Ilona Mikkonen

Cynical identity projects as consumer resistance - the scrooge as a social critic?

The paper focuses on consumer cynicism in online environments, using the anti‐Christmas sites of the Internet as an empirical case. Drawing on the discursive power model of consumer resistance, critical management studies on organizational cynicism, and Foucauldian ideas of political struggle as “politics of self,” it is argued that consumer cynicism, in online environments, may represent a form of resistance against markets and the marketing institution, which is brought about through the problematization and partial rejection of the normalized forms of consumer subjectivity that are offered in the marketplace. The paper illustrates how consumers employ a cynical rhetoric and discursive strategy, creatively drawing from the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, to problematize the received, highly commercialized ways of celebrating Christmas and to work on a cynical identity project, the scrooge, which represents an alternative form of consumer subjectivity, disillusioned and critical toward the market and the marketing institution.

Moralities in food and health research

Abstract Society has imposed strict rules about what constitutes a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ food and ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ eating behaviour at least since antiquity. Today, the moral discourse of what we should and should not eat is perhaps stronger than ever, and it informs consumers, researchers and policy-makers about what we all should consume, research and regulate. We propose four types of moralities, underlying sets of moral assumptions, that orient the contemporary discourses of food and health: the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nature of food items, the virtue of self-control and moderation, the management of body size and the actions of market agents. We demonstrate how these moralities influence consumer behaviour as well as transformative research of food and health and develop a critical discussion of the impact of the underlying morality in each domain. We conclude by providing a few guidelines for changes in research questions, designs and methodologies for future research and call for a general reflection on the consequences of the uncovered moralities in research on food and health towards an inclusive view of food well-being.

What not to wear? Oppositional ideology, fashion, and governmentality in wardrobe self-help

In this paper, we draw attention to the emancipatory premises of oppositional ideologies and the ideological nature of consumption in the context of fashion. Drawing on the Foucauldian concept of power, we illustrate how a specific genre of self-help literature, which we have termed wardrobe self-help (WSH), produces an alternative mode of discourse about fashion and clothing as a cultural mediator. Our findings challenge the prevailing fashion ideology that capitalizes on emancipation, and unravel the means through which WSH oppositional ideology governs consumers. Consequently, we argue that while oppositional ideologies can blur the boundaries between coercion and consent, and act as vehicles of repression and liberation, they ultimately come to govern, if not limit, consumer choice and expression.

Happy Festivus! Parody as playful consumer resistance

Drawing upon literary theory, play and consumer resistance literature, we conceptualize consumer parodic resistance – a resistant form of play that critically refunctions dominant consumption discourses and marketplace ideologies. We explore parodic resistance empirically by analyzing Festivus, a parody of Christmas. Festivus is found to be primarily constructed as a playful rejection of the established grand narratives and conventions of Christmas. In contrast to dominant Christmas ideology, Festivus promotes a grand narrative of “meaningful nothingness,” wherein Festivus celebration is presented a viable means of circumventing the oppressiveness of Christmas (i.e. “meaningful”) through erasing the higher goals and conventions if Christmas (i.e. “nothingness”). Our contribution is threefold: (i) we demonstrate the role of parody in consumer resistance; (ii) we outline the subversively playful nature of parodic consumer resistance; and (iii) we empirically demonstrate how parodic holiday celebration unsettles dominant discourses and conventions.

Negotiating subcultural authenticity through interpretation of mainstream advertising

This paper explores how subcultural authenticity is constructed and negotiated as members of a subculture interpret mainstream advertising images. A reader-response theory approach was adopted, and empirical material was conducted through open-ended interviews of homosexual women. Four processes through which ‘lesbian authenticity’ are constructed were identified: (1) defining proper lesbian look; (2) problematising both heterosexualised and oversexed media representations of homosexual women; (3) constituting being lesbian as an intrinsic part of one’s being; and (4) constructing heterosexual women as the Other.