Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 86

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CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION
construction of identity. Yet, being “sporty”
as the children described themselves was not
confined to performing well physically but
was sometimes referred to as a style of con-
suming clothes, bags and the like. In other
words, some children identified with sports
as a lifestyle, rather than necessarily being
especially active in sports. However, when
choosing sportswear; their contribution to
sporting performance was of importance to
the boys and girls. In the following exam-
ple the girls were discussing just this:
Madeline: Yeah, like you need comfy trainers
to be able to do sport.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Madeline: Cause if you have like...like 1 can’t
do sport in these cause they’re just, you know
they’re not too comfy.
Ester: And I can’t do sport in these at all. I met
this man in Sport Soccer when I was choosing
my trainers ehmm, I can’t remember, it was one
shop when I was choosing trainers. The man said
that it needs to be flexible at the toes and firm
at the heel.
Interview, WPS, P6, Female, 17/6/03
Therefore, children not only consider con-
sumer goods as important in conftrming
their performance but in some cases, as
being instrumental in assisting performance.
Despite the importance of sports, especially
in the P6 age groups, it was clear that not all
children were interested in sport as a style
or an activity - at least their interest lay not
with the most popular sports such as foot-
ball, dancing, golf etc. Gregory’s identity for
instance, was much more strongly linked to
his ability to build things, most particularly
Knex (a construction toy). He spoke of it
many times and how he had been interested
in Knex for many years as in this extract:
Gregory: I’vebeen doing Knex since I was two.
I’ve done over 50 models with no instructions.
Interviewer: Just from your head?
Gregory: Yeah. And if people found Knex in a
shop[which I had forgotten] they’d know it was
mine.
Fieldnotes, P6, WPS, Male, 7/5/03
For Gregory his links with Knex are so great
that people would know the Knex were his
- even in his absence. This, along with the
other examples, gives some indication of
how children use consumer goods to illus-
trate how they perform, physically and men-
tally.
Appearance
The appearance of the body is a key char-
acteristic of children’s identity since it is, in
material terms, the most visible. Thc ap-
pearance of the body is here taken to refer
to both physical and extra-physical8 ap-
pearance. The former refers to height, shape
(build) and other bodily features whilst the
latter refers to the dressing up of the body
e.g. through grooming and clothing-
Throughout childhood and adolescence chil-
dren’s bodies experience dramatic changes;
therefore the data reflects the importance of
the appearance of the body in identity con-
struction.
At nursery age children are veiy preoc-
cupied with their height and frequently coin-
pared themselves to friends - discussing
who was the tallest. This is closely linked
to the fact that children are constantly re-
minded that they are little people - physi-
cally, and in terms of age. It is conceivable