Women Love to Shop
Everyone knows that women love to shop. Most men, it seems, shop only reluctantly and at the last minute, especially during the holidays—except perhaps for cars, trucks and big-screen TVs. But women, regardless of the season or the state of the economy, have a knack for shopping.
What is the root of women's irresistible desire to prowl the malls and department stores?
Women's shopping is often crudely explained as a female drive. Until men and women are on a level playing field in terms of rights, income, and leadership, we won't be able to separate true gender differences from differences that arise from unequal power. Shopping is a case in point.
Often women's behavior is explained by something like the shopping gene, men are the hunters, conquering stuff and women are the gatherers, finding stuff. It began historically, as an offshoot of advertisng and commercialism, as a way to encourage women to feel in charge, deceptively inviting them to make choices and decisions of their own.
Even today, in the grip of the Great Recession, shopping continues to hold out the intoxicating promise of controlling one's destiny, getting what you want. It is perhaps the single activity on which all shades of the political spectrum agree, encouraging women to make their own choices and indulge their desires!
In reality, of course, women are not in control of the iconic images of current fashion or the retail enterprises. Retailers seduce us into buying an illusory freedom, a freedom that is, in fact, no freedom at all, only another form of subjugation. Sad to say, modern consumerism creates desire but doesn't satisfy it. Those beautiful, sensual, pleasing displays, the sights and smells of the modern day department store evoke over and over again memories of our first taste of freedom. No wonder our male counterparts fail to understand what motivates us to shop until we drop.
Psychology Today
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