The vulnerability suggested by “artistic nude” that represents women from the male perspective is opposed to the power of “nudes,” which defies the norm and reinforces women’s control over their own image and sexuality. Selfies created and shared online are valuable. Now more than ever there is the opportunity to build the visual culture of tomorrow from a new perspective — the female perspective.
Feeling the need for freer and more significant activity, and perceiving the new consumer-focused landscape, ad makers start to deny the age of excess. But if consumerism is reaching its end, what is advertising supposed to dedicate itself to? The answer is that the tug of war will be between two schools: one that wants to sell more and the other that wants to sell better.
Today there a lot of talk about gender identity, but there also are identities linked to social and economic classes, race, consumption, nationality, sexuality, and many others. There is no such thing as a single identity, but instead a puzzle that ends up creating what we cal the “SELF”: different identities that end up segmenting and framing us. To emancipate human beings it is necessary to reevaluate everything we do not consider a determining factor for the construction of identity.
Inclusion and diversity are no longer a desire of some, but a necessity for all. The growth of policies that foster female inclusion, training, and empowerment, alongside the explosion in female entrepreneurship, has weakened this invisible barrier and promises to shatter it for once and for all
The challenge of design is to maintain relevance in a saturated world. Who needs excess? More than just a trend, it is a matter of responsibility. New creators propose innovations that predict the desires of the future and inspire the traditional market.
A fast fashion item may be more similar to a film than you would expect. Titles overflow and movie theaters work in a mechanical rotative system: the next movie is right around the corner, there is no time for reflecting on what you just saw. Watching a film or not is deeply connected with today’s world emergencies.
Complex and paradoxal customers are making companies rethink the way they segment market. This classification is not limited only by social class, “economic power”, age-range or gender. To “Unclass” is to take a deep look inside people in order to understand their real motivations; only this way it will be possible to group them: by affinity.
We live in a sex-normativity scenario incapable of challenging cliche phrases, like “sex is health.” Asexuality is the condition of those who do not get sexually attracted in general. However, the lack of interest in sexual intercourse does not prevent the asexual from developing emotional or romantic ties with other people.
Mass culture that reveals gender spectra is the closest contact that many have with their ideal universes. Pop, with all its ambiguities, is exempt from the obligation of holding an active social role. But, intentionally or not, it ends up causing transformations. When a situation is portrayed in a play or movie, we visit psychological places without the need of reality. The same happens with gender.
In a world with less money and more time and access to knowledge, values could not remain the same. Instead of handbags with huge label prints, suggesting its humongous prices, we are now looking for companies that print things we really care about. Consumption as a statement reveals consumers are very aware that everything bought carries a political load.
Normcore is not a generational theory, not a flag, nor a large scale mass cultural phenomenon. It is not a THEORY, not a MOVEMENT. NORMCORE is, above all, a NOTION. An empathy feeling and a subtle opinion about what the human beings are living through these days. I can say, as one of the the people who helped create this concept, now that the NORMCORE hype is gone, little was comprehended about this cultural NOTION.
What happens when demographic fronteers are not enough to classify consumer profiles anymore? How to predict the behaviour of a generation increasingly fluid? For a research method to be efficient, it needs see beyond the hierarchy of “normal”. The norm is dead, and with that, it does not make sense anymore to classify consumers by gender, age or social class.
For many girls today, to consume less is a way of self-expression in the world. It means getting your hands dirty and developing a more purposeful and meaningful life. Unlike the life experience of their parents, to own is no longer synoym of success and security. Internet is a key player in this game, providing information and the exchange of experiences and knowledge between girls.
As a phenomenon that is under ongoing production and reproduction, gender will always be relative, cultural and performative. In binary gender we are one of two. In plural gender, we are one of many. But if the exponential plurality and the spiral of being provide us with endless transformation, to transcend is to let ourselves float from BE to BEING.
With the social rise of trans people in the media, there has been a change in how this population is usually presented to the great public. In a society where 90% of trans women and transvestites are conditioned to prostitution, it is paramount for trans people to master their own narratives, playing themselves in series, soap operas and movies.
How do we brake consumerism in a society ruled by brands and companies? Microtrends are showing our entire zeitgeist is turning to “less is more”. Consumers are getting more and more conscious. They are embracing new marketing models, capable to attend their needs and cravings with less harming impacts.
In order to be free from an economy model that destroys nature and makes it impossible to have significant connections, we have to get rid of its premises. Freedom is not about choosing what we consume and produce, but how we do it. Post-internet society have shown us that by interacting in sharing economy we amplify our flow possibilities, not only in information but also in resources.
When gender identity enters the popular discussion subject, and markets that move trillions start paying attention to this matters, it is natural that the discussion clearly influences how companies will communicate and position their products from now on. Dictating how each gender must relate to consumption will be an act increasingly hated by the public, that now understands this division as a sign of belatedness.
It’s time to step out of the comfort zone and go beyond the comprehension of market shares, income range or social class; it’s time to start thinking about affinities and, most important of all, people. Unclassed is a behaviour tendency in which people become the protagonists of their own actions, they don’t want to simply appropriate ideals of the higher social strata anymore.
A lot is said about a “new feminism”, but it is not the first time this movement goes through a media boom. This time their big ally is the internet. Online environment, democracy and plurality friendly, makes the message against sexism echo from the vanguard to the mainstream, further and stronger.
The notions of femininity and masculinity are being questioned and deconstructed in all areas, fashion included. It is a fertile ground for making a more diverse fashion culture. Up to now, most gender related fashion experiments happened to women’s clothing, but today gender blur invades the catwalk and shows that men’s fashion is going through a rich creative moment.
The recent study “The Rise Of Lowsumerism” says no to excess and explores the revelation of a new mentality concerning to consumption. Consuming should be a well thought act according to our needs, not a substitute for our lack of time or affection. It’s ok to feel lost when you want such a big lifestyle change. That is why this article will show you some possible paths to start living a lowsumer life.
With an aesthetic that denied consumerism, it was the punk movement that started spreading the DIY word. In essence, both punk and DIY endorse a more intimate relation with personal consumption. The punk spirit in DIY is undeniable and growing in a society that gets more and more conscious about its impact on planet Earth.
Given the notion of conscious consumption that emerges in our society, the tendency is that remarkable — or revolutionary — products of the future will be those capable to translate our yearning for long-lasting objects, capable of defying the discarding logic. Modular technology questions the validity of fast-paced production cycles, blocking planned obsolescence.
Sharing economy blossoms along with the post-modern liquidity. Having access to more things, and them being more disposable, we create an exponentially more fluid identity, more compatible with ourselves. We are not what we have, but what we access.
The current environmental scenario demands a complete change on human’s mentality. That also implies a change on the criteria of what “success” is, specially concerning to people and business. New codes substitute capitalist models, revealing the urgency of sustainable economy.
We are living a time of urban flight, looking for our wildest essence, for simple life nirvana, for a bigger purpose and something that makes us more meaningful to the world. Conscious consumption, permaculture and running away from urban chaos are hot topics. After all, our true core is not what we can buy, but what we can be.
The way society faces its responsibilities to the environment gives signs of how it is going through a critical and complex transformation. The years preaching the same old canons of the “sustainable citizen” handbook are coming to an end. The model in which everything is disposable is gettig old fashioned, giving the floor to zero waste projects.
Buying has never been easier, but the innovations that facilitate our life also end up isolating us. Our acts of buying and consumer habits prove that we are growing increasingly distant from each other. Resuming buying habits connected to traditional and local values became a solution to strengthen face-to-face interaction, once lost with the emergence of digital media. Recovering relationships that got lost thanks to fragile and impersonal digital ties seems to be an emerging behavior in large urban centers.
The man was removed from the center of development and many human bonds became commercial relations. We live immersed in consumerism, and individuality became the new flag of freedom (or is it advertising?). As much as we believe that we evolved much since the beginning of times, the feeling is that we grew very little when it comes to consciousness. And it is about time to give it a try.
Seriousness and expertise are not adult businesses. Energy and spontaneity are not teenager things. Get used to it: age stereotypes do not represent the contemporary world anymore. In media, music and fashion, teens are being depicted as personality icons rather than symbols of inexperience.
We live in a world of excesses and our education is getting increasingly consumption-driven. Before taking their first steps, children already own fully decorated bedrooms, a wardrobe designed for all kinds of occasion, and such a busy agenda that the visit of a close relative can only be scheduled within three months. They grow up believing it is normal to have everything and become frustrated adults. This culture of excess turned everything into commonness.
The quickness of changes in human behavior blurs the concept of generation. Youth no longer bares the title of unquestionable inspiration, excluding age as a matter of the contemporary. More than inclusion, there is also a market interest in this subject: the acknowledgment of a new class of consumers.
For some time now, an inversion of the masculine and feminine codes is happening in fashion, breaking predefined norms and dated notions of genre. It is a freedom from stereotypes, some kind of illusory game some interpret as unissex. New shapes of business start to pop up everywhere in the world, providing options for the share of customers in lack of brands that follow their ideas about gender.
Fashion consumption has been reviewed. Ethical issues are on the table and start being accounted for in buying decisions. When the wrongdoings of the industry come to surface, consumption becomes a conscious political act. Today brands are listening to the rejection by consumers of scandals that degrade human life. The awakening to a more evolved habit of consumption might reach even higher levels in the next few years.
