Aspiring, Consuming, Becoming: Youth Identity in a Culture of Consumption

Youth & Society 42(2) 229­–254 © 2010 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0044118X09351279 http://yas.sagepub.com

Nancy L. Deutsch1 and Eleni Theodorou2

Abstract This article focuses on how consumerism, as a social ideology, and consumption, as an individual activity, are used by adolescents to mark and mask differences in the process of identity construction. Data are drawn from an ethnographic study of urban youth.The act of consuming for the adolescents in this study forms an integral part of their identity performance across the intersectionality of the self’s experience of gender, race, and class. For females in this study, consumption is linked to gender performances based on the maintenance of an attractive and fashionable appearance as dictated by social perceptions of femininity. Girls’ future aspirations are indirectly associated to consumptive acts through the ambition for financial emancipation. Consuming, or aspiring to consuming, for males in this study facilitates the achievement of a morality realized through the fulfillment of male responsibility toward the traditionally perceived “dependent” members of the family: mother, wife, and children. Keywords adolescent, identity, consumption, gender, social class Today’s adolescents live in a world of media bombardment. They receive increasing attention from advertisers who wish to tap into youths’ contemporary purchase power and their potential as adult consumers. This coincides 1

University of Virginia, Charlottesville European University Cyprus, Cyprus

2

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with adolescents’ attention to their identities and position within the social world. As youth construct their adolescent selves and form their future aspirations, they do so within a culture in which consumption is used to define social identities through the marking and masking of difference, the identification of self and other. Consumerism is a modern product, the role, meaning, and significance of which changes with time.1 Our overarching frame for this work focuses on the ways in which consumerism, as a social ideology, and consumption, as an individual activity, are used to both mark and mask differences in the process of individual identity construction. We are particularly concerned with how consumption, and consumer culture, influence the identities and aspirations of youth living in low-income environments and how youth use material goods to define self and gain respect. We use data from an ethnographic study of teens at an urban Boys & Girls Club to explore the role of consumption in youths’ construction of their contemporary identities and future selves. We focus on the roles of social class and gender in shaping these processes, considering how consumption influences boys and girls differently and becomes a tool for negotiating their positioning in the larger social world.

Adolescents, Identity, and the Meaning of Consumption for the Self In today’s postmodern society, wherein the self is conceptualized as a social construction created by individuals in interaction with the social world (Cote, 2006; Kroger, 1989), identity is constructed in part through consumption (Elliott & Wattanasuwan, 1998). Consumer culture, and its dual activities of consumption and advertising, become tools for individual identity building as well as social identification; we place ourselves within social groups, our social groups within society, and evaluate others’ social positioning, and thereby identities, through consumption and response to marketing (Belk, 1988; Elliott & Wattanasuwan, 1998; O’Donohoe, 1994). Stearns (2006) describes a consumerist society as one “in which many people formulate their goals in life partly through acquiring goods that they clearly do not need for subsistence or for traditional display. They become enmeshed in the process of acquisition—shopping—and take some of their identity from a procession of new items that they buy and exhibit” (p. vii). This relationship between consumption and identity may be particularly obvious among adolescents. During adolescence youth are both individuating from their parents and identifying themselves within social peer groups (Erikson, 1959, 1968; Harter, 1999). This involvement in the task of identity

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building leads to concern with marking one’s identity for others. The omnipresent physical displays of identity through clothing, hairstyles, and accessories are assurances of recognition of not only one’s individual identity but also of one’s place in the larger peer group. Preppy, Goth, or Geek, each group is marked by specific consumer choices that identify their members not only as individuals but also as members of these social networks.2 This dual exercise, of individuation of self and connection to a social group, results in a relationship with material culture wherein consumption is used to both mark and mask difference. As Mary Pattillo-McCoy (1999) noted in her study of Black youth in Chicago, “[the youth] use their own bodies and the accessories that adorn them as status markers and symbols of identity . . . [they are] walking mega-malls forever trying to stay in material dialogue with their friends as well as their enemies” (p. 146). Teens can differentiate themselves from their parents and other youth through the consumption of goods associated with distinct adolescent subcultures (e.g., punk, jock, hip-hop, etc). In doing so, youth can claim a sense of individual identity that also links them to a group identity, thereby balancing their needs for individuation of self (from both adults and non–in-group peers) and connection to others (in-group peers). Murray Milner (2004), in his study of consumption in American high schools, points out that adolescents are not unique in their use of consumption to mark social groups and locate themselves within social hierarchies. They are merely mimicking the social norms of adult culture. Expensive cars, designer clothes, and McMansions, are all symbols of social class, and thereby status, in American society. The role of consumption in marking social status is exaggerated in youth culture because, according to Milner, status power is the only power held by adolescents, who have neither economic nor political power. Adolescents are not culturally or legally perceived to be part of the (full-time) active working force or citizenry of American society. This increases the importance of material goods, encouraging youth to consume and ensuring the continuation of consumer capitalism (Milner). Yet adolescence is culturally constructed as a period of partial economic independence, materialized through allowances and part-time employment which yield (often discretionary) incomes and purchase capacity. This positioning of adolescents as consumers provides them with some economic power; they are a valuable marketing demographic for whom companies compete to gain their purchase power. Historically, adolescence as a period has been constructed within nations’ raced and gendered social structures, wherein the end goal of development is “productive citizens who will bolster the nation’s policies” (Lesko, 2001, p. 46).

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Within capitalist cultures, these structures dictate particular modes of consumption. Whereas in the past consumption was secondary to production in terms of its perceived value to society (Firat & Venkatesh, 1995), in today’s “shopping mall schools” youth are being trained to be successful consumers as well as producers (Milner, 2004). This training involves imagining future consumption as well as present acquisition of material goods. The stage of imagination is the second of six stages Silverstone (1994) identifies in the cycle of consumption. This cycle refers to the consumer’s “insatiable desire” to acquire objects which is driven not by the nature or the functions of objects per se but by a need for “social meaning” (p. 125). The imagination stage is characterized by the way objects are dreamed about before they are purchased and the “mentalistic hedonism” derived from “imaginative pleasure-seeking” (Carrabine & Longhurst, 2002, p. 187). Within consumer culture, then, adolescents’ expectations for their future selves are likely to involve imagined patterns of consumption associated with their aspirations. These aspirations, in turn, are linked to youth’s current and desired social class positioning and associated economic and personal power.

Adolescent Consumption as a Route to Power and Identity Marketers have long been aware of the link between money and power. Advertisements such as Virginia Slims’ “you’ve come a long way baby,” for example, link the pocketbook to an empowered feminine identity. All teenagers, including those living in low-income environments, have been affected by the cultural focus on wealth, within which money equals power (Hemmings, 2002; Luttrell, 2003) and consumption marks independence and defines the self. Money and power are often linked in adolescent discourse, with money being seen as a means for obtaining power, especially gendered power (Hall, 2001; Hemmings, 2002; Luttrell, 2003). Hemmings notes that although social class is absent in the everyday discourse of Americans, money is a constant presence. The discourse of money possession among youth in her study is tied to notions of power through purchase capacity. She points out that money ultimately equals freedom as “people who have money have the power to purchase goods, influence, status, freedom, and even more power” (p. 299). In many youth cultures, then, the accumulation of goods and wealth is a means for obtaining respect; making and controlling money represents independence and power (DeFrancisco & Chatham-Carpenter, 2000; Hemmings, 2002). Youth in Pattillo-McCoy’s (1999) study, for example, use the acquisition of the newest and most expensive sneakers as a means of marking their status

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within the neighborhood hierarchy. Yet adolescents also “use [the accumulation of] material goods to level the playing field,” minimizing the economic gap, by presenting an image of higher socioeconomic status than they truly possess (Pattillo-McCoy, 1999, p. 147). The idea that youth perceive consumption as a means of moving out of or between social classes, and of gaining associated social power, is supported by research revealing that youths’ market-related aspirations are only modestly related to their family’s socioeconomic status. All teens in Freedman and Thornton’s (1990) study of teenage consumptive patterns expressed high levels of consumptive aspirations, regardless of family income or educational attainment. For low-income African Americans, consumption can serve a dual purpose: signifying to Whites that they have equal access to purchase power and sorting amongst African Americans, establishing a within-community economic hierarchy (Pattillo-McCoy, 1999). Consumerism can, therefore, build up the illusion of equality; technically, everyone can buy what is being advertised (Chin, 2001; Wilson, 2005). Yet not everyone has the same purchase capacity to do so. The assumed “equality of opportunity,” promoted through the marketing system, masks an underlying inequality structured by differential access to choice. Marketed lifestyles signify social standings and become class-specific given that their market availability masks individuals’ unequal purchase capacities (Bauman & May, 2004).3 As a masker and marker of difference, then, consumption becomes a powerful tool for the making of identities. This may be particularly true for youth whose imagined future selves reflect a desire to cross social class boundaries. The acquisition of material goods associated with upper-class lifestyles for these youth may signal increased status and position in society. As gender is also a powerful marker and determinant of social power, it works alongside social class to shape consumptive discourse, aspirations, and patterns.

Consumption and Gendered Identities Consumption is gendered in its activity as well as its meaning. Not only do lifetime patterns of consumption differ between men and women (Twitchell, 1999) but so too do the meanings of the products we consume and the act of consuming, itself. As capitalist economy is based on the gendered division of labor, the accumulation of wealth is itself a gendered process (Connell, 1995). Although women are treated as the primary consumers in contemporary culture, that has only been the case since the Industrial Revolution (Twitchell, 1999). Within the postindustrial, capitalist production/consumption dichotomy,

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the masculine role is that of producer and the feminine role is that of consumer (Firat & Venkatesh, 1995). This dichotomy maps onto the traditional gendered division of labor: men work in the public sphere and women work in the private sphere, consuming goods for the maintenance of the household. Gender, and the sexualized marking of gender identities, is a focus of modern day advertisers. We attract the desired other through consuming the right products, and teens are a major focus of this cultural narrative (Milner, 2004). Women/girls, and increasingly men/boys, are expected to consume their way into attractiveness. Flipping through the average women’s magazine, a reader finds that the bulk of its pages are comprised of advertisements for products aimed at “improving” women, that is, making them more attractive and, thereby, more “successful” heterosexualized creatures. Wendy Luttrell (2003), in her work with urban adolescent mothers, demonstrated how the girls in her study used the consumption of beauty-related products, particularly fake nails, as markers of feminine identities. These identities were strongly influenced by their images of middle- and upper-class femininity and the desire to display a personal identity aligned with those values. Thus, for teens, consumption can be used to mark a gendered identity while simultaneously masking a social class identity. In contemporary America, consumption has multiple roles in the process of individual identity construction. Consumption has become a means of masking difference across social class while simultaneously marking difference through the display of individual identity. Material culture is also tied to the creation and display of gendered and sexualized identities for both men and women. For the youth in this study, consumption is an activity that is linked to their race, gender and class positioning. The act of consumption, real or imagined, is used to mark and mask difference and to construct present and future identities.

Method and Methodology This study was part of a larger project examining the construction of identity within the setting of an urban after-school program. Data are drawn from 4 years of ethnographic observations and interviews with youth who were active members of a Boys & Girls Club in a large Midwestern city. Qualitative methods were chosen because of the first author’s interest in the process and context of identity construction as it unfolds in natural settings. An interpretive, feminist approach was taken, focused on the meaning-making of the youth, the social positioning of the participants, and the construction of

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identity as it occurred within the after-school program as well as in the interactions between the participants and the researcher.

Site and Sample The East Side Boys & Girls Club sits just outside a mid-sized housing project in the urban Midwest. The building is small but always filled with people and activities. Organized sports teams practice in the gym; structured programs and discussion groups meet in conference rooms and an art room; unstructured games, socializing, and academic activities occur throughout the club’s open spaces, the television lounge, and in the computer room. Interactions are casual, and youth mostly move about the club as they wish. There are behavior and dress codes, however, including rules that prohibit swearing and hats inside the club. The first author was a participant-observer at East Side over the course of 4 years. She has written elsewhere about her experience as a researcher in this site, particularly with regards to her positioning as a White, female academic in a setting in which the majority of people were African American and came from families at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum (Deutsch, 2004). All youth and staff present at East Side over the 4 years were included in the ethnographic sample. Seventeen youth aged 12 to 18 (9 of whom were female) participated in interviews and photography projects. Seven were between the ages of 12 and 14 and 10 were aged 15 or older at the time of their first interview. Ten youth described their race or ethnicity as Black or African American, 4 as mixed African American and other ethnicities, and 1 each as Hispanic, White, and Other. Fourteen youth lived in the adjacent housing project; the rest had close ties to it. All 17 were active club members who had been coming to the club for a number of years and/or came to the club on a regular basis. The first author purposely sampled these youth through a combination of her knowledge of club members and staff recommendations. She approached 24 youth; 20 (85%) agreed to participate and 17 (83%) returned consent forms. Purposive sampling was used for this study. Because of the focus on how the Boys & Girls Club is used as a setting for identity work, it was important to have youth who attended the club regularly or who had been coming to the club for a long time.

Method The first author conducted weekly observations over the course of 4 years at East Side. In the spring of her 2nd year, she conducted focus groups with

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youth to identify possible themes for later interviews. In the winter and spring of her 4th year, she conducted two sets of interviews and photography projects with youth. The interview questions focused on youths’ experiences at the Boys & Girls Club, their sense of self and identity, their future aspirations and role models, and their experiences regarding gender, race, and social class. All 17 youth completed the first interview. In the interim between the two interviews youth completed a semistructured photography project. Each youth was given a disposable camera and a list of topics including something that represents what you want/don’t want to be in the future, a group of people you are close to, and somewhere you like to spend time. Half of the film was to be used for photos from the topic list. The remaining photographs youth were asked to use to tell the researcher more about him or herself. The photos were discussed during the second interview. Thirteen of the 17 youth completed the photography project and the second interview, and a 14th youth completed the photography project and part of the second interview. Five research assistants also conducted observations at East Side over the 4 years, and their field notes were included in the data for this study.

Analysis The first author initially analyzed the data using a combination of theoretically based and open coding, focusing on broad themes (e.g., race, gender, class, identity) within which narrower codes were developed. From the open coding, consumerism and the intersection of money, power, identity, and future aspirations emerged as themes. The second author completed a secondary analysis of the data using NVivo software. She was aware of the first author’s guiding questions but did not use those results to frame her analysis. Nearly identical themes emerged. The two authors then probed the theme of consumption as it relates to race, gender, class, and youth identity, combining analyses and returning to the literature to explore emergent themes.

Findings Much research has focused on the commodification of adolescence, particularly in relationship to gender, race, and class. Less attention has been paid to how these social constructs become intertwined social realities when it comes to the commodities youth desire. The youth in our study negotiate their identities by navigating through and between their adult ideals and their adolescent self-images via consumptive discourse and practice. Below we consider the role of consumption in structuring youths’ possible selves (Markus & Nurius,

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1986) and present identities. Male adolescents define success in distinct ways from their female counterparts. Each group’s definition of success gives rise to different future aspirations. These aspirations, in turn, appear connected to performances of adult gender roles and identities hinged on particular modes of consumption. We begin by examining boys’ aspirations and their relationship to caring, responsibility, and power as acquired and represented through material culture. We then turn to explore the role of consumption in girls’ aspirations and identities, considering the performance of gender and the role of financial independence and education. Social class is a continual presence in our analysis and the use of consumption as a tool for masking, marking, and crossing class boundaries is a strong presence in these youths’ narratives.

Money, Power, and Identity East Side youth are not immune to market forces and the equating of consumerism with power. One of the researchers explicitly noted in her field notes that the majority of youth at the club wore “expensive Air Jordan sneakers” and that on one visit, seven kids were wearing the exact same pair. In her observations, the first author often saw East Side members talking about the latest sneakers, looking at catalogs and hip-hop magazines, or browsing Web sites for the newest trends. Contrary to cultural stereotypes of girls being more interested in clothing and shoes than boys, both girls and boys participated in this “window shopping” at East Side: At some point Daniel was flipping through a hip-hop magazine. I commented on a few of the albums that the magazine had chosen as the best hip-hop albums of all time. Daniel commented on the various clothing. He asked me about what sneakers I have and I said that I bought whatever was cheaper. He informed me that I should get the Air Jordans. I said I couldn’t spend that much on sneakers. He pointed to various clothes ads and asked if I knew of that company. Some were people like Tommy Hilfinger and some were more specifically hip-hop clothing makers. He pointed to a FuBu ad and said “you know that?” I nodded. “For us by us,” I responded. He nodded and turned the page. [FuBu is a clothing line that is worn mostly by African Americans although it has spread into adolescent culture more widely. It is my understanding that the name stands for For Us By Us, as a clothing line made for and by African Americans.] We continued to flip through the magazine for a while, with Daniel talking mostly about clothing and not as much about music. (Field notes, March 20, 2002)

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High-end sneakers were a particularly important social marker to these teens. Daniel claimed that he was going to stay home from school on report card day because the new Air Jordans were being released that weekend, and he was afraid that his uncle would not buy them for him if his grades were poor. The first author observed some kids teasing a girl about the fact that she was wearing inexpensive, Payless shoes. Staff members were aware of the prevalence of expensive sneakers and some commented on the irony of this in a low-income neighborhood: George [an African American male staff member] looked at Mary’s [a White female club member] shoes and said something about everyone having expensive Jordans. Rick [the White club director] nodded. I said something about everyone having cell phones. “Yeah, they call this a low income neighborhood but it ain’t low income. They’ve all got their $200 gym shoes. It’s called living off the state!” Rick said smiling. “No, no, it’s some of us who can make it and others that don’t” Mary said. Rick laughed and said “Yeah yeah you all got your Jordans. This isn’t low income!” George said something about paying only $35 for gym shoes. Daniel and Mary both said that they did not have the expensive Jordans. Rick pointed at Daniel and said something about how this was his third new outfit that week. “I mean, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” Daniel grinned and shrugged. (Field notes, February 6, 2002) Rick had a close relationship with both Daniel and Mary, who often hung around the staff’s offices. In addition, nearly all kids reported feeling respected by staff at the club, including Rick (see Deutsch, 2008). And Rick had a long-standing relationship with the local community, hiring staff from the neighborhood and staying on top of which families and kids need extra support. Yet in his interaction with Daniel and Mary, he played on stereotypes of the consumption of youth living in low-income, urban neighborhoods. And he was pointing out a very real pattern of recent consumption for Daniel, who had been showing up in more stylish and expensive clothes than he was previously prone to wearing. Rick’s “friendly teasing,” then, was also perhaps meant as a “think-about-it” commentary for Daniel, to whom Rick often provided advice and support. Part of the teens’ focus on sneakers is typical teen-age concern with having the latest fashions and fitting in with one’s peer group. But the emphasis on consumerism has a particular effect on East Side youth that it does not have on middle- and upper-class youth. Charles, an East Side staff member, talked about how the desire for material goods, particularly high-end sneakers, pushes

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kids to make money in whatever way they can: “They see other kids with the sneakers and they get desire for them. Only way they can get that money is to sell drugs. We [the club] can’t give them that.” John, a teenage club member, also recognized the influence on his peers of the media’s marketing of expensive clothes and shoes to youth: The music [influence kids in this neighborhood] . . . They see them lookin’ wearin’ nice clothes and driving nice cars and they want that. [To be able to buy those things] it’s either rappin’ or sellin’ drugs, those ways, or playin’ basketball. Because their access to material goods is limited, purchase power is not only about the local peer group. Black identity has been stratified by social class. The youth in this study referred to being seen as “project kids,” even by other African Americans (Deutsch, 2008). Thus, buying the products marketed to them as part of Black youth culture may be one way in which the teens can assert their identity as part of larger Black society. In fact, Daniel’s changing patterns of consumption could be read as an assertion or exploration of his place within Black youth culture. During the period in which the interaction above took place, his sophomore year of high school, Daniel’s appearance changed and he began to wear baggy clothes and a lot of jewelry. This was a change from the blue jeans and T-shirts he preferred in previous years. A light-skinned African American and Hispanic teen, who self-identifies as biracial, Daniel attends one of the top public high schools in the city and wants to attend an historically all-Black college. He has a good relationship with staff at the club and is often given leadership roles. Yet Daniel was also going through a difficult time. Both his parents were dead, one of them within the past year. Daniel’s two best friends are both female club members, one of whom is White, and he does not appear to be close with the Black males who make up the majority of teens at East Side. In the future, Daniel wants to be a computer engineer, rich, have a family, and “succeed in everything I do.” He recognizes that youth from his neighborhood are often stereotyped and that people “think you’re a bad kid because of the neighborhood you live in.” His choice of particular designer clothing and sneakers links him to Black male, youth culture, with which he seems to identify but from which he also remains separate in terms of his personal friendships. Yet it also signifies his ability to buy clothing that is beyond the means of most people living in public housing, denoting his aspiration to be “rich.” The link between money and power and the role of consumption in masking social class is exemplified in the narrative of John, a 16-year-old African

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American male who lives in the housing project near East Side. John explicitly talks about the role of money in giving him power and the importance of those two interrelated factors to his own self-concept. John’s goals for the future are to make money and get a good job. Like Daniel, he initially says he wants to be rich. John then corrects himself, saying, “I don’t really want to be rich. I just want to make enough to not live in the projects. I want to be a hard working man.” John talks about making money through shooting dice and takes a photograph of a pile of money on his bed. He points to that picture as representing who he is: “[t]hat’s what I’m about, money . . . [My favorite thing to do is to] make money. Cause money make the world go round.” Financial power is historically masculine power in Western capitalism. John’s discourse rests on this capitalist history to claim masculine power in a context in which masculinity is often constructed in relationship to athletics or violence, two realms in which John does not participate, and in which the power to move up and out of the context is constrained by labor market forces and racist social structures. His purchase power, therefore, may be particularly important to him. In fact, John took a picture of his car as his favorite place to be because “it’s mine, that’s what make me feel good. I paid for it.” In his discourse of money, John’s relationship with the race and class systems is clearly demonstrated. John’s sense of himself as a male is braided with his race and class positioning. This intersection of gender, race, and social class is also reflected in the narratives of his peers, which reveal gendered patterns of identity building through present and future consumption.

Gendered Aspirations: Consuming for Caring and Caring for Consuming Males. Boys in the study define success largely in terms of material possessions they plan to acquire on their entrance into adulthood. Interestingly, the boys’ consumptive discourse reveals a deeply social sense of consumption. In the boys’ narratives, future aspirations for consumption are often accompanied by an “ethic of caring” manifested in a discourse of “responsibility.” Four of the six boys who provide definitions of success refer to achieving their goals. Two refer to material goods: “wining the lottery” and “[having] a car, [a] nice house, a job, and being happy.” When asked to describe specifically a “successful man,” the boys shift from goals and goods to responsibility and care for others. Three boys refer to caring for family or taking care of responsibilities, using phrases such as “take[s] care of his family and [. . . is] happy,” is “smart, intelligent, responsible, works, takes care of his responsibilities.”

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Repeatedly, boys talk of how important it is for them to be “responsible,” “take care of their responsibilities,” and “do right by others.” This acute sense of responsibility is translated into a commonly shared desire among boys to raise a family, leave the projects, and take their mothers with them. In discussing their goals for the future, boys reference these ideas of materials goods and consumption as part of their future goals, sometimes explicitly related to the traditional masculine role as family caretaker. Kelly, for example, says that he would like to “be financially stable, have a nice job, a house, be able to take care of my kids, be a good father, a good husband.” Bob says that he wants to “graduate from college, get a good job. Buy a house, a nice car.” Similarly, Lorenzo wants “a house, [to be] wealthy, rich, happy . . . successful, happy, rich, basically the same as I am now.” Of course, Lorenzo is not currently rich. He lives in public housing with relatives after having taken care of his younger siblings for a period during which his mother was absent. His desire for monetary wealth and a house, like the wishes of his peers, represents a shift up and out of his current conditions. Contrary to conceptions of consumption as an act of individualistic motivations, much of the East Side boys’ imaginative consumptive discourse targets the service of others. As indicated by the quotes above, boys in this study imagine acquiring a house and a car. Appropriation of these objects signifies a rise in the social ladder, as they express the essence of the American middle class. However, they also enable their owners to perform particular gender roles, such as those of the “family provider” and the “good son,” which are deeply social in nature. Furthermore, the appropriation of a house in these teenagers’ minds signals a getaway from the projects. They are very much aware of the stigma associated with living in the projects as well as of the social and economic disadvantage at which their neighborhood places them (Deutsch, 2008). It is no wonder, then, that boys in this study envision their adult life in a privately owned house, the main characteristics of which would be “nice” and “away from the projects”: I don’t want to stay in the projects. I just wanna take a vacation, get away, stay in a nice house with my children, watch them get old. (Kelly, 16, male, Black) [In the future I will ] hopefully still be alive, out of the projects, playing baseball, have a nice house, get my mom out of here hopefully, have a wife and kids too. (Antonio, 14, male, African American and Hispanic) In all, when describing their future goals, half of the boys say they want to own a house, two of whom link this to being able to take care of family members.

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Escaping poverty for the youth in this study is intimately linked to leaving the projects and having the money, and power, to acquire their own house. The privately owned house, or the privately used room, becomes a symbol of refuge that is inextricably linked to monetary power. John emphasizes this when discussing the photograph of his bed with the money on it: “[my favorite place to be is] my room. Cause that’s where the money comes in at. That’s my life savings.” As noted above, John says that money is “what he is about.” Yet the sanctity of the house, or the personal refuge found in one’s room, does not emerge merely by virtue of the property’s acquisition or habitation. Rather, the sanctification of the property depends on the comfort provided by the material artifacts that mediate the connection of self and space. It is in their discussion of place and property that boys’ contemporary consumption emerges in their narratives. This was juxtaposed to the observational data, in which the boys’ consumption of sneakers and clothes was evident. As their descriptions of the photographs of their favorite places show, for some of the boys the condition of “having everything” is critical to their perception of and relationship with space: My house. My living room is the best place cause it’s got everything, TV, radio. I can sit next to the radio and listen. I feel safe there more than anywhere. (Lorenzo, 17, male, African American) Alone in my room. Main spot I spend alone time in. Cause it’s quiet when I want it to be. I got music, DVDs, computer, everything I need, mini-fridge. (Antonio, 14, male, Black and Puerto Rican) In addition, John, quoted earlier, indicates that his room is where his money is and, therefore, is one of his favorite places to be, along with his car. At first glance, then, boys’ aspirations may appear almost entirely materialistic and anti-intellectual. Yet four of the boys specifically say their future goals include further education. And three of the five boys who completed the photo project took photos of things that are important to them at school, either of the classrooms themselves or of their classmates. Thus, their aspirations for material goods appear to be less about consuming as a goal in and of itself, and more about the gendered and classed identity that such consumption marks. Although consumerism as a marker of success is typically linked to the decline of a culture of care, the boys in this study tend to consider future consumption as intertwined with care. Purchasing cars and houses is viewed as a means of caring for important others, particularly their mothers and future families. In addition, owning material goods provides, for some, a sense of comfort and safety.

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Females. Girls in this study value some different commodities than boys. Consistent with their own depiction of being self-conscious about their appearance, most girls mention their wish to go shopping and buy clothes rather than a house or a car. In doing so, they are pursuing consumptive acts which enable them to perform a feminine gender role. Their discussions of consumption, then, emerge more in relationship to their present identities as compared to those of the boys, which tend to be expressed in discussion of their future goals. As Nicole, a 15-year-old Black female, poignantly notes, “I like to play sports and go shopping. I don’t really have money to go shopping but I love to go shopping. Feel new with different stuff on.” The particular way in which the negotiation of girls’ feminine identity may be both mediated by and based on the acquisition of “fashion” artifacts related to appearance can be seen in Kay’s description of a photograph she took of her favorite objects and people: [I’d like to be a] fashion designer. As you can see I like clothes and Jordans [ . . . ] These then just my shoes and I took a picture of them cause they looked so pretty . . . [That’s] Me and my boyfriend. Cause I love him and myself . . . But he’s pointing at his shoes cause he loves fashion like me. He give me what I want and that’s money and shoes and clothes. (Kay, 16, female, Black) Kay points to her sneakers, an item already discussed as important to boys at East Side. Yet she feminizes them through use of the term “pretty,” adapting them to signify her desired future self, a fashion designer. Interestingly, Kay was the only girl who reported wanting to own her own house as part of her future goals. She was also the only girl to specifically reference acquiring money through her relationships with men, although one other girl did reference using her femininity to get things that she wanted. Kay’s discussion of this may be related to her present life situation. She was living with her boyfriend following the death of a close family member, making her more dependent on men than other girls in the study. The consumption of fashion related goods can be used to mark one’s present identity. One girl used the acquisition of elaborate fake nails to mark herself as a singer: Te Te was sitting at the desk. She grinned at me and said hello. Te Te looked the same, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a sweat suit. I asked how she was doing and she said that things were going well . . . She had her nails done with long acrylic nails that had blue music notes on them and I commented on them. She held them out

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in front of her smiling. “You like them? I got musical notes on them because I like to sing.” “I remember that. Have you been singing lately?” Te Te nodded and said that she had sung a few times lately. (Field notes, January 14, 2003) The girls’ consumptive aspirations focus on present appearance enhancement rather than future gendered performances. They recognize the power of femininity as a means of acquiring goods from men, creating a dualistic push and pull toward and away from traditional femininity. Some girls, they’re smart, pretty, a lot of self-esteem . . . They’re, I like that, they got the little sensitive thing, independent. They’re feminine or whatever. [ND: Are any of these things that you are?] Yea, smart, pretty, and independent and serious. I’ll be feminine and self-esteem . . . [Feminine is] Soft, easy, sensitive. [ND: Are you?] I don’t know, sometimes. [ND: Do you want to be?] No, well, I don’t know. Sometimes I guess. [ND: When?] When I want me something. (Carla, 14, female, Black) Societal gender expectations for female softness and femininity, along with media portrayals of the ideal female body, are consequential as they guide the girls’ consumptive aspirations and patterns of shopping to maintain a “pretty” appearance and uphold a socially ascribed stereotypical gender role: [I admire in girls the fact] That they’re pretty, act prissy/girly, keep themselves up, appearance. [ND: Are you?] yup—appearance, keeping myself up, pretty. I don’t act girly-girly [ND: Would you want to?] yes—sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. (Alyiah, 15, female, African American) I got bigger size wise. But I’m gonna lose it, watch. I’m gonna get skinny. My mom was like me but when she got to 16 she lost everything. (Te Te, 14, female, Other) At the same time, responding to seeing their single mothers supporting their families, the girls envision themselves as financially independent and resist, to an extent, ascribed femininity based on softness and physical appearance. The internal conflict in their female gendered identity becomes evident when one contrasts the girls’ description of their role models, who for the most part are “independent women” who have jobs and earn a living,

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with their depiction of ideal femininity as a condition naturally associated with sensitivity and weakness: [I admire] My cousin Amy. Because she’s never without a job. If she gets laid off one day she had one the next. She’ll ask close family members for things but if it’s not something she really needs she won’t ask. She’s totally successful, depends on her self . . . [Feminine is] I don’t even know, I like, just say like acting like a female. I don’t even use it unless I’m talking to a boy, if they’re acting real sweet, in a bad way, acting like a girl. Like acting, wearing tight pants, doing stuff like that [ND: Are you?] I don’t even know. [ND: Do you want to be?] Yea, sort of sometimes. I just like to have a good time and act like I want to. (Nicole, 15, female, Black) [I admire] My sister, because she still go to school and already works two jobs. And she tell me stuff she don’t want me to do when I grow up . . . [The opposite of feminine] is a person that believes in themselves . . . Girls they just talk about themselves. They are goofy. (Moonie, 12, female, Hispanic) The girls grapple with the incompatibility of social expectations for femininity, their personal desires, and their lived experiences. They engage in consumptive acts which solidify and reinforce their present engendered identities as feminine while constructing future aspirations aimed at securing individual well-being as financially independent adults. Hence, girls admire women who are financially independent but who rarely happen to be their mothers. Only two of the eight girls name their mothers as role models and none explicitly express a wish to take their mothers with them when they leave the projects. This is in contrast to the boys’ voiced admiration of the heroic mother figure and their socially oriented consumptive discourse. A daily confrontation with the reality of dependency on welfare and lack of fulfillment of male responsibility may make the girls want to disassociate their futures with those of their mothers: [In the future I want to be] Skinny, a singer, rich, military, college educated. [ND: How did you come to decide on these?] Cause I’m tired of being plump. I want to go to college and take up psychology and sociology. I want to be a singer cause I know how to sing, people tell me I know how to sing. I want to be not too rich but rich enough to support

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my family and myself. Cause that’s something my mom never had, to buy a house or a car. (Te Te, 14, female, Other, italics added) For the girls to imagine a better future, they have to abstain from seeing themselves in their mothers’ position. This translates into seeking financial independence so they can resist male dependency and “soft” femininity and thus perform a new gender role. Interestingly, Te Te’s aspirations begin to sound like the boys, as she indicates a desire to be “rich enough to support my family.” Yet whereas the boys employ future-oriented consumptive discourse and acts as a means toward gaining power and providing care, for the girls,’ the same ends of access to power and fulfillment of social responsibility are reached through a different trajectory: financial independence which comes with education. The girls’ aspirations, though influenced by their families’ economic status, lead to different consumptive acts and discourses which enable different performativities of gender roles. The majority of girls in the study (6/9) aspire to a college education. Contrary to the boys, only one (Kay) explicitly lists owning her own home as part of her future goals, although Te Te, above, references a house in relation to her goals being driven by what her mother never had. This difference may be explained by the fact that girls define success in terms of financial independence and emancipation, rather than future material possessions per se: A successful woman is a person that [can] do what she want to do. Like if you want to go out, want to wear stuff, get what you want with all your needs, respectful, respect yourself and don’t set yourself out bad. (Alyiah, 15, female, African American) If I can depend on myself I’m successful. If I have a job, can depend on myself. I don’t have to ask you or you for nothing. (Nicole, 15, female, Black) The girls talk about education and financial security, recognizing that one relies on the other. The boys, in contrast, tend to speak about future consumption without referring to plans for college. Although not as prevalent in the girls’ narratives as in the boys, explicit references to “caring consumption” were not absent. Te Te discusses supporting her family. And Nicole talks about consumption as caring when she describes what one of her photographs signifies: “I just finished taking my mom shopping from my first paycheck for mother’s day. She wanted these Tommy sandals but didn’t have money so I bought them and surprised her.” Her words are testimony of the capacity of consumption to provide emotional

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connection with other people through the act of buying some-thing for some-one. Overall, however, the girls do not express desires to provide material goods for others to the same extent as the boys. Their relationship to the culture of consumption, which is temporally present-oriented, is shaped by their combined gender, race, and class positionings. For the girls, the sense of social responsibility to provide for others is linked to notions of financial independence. On the contrary, among boys, the acquisition of material goods enables caring for others. Hence, whereas both genders employ consumptive discourse and acts to construct their gender identities, they do so in reference to different temporal frames. For the boys, consumption is tied to the traditional role of the adult male as the family protector who acquires and provides material goods for the dependant others. For the girls, consumption helps create and sustain the traditional feminine ideal of beautified appearance in the present but exists on a temporal continuum that culminates in an independent, educated woman who does not need a man to support her. Thus, the ways in which both genders used material culture to construct identities reflect a different set of expectations and aspirations, aligned with the differential status requirements for men and women. In both cases, however, consumption is used to mask or cross class boundaries and, therefore, to access increased social status and power.

Discussion and Conclusion The act of consuming for the adolescents in this study is an integral part of their identity performance across the intersectionality of their experiences of gender, race, and class. For girls, consumption is linked to specific gender performances based on the maintenance of an attractive appearance as dictated by social perceptions of femininity. Girls’ future aspirations, shaped by their lived experiences of class, are indirectly associated with consumptive acts through the ambition for financial emancipation and thus monetary power. Their future goals include the consumption of education, rather than material markers of middle- to upper-class status. In Freedman and Thornton’s (1990) study of youths’ consumptive aspirations in the 1980s, education and consumption aspirations were inversely related, although teens from all education levels reported high levels of desired consumption. More than a decade later, a gendered split appears in these teens’ discussions of education and financial positioning which reflects the national gap between Black women and men in higher education.4 The aspirations of girls in our study distance them from the lives of their mothers but are consistent with depictions of Black mothers’ efforts to protect

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their daughters by raising them to be self-reliant, assertive, and able to stand on their own two feet (Collins, 1995). For these girls, success primarily means financial independence contrary to the male definition of success as financial responsibility. The fact that girls in our study admire financially independent women but rarely mention their own mothers as role models, may be more comprehensible when seen through Collins’s (2000) explication of the apparent contradictions in Black mother–daughter relationships as the result of a fine act of balance between mothers’ efforts to equip their daughters with skills to ensure their physical survival while also encouraging them to “transcend the boundaries of the sexual politics of Black womanhood” (p. 185).5 Early on “Black daughters learn to expect to work, to strive for an education so they can support themselves, and to anticipate carrying heavy responsibilities in their families and communities” (Collins, 2000, p. 183), to be able to protect themselves and their dependants. Seen in such a light, the girls’ life aspirations are teleologically social. Like the boys, they are aimed at caring through securing the (financial) capability to care. The means are different, but the goal remains the same, that is, the eventual care of future dependants and financial responsiblility for their families. Consuming, or more precisely aspiring to consuming, for the males at East Side facilitates the achievement of a particular morality realized through the fulfillment of male responsibility toward the traditionally perceived “dependent” members of the family: mother, wife, and children. Buying a house, a car, and earning money emerge as essential conditions of being a good son, a good husband, and a good father, by way of performing social obligations. In part, consuming for these boys and girls is a road to self-actualization. It is for this reason that the link between consumption and normative gender or other identity performances appears to be problematic as it hinders those who lack the purchase power from enacting socially prescribed performativities of identity that may extend to others when related to deep social obligations toward, for example, the family, the wife, and the mother. This notion of consumption as a social act may be further expanded in considering its potential to establish human connections. Consumerism has been considered anticommunal, reflecting a decrease in caring social relationships which are replaced by increasingly individualistic consumption (Folbre, 2001). Yet consuming to care, or displaying one’s love for and connections to other people through the purchase, and giving, of material goods has also become second nature. As Csikszentmihalyi (2000) notes, “Consuming relates to the need to love and be loved by providing opportunities to demonstrate one’s feelings through gifts” (p. 269). The youth in this study, in particular the boys, appear to construct the acquisition of material goods as linked to

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their (often gendered) social roles, roles that include taking care of other people. Chin (2001) describes a similar pattern among children in an African American neighborhood, in which consumption was “deeply social, emphasizing sharing, reciprocity and mutual obligation . . . [which were] often extracted from people rather than offered by them” (p. 5). Children in that community were aware of the expectations of sharing as well as of the financial realities of the families; individual needs and desires had to always be measured and evaluated in reference to those of others. The current rise in the eco-consumer market, wherein commodities considered “green” provide social status by marking the consumer’s social concern, may be the macro version of this trend. Buying a certain shirt or car demonstrates that you care about the greater social good, making consuming to care a valid and promoted, or even “patriotic” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 271), individual choice. In a post-9/11, Wall Street recession world, consumption is no longer only about constructing an individual identity but is also a means for acting as part of a social whole, constructing a unified American identity. Through consumption, we can mark our difference from terrorists and support the economy while masking our differences across race and social class, hiding the disparities in our very abilities to consume.6 The East Side youth, as they build their own identities within larger American culture, engage with the images of consumer culture and the discourse of consumption in ways influenced by their gender, race, and social class. The lived experiences of these adolescents as they are shaped by their social class inform their life goals. In these narratives, material possessions, such as houses, cars, and money become outlets for escaping the projects. As Adams (1984) explains, housing choice and use communicate the renters’ and owners’ perceptions of their place in society. Housing is used to make visible social and cultural categories which then become formalized through zoning laws (Adams, 1984). The projects themselves are an obvious part of the categorization process of the metropolitan landscape (see Powell, 1998). Housing choices, like any other consumptive act, confer social meaning (Adams, 1984). Given the East Side youths’ socioeconomic positioning, money may be an important marker of status and identity. Adolescents have been a target of marketing that links money and power, making consumption an expression of individual choice and autonomy. In the absence of real social power such choice may serve as a psychological stand-in. Yet it may prove damaging in the long-run, if youth from high-poverty neighborhoods encounter a lack of opportunities and jobs to support consumptive aspirations (Freedman & Thornton, 1990). The status and power accumulated through consumption of

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expensive material goods is purely symbolic. It does not modify concrete social inequalities, thus creating particular repercussions for Black youth, especially in low-income neighborhoods (Pattillo-McCoy, 1999). While individual agency must be acknowledged in the discussion of social behavior, ignoring the simultaneous workings of the social structure is a serious omission. With decreased financial options and increased market targeting, constructing an identity that meets the expectations of individualistic consumer culture within the boundaries of realistic job opportunities becomes more complex. The increased focus on consumerism as a means of building individual identity comes at a time when the gap between low- and highincome families is widening. The poor are, in fact, getting poorer while the rich are getting richer (Burtless & Smeeding, 2000). In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center (2007), 37% of Black Americans indicated that they no longer consider African Americans as a single race. One’s experience of being Black is influenced in part by one’s “material status,” especially as the gap between middle/upper class and low-income Black families has widened (Celious & Osyerman, 2001; Chideya, 1998). Within this social context, youth are constructing present and future identities shaped around their current developmental needs for individuality and belonging as well as their desires for social power and status. Purchasing products marketed to “Black youth” may allow these teens to separate themselves from images of “project kids” which they see as being how they are recognized by others (Deutsch, 2008) and assert individual power in the face of structural barriers. The commoditization of Black culture, and its effects on Black youth, has been discussed by theorists of culture and race (Haymes, 1995; West, 1993). What is key here is not how Black culture has been co-opted by White capitalist culture for marketing to White and Black youth alike but how consumption overall has been converted into a means of gaining respect and power. The influence of the market into previously uncommoditized areas of life has affected all Americans. It has changed the way we live today and our expectations for the future (i.e., who takes care of our children, who will care for us as elders). This expansion of market values into other aspects of life pushes out nonmarket values, putting our society in danger of deemphasizing interpersonal qualities of care (Folbre, 2001; Haymes, 1995; West, 1993); more and more things are now marked by a price tag and as such become expendable. With the invasion of capitalist values into personal life, material goods, rather than social goods, become the mark of success. And, in a world of expanding credit, income no longer determines purchase power.7 The youth in our study are all shaping consumptive aspirations and patterns around pressures to achieve particular gendered, raced, and class identities. As they mark and mask the class, race, and gender differences between them,

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teens are learning how to consume their way into “successful” American adulthoods. Yet given the economic realities of these youths’ neighborhoods and in light of a greater than ever before push for linking consumption with identity, we have a social responsibility to consider the cost for those who are being left out and behind. If self-perception and social expectations are increasingly defined by consumptive practices and aspirations in a society whose motto can be aptly summarized as consumeo ergo sum, what then of those who cannot consume? If identity is marked and recognized by consumer choice, then those with limited purchase power are faced with a choice: find a way to acquire material goods or remain identityless (or unable to display your place in the social order). The importance of personal and social identity to adolescents and the market focus on youth culture and consumption as a means for transcending concrete, socioeconomic conditions and becoming a successful young adult put low-income youth in a particular bind. Without other avenues for personal identity fulfillment or perceived opportunity to move up and out of current living conditions, consumption becomes a natural tool for present and future identity building. We must ask ourselves if the ability to buy the markers of social power, without access to the educative and political agents of power and mobility, can lead to satisfying and productive adult lives for today’s youth. Engaging with such a question entails more than a discussion on consumption; it requires an investigative look into social relationships of power as well as a cultural reconceptualization of the essence of a meaningful human existence. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The authors declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding During the data collection for this project the first author was by funded by grants from the Spencer Foundation, Northwestern University, and the Northwestern University-University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.

Notes 1. Stearns (2006) situates the emergence of consumerism in the Western world in the early 18th century and its consolidation as a social phenomenon by the 1920s. 2. See Milner (2004) for discussion of how these groups and their consumer choices are related to teens’ controlling of status and power. 3. One can argue, then, that consumption operates as a medium to simultaneously mark and mask difference. Consider, for example, the case of former slaves who,

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as Wilson (2005) informs us, used consumption as a means to achieve equality by masking class differences. Nonetheless, their dream of equality through access to the material market remained unfulfilled. The capitalist logic of exceeding borders of, for example, circulation, mobility, diversity, and mixture, did not transfer to the case of African Americans as “there is no historical evidence to suggest that the structural imperative of capital to expand the sphere of commodity exchange and consumption and create an empire without a border has been liberating for black Americans” (Wilson, 2005, p. 603). In fact, he argues, history tells otherwise as the “separate but equal” dogma for 19th-century America meant “equal access to the black and white consumer markets, not equality between the races” (p. 603, italics in the original). Even today, the author notes, race remains a constituent of the arena of commodity exchange and consumption. For discussion of the high incarceration rates among young, urban, Black males and its effects on the life course of young men of color in high-poverty neighborhoods, see Western (2006). For an insightful window into a conflicted mother–daughter relationship, see Weems (1995). See Milner (2004) for examples of politicians and public figures who promoted such behavior. As this article is being revised, however, the collapse of the world financial markets is resulting in a tightening of the credit markets and recalibrating of individual purchase power.

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Bios Nancy L. Deutsch, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. Her research focuses on the socioecological contexts of adolescent development, particularly on issues of identity, gender, race, and class. Eleni Theodorou, PhD, teaches sociology of education at the European University Cyprus. Her research interests lie within the field of anthropology and sociology of childhood, and revolve around issues of identity in immigrant and minority education.