Human Desire- Consumption, Class and sex
Created | Updated Aug 13, 2007
Human Desire revolves around a need for the specific, wanting is not enough. Pyschological man, ruled by his desires, has a need to be rich and famous; those who succeed crave the recognition previously reserved for celebrities. They imitate and emulate the desires of the A-list lifestyle, the bags, the Jimmy Choos. But what impact have these desires had on the shape of culture, what influence do our actions have on cultural capital? How have we defined desire and, in turn, re defined class? At what point did objects go beyond function and adopt connotations of their own? How, and when, did society begin to recognise sex as a commodity; a saleable product to draw the consumer closer to the jaws of obscenity.
Once a man, named Thomas Veblen, said that the unproductive consumption of goods would be the marker of social status, little did he know how right he would be.
Consumption isn’t one of those words that are merely there for the sake of some stuffy lecturer with halitosis, it’s an everyday activity, it’s the staple diet of modern society, and society, my friend, is you. The clothes you wear, the music you listen to, your favourite colour, your opinions waiting to be heard all represent your collective voices reflecting in the glare of society. This is culture and it’s about time society knew all about it.
Economical Shift- From The Public to The Private
Since Britain shifted from a production economy to one where all facets of human nature were consumable, it has morphed the individual, you, into a billboard, an adornable object for companies to salivate over, flashing their assets, seducing you into their harem. There are those for whom the hunt is the pinnacle of their desires, the wanting is second only to achieving the status and casting aside their yearnings for the sake of self-esteem, they prosper; they run companies, they succeed. However in the edible world of meaning, chewing, digesting and experiencing the heartburn of the want economy, a being rises from the flames, to live out their life in the public, airing their dirty kecks in the glossy pages of a morally instigated façade of airbrushed perfection and parody that is culture.
From the Freudian belief that inner emancipation breeds outer repression, to Aristotle who champions the education of desire in order to perceive them, desire have shaped and reflected society. What does the individual want from life, from today, because it's possible to have a whole lot more than you desire; by understanding desire. If people are content with never having, are satisfied without fufillment the can what you want change society, can it become culture?
Reshaping Culture
There was a time when culture meant only Mozart and opera now those who are cultured are well travelled; dress in Prada and have dinky monogrammed bags; they bear the insignia of their makers, they have accepted the marks of those with the power to oppress them and happily hand over half a months salary just to belong to that elite. Much as a man, a man named Veblen, predicted society has reached a stage in culture where conspicuous leisure, parties, IT girls and Dom Perignon mark out reputability, they provide a benchmark, indicating social status, for the emulation of the new upper classes, the class of consumer.
The consumer has taken the reins and steered themselves into the driving lane, they are active, they have power, they can appropriate. The ability to take and make one’s own.
The most visible example is the Hackett wearing, bling adorned, Burberry capped Chav; an acronym of Council Housed and Violent originating in Chatham and spreading like disease across the country, they came they appropriated they won the war. If the war involved changing the connotation created over 100 years ago and fully established in middle class Britain, a brand synonymous with ladies who lunch and Pimms on the river, they succeeded and re-branded Burberry the cloth of the Chav.
Power to the Consumer
This new class of consumer has the power to cause the re-branding of an entire company, to sink or float stars, launch labels and vilify styles. The velour tracksuit, Adidas joggers, visor caps and hooped earrings have all fallen to the might of the consumer. The hierarchy of consumption, which leads to the creation of taste, has cast these myths, reinforced by the media, that cultural afflictions are the new class divides. Aware of the affluence that money can buy, the class of emulators reshaped the cultural divide purchasing the indicators of fashion, corrupting them. This has led to the devaluing of cultural markers, an appropriation of style. With these shifting paradigms of materialism, the consumer continually has to reassess their purchasing power above and beyond the aesthetic.
The consumption of meaning, as Baudrillard championed, is about understanding where the division stands, what separates the Jordans of this world with their tacky horse-driven carriages and crass wedding thrones from the grandeur and elegance of the Beckhams carriages and thrones? At what point are possessions and wealth, a status failure rather than the first building block of success? Could the desire to be aspired be the fundamental flaw; is it trying rather than being that is the hurdle?
The Mirror Principle
Staring into a mirror, you see a reflection, an imitation of life, a combination of labels, stereotypes, pre conceptions and expectations. We live life via this reflection and constantly ask: Mirror, mirror on the wall…where can I find Fendi half off and is Burberry still cool?
A reflection is more than a mirror likeness. When you stand in front of the glassy façade you see an image, one which can be manipulated and contrived to create a myth. Everyone’s done it; put on a turtle neck to meet the in laws, or power dressed for an important meeting, why then is it so hard to see the mythological types played out in the media?
Emulation or Imitation of the unreal?
Emulation is the key to desire of this nature, if aspiration is lacking then the mirror principle reflects itself creating a mythological type, a magical creation from culture, a play of mirrors, a slant of light in which roles are being fulfilled myth logically with the illusion of reality creating a problem rooted in mimic and emulation. If the constant bombardment from celeb-ville is a vision of reflecting roles, which are mythological in their origins and people, are attempting to emulate their roles, they are striving for a myth, an unreal reality.
This mystical world where VPLs don’t exist, 6 inch heels are comfortable and flawless skin and make up is the female equivalent to morning glory. What we seem to ignore is the purpose of this world, where lies and disguise are the oxygen and man can’t get enough. Is it escapism as so readily thought? Or is it some higher order that controls us via these messages…a much more probable thought. It is our societies role to reflect culture in order to conceal it; it’s the Touch éclat of the cultural world, the foundation of the perfect complexion. It pulls the mohair sweater over our eyes, masks the reality in order to reproduce the modern myths that wrap this world in the monogrammed safeness of conformity.
The consequence of accepting this glossy, ordered, consumable lifestyle is the emancipation of desire. How can striving for a false ideal ever result in the satisfaction of the desire for happiness, for recognition, for self esteem. The striving for a myth is a corruption of status, an ambition for fiction. That’s all it is.
Lets talk about sex
Everything is consumable. The media has taken the darkest sexual secrets, the bodies, and sexuality of a nation and morphed them into a new Dolce and Gabanna advert, who can argue that sex hasn’t been sold, it's the oldest of professions, the strongest pulling factor in advertising; has sex been sold for the sake of consumption?
Having it, getting it, wanting it so much that they've forget what it is. It's possible to spend a lifetime searching through the quandary of idioms and innuendos, waiting for fulfilment for the pinnacle of all desires, everyone wants it, many people have it, and according to a new school of therapy sexual addiction is one of the greatest afflictions of our time.
Desiring…the latest disease
‘I have yoga on Mondays’ or ‘I’ve got a hangover’, the stark reality of life is that no one can have any of these things, they are not belongings or objects with the ability to be possessed. The sad reality is that society is obsessed with having, so much so, it has changed the English language. The magical world of I’ve. And the most recent I’ve to pollute the world is the ‘I’ve got an addiction’; an estimated 300,000 people in the US are in therapy to rid themselves of addiction.
The question of addiction is one of fulfilled desires, to be addicted is to have desires satisfied and the consequences are almost as troubling as the emancipation of desire. Society bombards the consumer with choice and how we deal with those choices defines us as a culture.
While desire is a worldwide concept the way in which society translates this into culture varies from country to country. The traditional stiff upper lip keeps British needs at a materialistic value, devoid of the psychological questions, which populate other western powers and focuses upon status, class and self esteem, the morals and beliefs of society are projected and patrolled through desire.
This follows in other countries, dimensions and fantasies; fame fuels the American Dream; sex stimulates the culture of Amsterdam, could Britain change its reflection and thus its culture through its relationship with Desire?
Sex sells
The typical social type of the repressed British girl has desire placed in a velvet box with a silken bow, a stereotype long since rejected by the modern madam whose day is one filtered by Viagra emails, bombarded by phallic symbols and parodied as a sexual object. It is a twisted world where advertisers have taken our psyche and turned it against us detailing our desires like a wish list in modern culture. Biological and instinctive, sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals right behind self preservation…its biological and instinctive and if it sells then, damn it, they’ll use it. From promising as many women as a clicker can detail, to lesbian three ways in muddy wrestling fantasies, products aimed at men have always forced the hardened point, and when aimed at women they aim to sell without objectifying.
The point that is being reached is one where nothing shocks, the nation has become a de sensitised society who slow to observe the gore of a motorway crash like a Hollywood smash. Overt sex sells, but when that has been bashed to the bone, the only choice is to push the envelope further; throbbing packages, tickling lace, wandering fingers and illicit relations. Why is it that such obvious ploys, which are blindingly obvious to all those who flick past them in glossy magazines, are enticing enough to cause such a stir? Desire, the wanting, needing curiosity which leads thousands to the red light district, the depiction of sex is the driving force of civilisation and culture rather than some sort of steamy sideshow.
The escalation of sexual liberation has thrusted sex to the forefront of society, as a writer from the long since dead Sleaze Nation suggested modern culture will be a ‘slippery when wet pornotopia; where everyone wanted it, everyone would get it and the lights would be on so all the world could see’.
The world sees, it looks on in intrepid curiosity as the sex gets wilder, the desires get more perverse and the options are infinite.
Once a man, named Thomas Veblen, said that the unproductive consumption of goods would be the marker of social status, little did he know how right he would be.
Consumption isn’t one of those words that are merely there for the sake of some stuffy lecturer with halitosis, it’s an everyday activity, it’s the staple diet of modern society, and society, my friend, is you. The clothes you wear, the music you listen to, your favourite colour, your opinions waiting to be heard all represent your collective voices reflecting in the glare of society. This is culture and it’s about time society knew all about it.
Economical Shift- From The Public to The Private
Since Britain shifted from a production economy to one where all facets of human nature were consumable, it has morphed the individual, you, into a billboard, an adornable object for companies to salivate over, flashing their assets, seducing you into their harem. There are those for whom the hunt is the pinnacle of their desires, the wanting is second only to achieving the status and casting aside their yearnings for the sake of self-esteem, they prosper; they run companies, they succeed. However in the edible world of meaning, chewing, digesting and experiencing the heartburn of the want economy, a being rises from the flames, to live out their life in the public, airing their dirty kecks in the glossy pages of a morally instigated façade of airbrushed perfection and parody that is culture.
From the Freudian belief that inner emancipation breeds outer repression, to Aristotle who champions the education of desire in order to perceive them, desire have shaped and reflected society. What does the individual want from life, from today, because it's possible to have a whole lot more than you desire; by understanding desire. If people are content with never having, are satisfied without fufillment the can what you want change society, can it become culture?
Reshaping Culture
There was a time when culture meant only Mozart and opera now those who are cultured are well travelled; dress in Prada and have dinky monogrammed bags; they bear the insignia of their makers, they have accepted the marks of those with the power to oppress them and happily hand over half a months salary just to belong to that elite. Much as a man, a man named Veblen, predicted society has reached a stage in culture where conspicuous leisure, parties, IT girls and Dom Perignon mark out reputability, they provide a benchmark, indicating social status, for the emulation of the new upper classes, the class of consumer.
The consumer has taken the reins and steered themselves into the driving lane, they are active, they have power, they can appropriate. The ability to take and make one’s own.
The most visible example is the Hackett wearing, bling adorned, Burberry capped Chav; an acronym of Council Housed and Violent originating in Chatham and spreading like disease across the country, they came they appropriated they won the war. If the war involved changing the connotation created over 100 years ago and fully established in middle class Britain, a brand synonymous with ladies who lunch and Pimms on the river, they succeeded and re-branded Burberry the cloth of the Chav.
Power to the Consumer
This new class of consumer has the power to cause the re-branding of an entire company, to sink or float stars, launch labels and vilify styles. The velour tracksuit, Adidas joggers, visor caps and hooped earrings have all fallen to the might of the consumer. The hierarchy of consumption, which leads to the creation of taste, has cast these myths, reinforced by the media, that cultural afflictions are the new class divides. Aware of the affluence that money can buy, the class of emulators reshaped the cultural divide purchasing the indicators of fashion, corrupting them. This has led to the devaluing of cultural markers, an appropriation of style. With these shifting paradigms of materialism, the consumer continually has to reassess their purchasing power above and beyond the aesthetic.
The consumption of meaning, as Baudrillard championed, is about understanding where the division stands, what separates the Jordans of this world with their tacky horse-driven carriages and crass wedding thrones from the grandeur and elegance of the Beckhams carriages and thrones? At what point are possessions and wealth, a status failure rather than the first building block of success? Could the desire to be aspired be the fundamental flaw; is it trying rather than being that is the hurdle?
The Mirror Principle
Staring into a mirror, you see a reflection, an imitation of life, a combination of labels, stereotypes, pre conceptions and expectations. We live life via this reflection and constantly ask: Mirror, mirror on the wall…where can I find Fendi half off and is Burberry still cool?
A reflection is more than a mirror likeness. When you stand in front of the glassy façade you see an image, one which can be manipulated and contrived to create a myth. Everyone’s done it; put on a turtle neck to meet the in laws, or power dressed for an important meeting, why then is it so hard to see the mythological types played out in the media?
Emulation or Imitation of the unreal?
Emulation is the key to desire of this nature, if aspiration is lacking then the mirror principle reflects itself creating a mythological type, a magical creation from culture, a play of mirrors, a slant of light in which roles are being fulfilled myth logically with the illusion of reality creating a problem rooted in mimic and emulation. If the constant bombardment from celeb-ville is a vision of reflecting roles, which are mythological in their origins and people, are attempting to emulate their roles, they are striving for a myth, an unreal reality.
This mystical world where VPLs don’t exist, 6 inch heels are comfortable and flawless skin and make up is the female equivalent to morning glory. What we seem to ignore is the purpose of this world, where lies and disguise are the oxygen and man can’t get enough. Is it escapism as so readily thought? Or is it some higher order that controls us via these messages…a much more probable thought. It is our societies role to reflect culture in order to conceal it; it’s the Touch éclat of the cultural world, the foundation of the perfect complexion. It pulls the mohair sweater over our eyes, masks the reality in order to reproduce the modern myths that wrap this world in the monogrammed safeness of conformity.
The consequence of accepting this glossy, ordered, consumable lifestyle is the emancipation of desire. How can striving for a false ideal ever result in the satisfaction of the desire for happiness, for recognition, for self esteem. The striving for a myth is a corruption of status, an ambition for fiction. That’s all it is.
Lets talk about sex
Everything is consumable. The media has taken the darkest sexual secrets, the bodies, and sexuality of a nation and morphed them into a new Dolce and Gabanna advert, who can argue that sex hasn’t been sold, it's the oldest of professions, the strongest pulling factor in advertising; has sex been sold for the sake of consumption?
Having it, getting it, wanting it so much that they've forget what it is. It's possible to spend a lifetime searching through the quandary of idioms and innuendos, waiting for fulfilment for the pinnacle of all desires, everyone wants it, many people have it, and according to a new school of therapy sexual addiction is one of the greatest afflictions of our time.
Desiring…the latest disease
‘I have yoga on Mondays’ or ‘I’ve got a hangover’, the stark reality of life is that no one can have any of these things, they are not belongings or objects with the ability to be possessed. The sad reality is that society is obsessed with having, so much so, it has changed the English language. The magical world of I’ve. And the most recent I’ve to pollute the world is the ‘I’ve got an addiction’; an estimated 300,000 people in the US are in therapy to rid themselves of addiction.
The question of addiction is one of fulfilled desires, to be addicted is to have desires satisfied and the consequences are almost as troubling as the emancipation of desire. Society bombards the consumer with choice and how we deal with those choices defines us as a culture.
While desire is a worldwide concept the way in which society translates this into culture varies from country to country. The traditional stiff upper lip keeps British needs at a materialistic value, devoid of the psychological questions, which populate other western powers and focuses upon status, class and self esteem, the morals and beliefs of society are projected and patrolled through desire.
This follows in other countries, dimensions and fantasies; fame fuels the American Dream; sex stimulates the culture of Amsterdam, could Britain change its reflection and thus its culture through its relationship with Desire?
Sex sells
The typical social type of the repressed British girl has desire placed in a velvet box with a silken bow, a stereotype long since rejected by the modern madam whose day is one filtered by Viagra emails, bombarded by phallic symbols and parodied as a sexual object. It is a twisted world where advertisers have taken our psyche and turned it against us detailing our desires like a wish list in modern culture. Biological and instinctive, sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals right behind self preservation…its biological and instinctive and if it sells then, damn it, they’ll use it. From promising as many women as a clicker can detail, to lesbian three ways in muddy wrestling fantasies, products aimed at men have always forced the hardened point, and when aimed at women they aim to sell without objectifying.
The point that is being reached is one where nothing shocks, the nation has become a de sensitised society who slow to observe the gore of a motorway crash like a Hollywood smash. Overt sex sells, but when that has been bashed to the bone, the only choice is to push the envelope further; throbbing packages, tickling lace, wandering fingers and illicit relations. Why is it that such obvious ploys, which are blindingly obvious to all those who flick past them in glossy magazines, are enticing enough to cause such a stir? Desire, the wanting, needing curiosity which leads thousands to the red light district, the depiction of sex is the driving force of civilisation and culture rather than some sort of steamy sideshow.
The escalation of sexual liberation has thrusted sex to the forefront of society, as a writer from the long since dead Sleaze Nation suggested modern culture will be a ‘slippery when wet pornotopia; where everyone wanted it, everyone would get it and the lights would be on so all the world could see’.
The world sees, it looks on in intrepid curiosity as the sex gets wilder, the desires get more perverse and the options are infinite.
