Dictating how each gender should consume will be increasingly rejected by people who start to see this division as a sign of backwardness.
Never before has there been so much talk about identity, whether this is sexual, gender or racial related. More people every day do not necessarily consider themselves men or women, and are willing to push the gender barriers farther and farther away. Even if this still implies a tough fight, it is undeniable that freedom has been achieved step by step.
When gender issues appear in the popular agenda and markets that move trillions of dollars begin to pay attention to them, the discussion directly influences the way companies position their products and communicate from now on.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
