of how people are expected to be or to act” and he explains that stars typically correspond to a specific social type (47). He gives the example of Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn as stars who were the embodiment of the “independent woman” social type, a woman who opposed the social values of the female at the time and/or spent effort on constructing and discovering her own identity as a female through choice rather than being resigned to a role of domesticity gender delineated roles. For example, Dyer writes “ [a woman] who is able to achieve her means in a man’s world, to insist on her intelligence, to insist on using it” constitutes the role of an independent woman, one who is breaking typical gender barriers by exhibiting qualities and attitudes typically associated with a male (55). 

     In connection with the idea of the independent woman social type, Laplace touches upon a similar idea as he explains that attitudes in the 20th century, particularly with regard to women’s fiction, cinema, and consumerism, focused upon “formation of the feminine ego” where women were suddenly harnessing their individuality and defining their own sense of self worth in ways they hadn’t previously (152). In terms of consumerism, this idea of women having self agency became a primary way advertisers enticed female consumers. As such, Laplace explains that during the early twentieth century, advertising and consumer products were marketed primarily to women as they made up the largest percentage of consumerism within a household. With each product being manufactured, advertisers made sure that women felt as though buying certain products was a way of achieving their own identity by having their own choice in the matter. Laplace gives the example of cosmetics and beauty, where beauty was “ not a natural gift, but achievable through use of the correct goods: cosmetics, grooming and, fashion.” (140).  

     The intersection between the independent woman and the female consumer is evident in Now, Voyager. In the film, Bette Davis’s character, Charlotte Vale, embodies a female who transforms herself from a suppressed individual with little self identity to an independent woman, confident and poised with a determination and agency over her life that was entirely absent in the beginning of the film. Interestingly, one of the primary ways in which Charlotte achieves such a transformation entangles with the notion of consumerism as Charlotte goes from undesirable spinster to gorgeous society woman. Charlotte’s transformation from the overweight, unfashionable black sheep of her family is later contrasted by a Charlotte with extravagant dresses, groomed eyebrows, and well done make-up and hair. In this instance, the aforementioned components of consumerism (such as cosmetics, fashion, etc.) that allowed women of the early twentieth century to create their own identity and obtain agency over their lives is reinforced in Now,Voyager as Charlotte’s transformation is exemplary of the ways in which consumerist ideologies and consumer products can create a new woman, one that is confident, independent and able to create the life she desires.