Character attitudes toward consumerism in Fight Club and Sex and the City

Consumerism in Movies

Consumerism is said to have become "part and parcel of the very fabric of modern life" (Miles, 1998, p. 1). According to Miles, consumerism "pervades our everyday lives and structures our everyday experience… everyday life in the developed world appears… to be dominated by our relationship with consumer goods." (1998, p. 1) In the movies, Sex and the City and Fight Club, consumerism is treated and viewed in different ways. While each and every character in Sex and the City embraces and celebrates consumerism, the characters in Fight Club takes a more critical stand in consumerism that instead of embracing it, they try to reject it and eliminate it.

James Twitchell said, "We live through things. We create ourselves through things. And we change ourselves by changing our things." (as cited in Wyatt, 1999, p. 2) This quote best describes all the characters and how life was portrayed in the movie, Sex and the City. At the center of every person's life is consumption; consumption of more and more goods. And consumption is what gives meaning to the life of every person as Carrie Bradshaw said, "Women come to New York for the two L's: Labels and Love."

In Sex and the City, consumerism is embraced and celebrated from purchasing an apartment in New York to giving away Louis Vuitton Bags. Designer labels and brands are shown from a throw pillow to a gown. The characters, which are mostly female, live and breathe consumerism. According to Radner (as cited in Cronin, 2000), females are often "inscribed as the prototypical consumer" (p.33). Leiss et al. (as cited in Cronin, 2000) concurs with this idea and adds that it is the women who are usually associated with consumption and that the advertisers recognize that the women "make a large proportion of all purchases." (p. 33) The movie, Sex and the City seems to confirm this claim and shows it through the different female characters. They are shown being seduced by products and spending their money on purchasing and consuming. And they do not stop with one purchase; their need to purchase more and more products and goods are also shown. Bauaman's description of consumer society comes to mind when one thinks of how consumerism was portrayed in Sex in the City, "they live from attraction to attraction, from temptation to temptation, from swallowing one bait to fishing for another, each new attraction, temptation and bait… stronger than those that preceded them" (2005, p.26).

It seems as if each and every character in Sex and the City lives only to consume more and more goods. They go about their everyday lives wearing designer labels, eating in expensive restaurants, and talking about buying more. They derive their self-worth through the goods that they purchase. They show the depth of their affection through the goods that they purchase and give to their family and friends. Their whole lives are consumed by consumerism where it matters who or what they shop and how much they shop. And it seems as if they have defined themselves through the things and the labels that they buy, through the names of the hotels and restaurants that they go to, and through everything else they buy. The essence of life is consumption, this is the message that Sex and the City seems to convey.

Fight Club presents the audience with an alternative way to view consumerism by sharing realizations about the ugly side of what life has become in the midst of a consumer-driven life.

"The things you own end up owning you." This quote from Tyler Durden, the protagonist in the movie Fight Club, sums up the message of this movie. The movie, Fight Club takes a critical stand against consumerism. Unlike Sex and the City which accepts consumerism with open arms, embraces and celebrates it, the characters in Fight Club are portrayed to be enlightened, resists and fights consumerism. Tyler Durden especially, the protagonist, is portrayed to have an internal battle, the battle of confirming with societal pressures toward consumerism and the battle of asserting his realizations about consumerism which ultimate aim is a life not driven by consumption and consumer goods.

In the movie, Tyler Durden said, "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." This quote drives home the point that the movie wants to make, that consumerism has become the purpose of every person's life to the point that each person is only living in order to purchase goods and consume it. Money is required in order to consume. People work to earn money. And the money they earn, they spend on consumer goods. In effect, people work to consume. It is what life has become according to Fight Club.

The meaning of life is currently derived from consumption and this is what Fight Club is fighting against. Its characters present a different worldview. It tells its audience that life should have a purpose which is not based on consumption. Tyler Durden said, "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives." For Tyler Durden, a life driven by consumption is a meaningless life.