Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 90

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CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION
On one hand children may attempt to con-
struct an identity using social age as an im-
portant resource, yet privately they enjoyed
the frecdom of engaging in the very activi-
ties they reject in public. In conclusion, it is
evident from the data that age is a signifi-
cant aspect of children’s identity. School-
aged children displayed great awareness of
the age hierarchy within the class. More im-
portantly, children were very aware of their
age identity. They perceive their age iden-
tity to be central to the degree of control they
have over their lives. Therefore, although it
is impossible to be older than one actually
is, it is possible to strive to act older and in-
crease one’s social age. The data has dis-
played that for both types of age identity
(chronological and social), consumption can
play a central role.
Discussion
Overall the most important finding pertain-
ing to identity in children’s cultures of con-
sumption was the contextual influence on
identity construction. Furthermore, with rel-
atively few possessions in the institutional
context children continuously work at con-
structing their identity with the material
goods at their disposal e.g. bringing toys or
other personal items to school.
Gender
Not surprisingly, throughout the study, evi-
dence clearly emerged of the contextual de-
pendence (e.g. who is present and where
children are situated) of identity. In other
words, there were times when gender was
the central identity whilst other times age
identity or performance identity became
more important-a view supported by other
authors (Kacen, 2000). However, as Jenk-
ins (1996) has also suggested, gender was
found to be a primary identity (i.e. a rnore
enduring, less changeable identity) which
the current study also found as it structured
much of what the children consumed.
The data presented evidence that already
in nursery children displayed clear gender-
based stereotyping of toys; furthermore,
there was generally consensus on which toys
were gender neutral. Later, in P2/P3, the
boys in particular tended to demonstrate
strong feelings of disgust towards dolls and
other items they considered too feminine -
a behaviour Thome (1993) called rituals of
pollution. Studies out with marketing (Aydt
and Corsaro, 2003; Corsaro, 1997; Thorne,
1993) support this finding and go on to sug-
gest that in neighbourhood social groups,
gender is less significant than in institutional
settings. Furthermore, Aydt and Corsaro
(2003) have highlighted that gender segre-
gation peaks at around 6-8 years of age -
which corresponds with the present study.
However, there are children who do not con-
form to stereotypical gender norms and pre-
fer toys considered appropriate for the op-
posite sex. This behaviour, most especially
when the “deviants” were boys, was sub-
ject to negative remarks by other children.
In their study of social isolation among early
adolescent groups Evans and Eder (1993)
found one of the three factors that led chil-
dren to be isolated was violating gendei'
norms. Therefore, it is evident that gendered
consumer behaviour can - already at nurs-
ery age, lead to negative reactions from oth-
ers.