Consuming Passions - Softcover

Williamson, Judith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 071452851X ISBN 13: 9780714528519

Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

Writing with wit and charm and intelligence Judith Williamson explores the forces that channel our tastes and structure our lives: films, books, television, advertisements, photography, music, political movements, and even the royal family.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

In our consumerist society, people's desire for progressive change is channeled into a need for new cars, hairstyles and stereos. Williamson, a British journalist and filmmaker, here discusses the ways our needs and impulses are modified by social structures they might otherwise threaten. She explains why buying and owning objects gives consumers a sense of control and shows how commercial images of family life hold out leisure as the arena where desires are fulfilled. The author ponders the abiding popularity of Britain's royal family, debunks the Cosmo girl's prudent wisdom, decodes Doris Day's good-girl image, criticizes the antinuclear movement's use of motherhood as an emotionally charged symbol and analyzes what dressing in drag reveals about women's relative powerlessness. Her reviews of Body Heat, Raging Bull, 10 and City of Women scan these films as reflections of male insecurities. A mixed bag of essays, articles and reviews.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 071452851X
• ISBN 13: 9780714528519
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240