The consumer culture has always remained quite apparent in many of the generations. It all started within the 1960’s. Reading The Feminine Mystique, it is apparent that every household product is directed to the stereotypical housewife controlling how the household should be run. Why hand wash clothing items, when the Whirlpool steam washer tells you otherwise? The consumer culture tells us these same things, but now in an updated form. The media orders us to own an iPod. It’s unheard of to own a regular mp3 player, the iPod is expected. So even though the ordinary mp3 player has the same quality, it just remains ordinary because the media tells us otherwise. But aren’t we just as ordinary if we all own the same items and values?
So the next question that rises is: does the consumer culture dominate the folklore and urban legends that are still told today? Agreed that urban legends are passed down by oral tradition, adding new touches and updating details. But can we argue that the consumer culture dictates these new details and alternates added onto the legends? My urban legend states a story of a promiscuous man cheating on his girlfriend; he finally confesses to his wrong-doings when he wins the lottery. The moral and theme of it all is that money doesn’t make anything excusable. Although this folklore has been passed down for generations, I highly doubt that its origin discussed the lottery. The lottery hasn’t been around forever. Is it possible that the consumer culture added the lottery to rise lottery ticket sales?
