Buy Me

Day 3 Theme: Consumerism

To explore consumerism we ended up visiting some of the most expensive stores in the world on 5th Avenue. Versace, Rolex, Cartier, Gucci, Valentino, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, etc. It kind of made us nauseous just looking at everything. It's like we didn't belong. I just kept thinking about how if we accidentally broke something all the money in my bank account couldn't pay for it.

I went into Gucci and I asked about the shoes in the window. Rainbow platform sneakers, just hideous, but I pretended like I wanted the one's in the window. I was being helped by one of the tons of classy looking assistants just milling about doing nothing, they only had the rainbow ones upstairs and I told her I was looking for a different color. She said that they don't have the black ones in store but she looked up a picture for me. I was a 9 and she said they could order the black ones probably in an 8.5 because they run big and they'll deliver them to my home address. While I was there they offered me water, champagne, or coffee multiple times. I left them my number and she's going to call me if they get the shoes in store while I'm here. I let her know I just "loved" the octopus fur coat and she showed me a black fur coat with cheetah's on it that is the only one in existence in the world. What is the point of that? To make one coat? I'm sure the value goes up exponentially if there's only one in existence. People want it more. But it's a coat. Like really? She said it was a 36 and I asked her if I could have one custom made if I wanted a different size and she said they could probably make a request but it wouldn't be guaranteed. When I left I asked the doorman how much the champagne is and if they always offer it to guests, he said it is pretty customary to offer it, but he hadn't the slightest idea how much that would be.

We also visited Victoria's Secret and saw the top floor which has a museum of their runway outfits. It's disgusting. To not celebrate the body but envy it, it's a travesty. They had so many quotes from models about how lucky they are and they finally "made it". I think there are so many beautiful things to use the body for. You have the ability to move in so many different ways, should the goal be to be a mannequin? I don't mind the modeling industry in total because I appreciate beauty and I love photography. But what bothers me is that everything celebrates one body type. A lot of fancy stores only have one size and it's very small. People weren't met to look the same. I find so many people beautiful that others might not see it. I think being unique is prettier than being the same.

All the expensive stores we went to had people welcoming you and asking how you are all over the store. It's like they're following you. Just to make sure you're not stealing, waiting for you to leave. Also they probably all get commission so there's incentive to be forward and work with customers individually.

When we went to Prada I asked one of the workers what department was on each floor. There was a paper sign on the elevator, so I asked her "is the elevator actually broken?" The woman's clothes were on the top floor as per usual. She said it was broken. So I said "let's go" and we left. I feel like part of pretending to be rich is to be inconvenienced by the littlest of things. If you can afford to buy a pair of jeans for $2000 then you can be as picky as you want to be. It's kind of a ridiculous way of living, to live at the expense of other people's happiness. It's not just money for product. It's an exchange of attitudes, of a whole class system. In order to be on top there has to be someone beneath you. The question for me is; Is this a system we should work actively at changing? There has been a class system practically forever. A lot of people push for absolute equality across the world, but in order for that to happen people have to be okay with giving up power and money to bring equality to those that have less. I don't think we'll ever be at a place where people are just willing to do that. So we should try to fix the system? Should we make it equal whether they want it to be or not? Can we even hope to do that?

Everything is expensive and empty. I can imagine putting on the perfect dress. If I were to actually own a design dress that I found beautiful. And say I'm sitting in a plush and pompous room. With mirrors and gold. But in order to be wearing the perfect dress I'd need the matching jewelry, the right make up, luxury shoes, and a matching hand bag. And once all that is on then it would be the perfect scene. Feeling like luxury, but feeling fragile. Like I couldn't move, like I'm a painting or delicate glass. Maybe that's the idea, to become the scarce things you wear. Your items become who you are. That's the idea of Avarice that we read about. To consume fore the sake of consuming. It's no longer about how it looks, it's the fact that you can look like that. That you can own those things. It's a consuming need to consume. It's greed. But it's not just manifested in the richest shoppers. It's in all of us everyday. How much stuff do we really need? Certainly not as much as I own or buy. It's hard to know what we should actually be doing with our money. Where can it be most beneficial?

The trend of consumerism is in everything we do. Upgrading. We upgrade clothes, phones, friends, lovers, churches, schools, etc. We throw out what was working fine for something that might be better. It really pisses me off when people do that to each other. I see it all around me and it's one of the things I try to do. I can tell when someone starts avoiding me and we're suddenly no longer friends, and they have cooler friends. They've upgraded. For me the concept of loving your neighbor applies to this as well. I try to be a friend to all the people around me, not because I'm desperate for them to be my friend, but because I want to be there for them. I want to love them even if I don't like them. I never want to upgrade when it comes to people. Part of me believes that the people you're in contact with should remain throughout your whole life and only grow. I know people move and lose touch, but I like to think that those relationships are always there. You can't just cut them off for good.

Everything screams buy me. Even we scream that too each other. We preen and prod and decorate and edit and filter. We package ourselves just the same. I remember in mock interview once I was getting advice from an interviewer. He said "I tell the same thing to each student. You have to sell yourself. What is the Emily Carney brand? Why would the person talking to want to buy you?" Then we went over my strengths and things I care about to figure out what that brand should look like. I'm all about developing your self brand. But I think you should do that first and foremost just for you. I'm taking The Meaning of Life class because I want my life to have meaning. But before it can have meaning to anyone else, it really just has to have meaning for me. It has to matter to yourself. I don't want to mock myself up for sale. I don't think we should really be selling ourselves at all.