The principal reason we are led to buy and consume one commodity rather than another is the promise that it will offer more than we strictly desire, and certainly more than the alternative. Why drink Coca-cola rather than Co-op own brand? Because ‘Coca-cola is it!’ We won’t get ‘it’ with the Co-op cola. Why buy Nike rather than any other brand? ‘Just do it’, then you’ll see. The ‘something extra’ that commodities offer isn’t always quantifiable, and it’s certainly not consumable. You can’t taste Coke’s ‘it’, can’t feel the just-doing-it-ness of Nike as you lunge around a tennis court. There is simply a satisfaction in the promise, the sense that you’re consuming the best example of whatever it is you’re consuming. Continue reading →

There’s a lot of talk on Twitter today about misogynistic responses to the idea that, just as men might leave their upper lips unshaven in November (for charity), so women might give up the razor – on their legs, armpits, muffs – for a month. It reminded me of something I wrote about pubic shaving and the infantilization of women at the end of last year. It was in response to a Daily Mail article (the whole post is here), and here is the relevant bit: Continue reading →