Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2006, Page 92

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CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN CHILDREN’S CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION
and confidently about grooming products,
clothes and similar products. Boden et. ai
(2004) presented similar statements to this
study in their research on children’s fashion
consumption. They argued that children
(boys and girls) were aware of how peers
may pass judgment on their fashion choices
and therefore, chose items that were con-
sidered trendy or cool. However, as the pres-
ent study further indicated, not all children
are equally interested in their appearance.
To some, other qualities or features are more
central in identity construction e.g. per-
formance abilities.
In their research on beauty images and
advertising Boden et. al. (2004) suggested
the norms for physical appearance are dif-
ferent for adolescent boys and girls. Fur-
thermore, they argued that as a result of ad-
vertising and other agents of socialization
girls are much more critical of their bodies.
Whilst this may still be true the findings
from the present study suggest that the
norms for boys’ physical appearance may be
changing.
Age
In marketing studies with children, age is a
demographic factor used to compare groups
and their social and cognitive development.
Not unexpectediy, however, as this study has
shown, for children age is an important iden-
tity - also within same age groups. This find-
ing is consistent with Kelle (2001) who found
children of same age groups discuss what
they perceive to be mature and childish iden-
tities. In society children are continuously re-
minded of their lower status and lack of pow-
er due to their age. Therefore, for many chil-
dren becoming older (actual age) and acting
older (social age) has, predominantly, pos-
itive connotations. Whilst the marketing
profession may have some insight into the
importance of social age in relation to child-
hood consumption, marketing academics
have paid little attention to tliis identity.
In her ethnographic account Kelle (2001)
examined children’s discourses of develop-
ment and found that children continuously
contest the age suitability of various activi-
ties. She found that children’s construction
of identities was closely tied-in with age.
However, age was not merely a chronolog-
ical unit of identification, it was inherently
social. Close parallels can therefore, be
drawn from Kelle’s data and the fmdings of
this study.
In their study on children’s fashion con-
sumption Boden et. al. (2004) found that
children evaluated clothing and symbols on
clothing based on age appropriateness. This
is consistent with the present study where
children talked of the age suitability of dif-
ferent toys - such as Barbie being for
younger girls or changing bedroom wallpa-
per to display current consumption interests
(e.g. from Bob the Builder to Power Rang-
ers). In a similar vein Davies and Machin
(2000: 174) suggested the consumption
choices of television to be a clear indica-
tion of social age and found that when dis-
cussing programmes children negotiated
“...a sense of no longer being ‘babies’”-
Therefore, it is clear that consumption is an
essential resource in the construction of age
identity. Children can thus communicate
with others through consumer goods their
level of maturity or development.