I believe that people are the product of products, but only to a certain extent. The products in which people buy or associate themselves with can shape who that person is, but those products do not directly define a person. Products can generalize a person, but they cannot tell everything about that person. I agree with media theorist Stuart Ewen when he expresses the idea of “commodity self”, in which our selves are “mediated and constructed in part through our consumption and use of commodities.” Our Practices of Looking textbook goes on to state that, “Clothing, music, cosmetic products, and cars, among other things, are commodities that people use to construct their identities and project them outward to those around them” (279).
Clothing, as an example, is a product in which people use to identify themselves. There are so many types of clothing, but what one may choose to wear is completely different from someone else. Teenagers wear the “cool” clothes, while adults wear more sophisticated, less provocative clothing. Clothing, therefore, categorizes people into age groups and different generations. Some clothing is subject to religion and ethnicities, while other clothing represents the type of person one may be. The clothing that people wear shapes the way they are perceived by the general public. For example, I always tend to look nice; I do my hair every morning, wear nice clothes, and put on jewelry and makeup. The look I have created for myself signifies me as a classy girl. But if I were to wear sweats and tennis shoes everyday, people would classify me as something different. No matter what I wear though, I am still the same person on the inside. I still have the same beliefs and experiences I had before switching clothing styles. I don’t let my clothes directly define me, but they do have an impact on the way I identify myself and allow other to perceive me. Therefore, I do believe that we construct our identities, at least in part, through consumer products.
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