When Is Cranberry Sauce Shaped Like a Can? an Investigation Of

ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802 Wheni S Cranberrys Auces Hapedl Ike a Can? an Investigation of Cultural Capital, Gender, Andc Onsumptionin Televisionp Rogramming Jennifer E. Chang, Penn State University W. Edward Rott, Penn State University [to cite]: Jennifer E. Chang and W. Edward Rott (2000) ,"Wheni S Cranberrys Auces Hapedl Ike a Can? an Investigation of Cultural Capital, Gender, Andc Onsumptionin Televisionp Rogramming", in GCB - Gender and Consumer Behavior Volume 5, eds. Cele Otnes, Urbana, IL : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 107-124. [url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/15691/gender/v05/GCB-05 [copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. t07 WhenIs CranberrySauce Shaped Like A Can? An InvestigationOf Cultural Capital, Gender, andConsumption in TelevisionProgramming JenniferE. Chang,Penn State University W. Edward RottUPenn State University ABSTRACT low cultural capital women,noting the commonalityof fosteringcommunal ties. Ta date, no systematicattempt has been Extendingthis line of reasoning,we might madeto examinehow cultural capital might also expecfcongruence between class and interaet with gender in the consumption genderfor high cultural capital men beeause sphere. Working under the assumptionthat of the commonemphasis on the pursuit of televisionpograms provide usefulinsigfus individuality. We investigatethe into the behavior of'real consumer4we relationshipbetween cultural capital and examineeansumption as depictedby genderby evaluatingnot only eommunalvs charactersin sixpopular prime-time individualist subjectivity,but also the teJevisianseries. Thecharacters selected nuanc€sof five other dimensionsofcultural allowedJbr a 2 x 2 considerationoJ' gender capital. (male,female) and cultural capital (low, high). We/ind that (l) menare more We focusour analysison consumptionas protolypical of cultural capital dimensions depictedin currentmedia. The goal is not to than are women,(2) consumptiondefines provide a broad-sweeprnggeneralization, genderas afluid rather than a strictly but rather,to impart an understandingof the binary construct,and (3) certaindimensions textureofcultural capital and genderas of cultural capital manifestdffirently in depictedin a subsetofNorth American menandwomen- Examplesare given to televisionprogramming. The penrasiveness supportthe findings, and ideasfor further of televisionprogramming, in particular, inve st igat ion are discus s ed. providesa foray into the cultural consumptionof productsand lifestyles In his analvsisof Bourdieu'stheories of (Hirschmanand Thompson1997). Consider cultwaliapitat, Holt (1998)illusfates that the following examplefrom the television cultural capital in fact structuresAmerican shoq Frasier, in which a British woman consumpion. He points out the needto namedDaphne prepa1es a Thanksgiving understandhow cultural capitaland other feastfor Marty (LCC' male): social categoriesinterrelate in consumption. In particular,how do cultural capitaland Marty: Could you just once cook a genderinteract? Holt (1998)speculates traditional Thanksgiving congruencebetween class and genderfor meal? I mean,look at this cranberrysauce! It's gender,but also provide insightsinto the supposedto keepthe shapeof nuancesthat help explain suchdifferences in the can,quiver a little bit! findings. We parseour analysesinto tlree What are aII thesechunks in sections. First, we investigatethe general there? relationshipbetween cultural capitaland gender. Most notably, we find that gendered Daphne: Thoseare cranberries. tastesare coogruentwith classtastes for [Audiencelaughs.J LCC men, ratherthan for LCC women(as suggestedby Holt). Moreover,the [Marty's son enterswith afrozen pie predominanceof male charactersdepicted as as requestedby Marty.J prototypesfor HCC and LCC sharply contasts with the marginal definitionsof Daphne: Honestly,wouldn't you femalecharacters. In fact, we notethat .X- ratherI just bakea pie from women (who shunsocial conventionand are scratch? neither high or low cultural capital) 'ofiIl tend to in" the 't dimensionsunaccounted for by Marty: Is it that you can learn, or the depictions 'r of HCC and LCC women. youwon learn? fAudience Second,we considergender not as a state lauglu.J but as a fluid continuumof femininity and "effects" masculinity,and note the of The exarnplepresented renders a glimpse consumptionon genderrepresentations. into the potentialfor understandingcultural Third, the nuancesof the dimensionsof capital and genderin consumption.After cultural capital qualitatively differ in all, throughthe courseof a story line, definition "naturally'' for eachgroup. We presenttwo characters engagein examplesto illustrate the needfor further consumption-usebehaviors that structure study. their realitiesand add characterdepth. At the sametime, characterscreatively and LITERATURE REVIEW actively consumeproducts in bricolage fashion(Dderteau l9S4) as they also 'Violate" The study of consumptionas it is depictedin sociallyprescribed consumpion massmedia entertainment is not new(e.g. normsto further effect humor and other Holbrookand Grayson 1986; Hirschman collective reactions. While we focus on 1988;Wells andGale 1994;Wellsand individual charactersas our unit of analysis, Anderson 1996;Sherry 1997; and, their interactionswith productsand other Hirschmanand Thompson1997). Inquiries charactersembellish the theories.For inlo how consumptionpatterns differ along instance,the exampleof Marty abovemay dimensionsof gender(among the many, be coitrasted with other characterswho Csikszentmihalyiand Rochberg-Halton makecranberry sauce from scratch(Monica, 1981;Thompson 1996; Thompson and Friends, HCC female) or slyly dump the Haytko 1997;Grunert 1993)and cultural contentsof tlre can into a pot to mimic capital(Bowdieu 1984;Holt 1997,1998) homemadestatus (Wil, Win & Grace,HICC havealso beencarried out. However,we male). believe that this paperrepresents the first attemptto examinehow genderand cultural Our analysesdiverge from Holt's (1998) capital interactin consumptionas it is initial speculationsabout cultural capital and "model" practicedby characterson prime-time programmingas a for consumption television. is supportedbyHirschman and Thompson (1997), who arguethat consumer Holbrookand Grayson(1986) and relationshipsto programsare an essential Hirschman( I 988) representedearly aspectof perceivedmeanings they derive attemptsto bring massmedia depictions of from advertisements. consumptioninto the purview of consumer research.Holbrook and Grayson (1986) . A secondrationale is suggestedby the work broughtsemiological analysis to bear on the of Wells and Gale (1994) and Wells and portrayalof consumptionin the film Out o!' Anderson(1996), who studiedmaterialism Africa, wherethey demonstratehow levels of characterson television. The symbolicconstrmer behavior is usedto authorsfound that fictional datafrom developplot and character.While this fictional narratives(in this case,prime time representeda stepforward in taking television characters)supported findings seriouslyproduct usage depictions in a derived from empirical investigationsusing fictional setting,the authors'objective was real data(i.e., Richins and Dawson 1992 and lessto draw connectionsbetween fictional Richins t994). Wells andAnderson (1996, consumptionand real life than it was to p. 125)believe that: establish"what consumptioncan tell us Writers, directors,and producersof aboutworks of art. [andhow it can] help successfuITV comediesand dramas, conveythe meaningof that artistic and the actorswho play popularTV creation." (Holbrookand Grayson 1986, p. characters,are accurateobservers of 37s.) humannature. If this is correct,their insights...may tell us something ln her analysisof the ideologyof useful aboutthe real behaviorof real consumptionin the TV showsDallas and consumers. Dynasty,Hirschman ( 1988, p. 3a$ argues that "consumersacquire messages about While the authorsare careful not to claim productsfrom a variety of media vehicles on that TV narrativesmirror real life, they do a daily basis. Thesemessages convey axguepersuasively that thesefictional "extrast, symbolicmeanings concerning the use of narratives abbreviate,and amplift productsto expresspersonal values, social relationshipsthat also occur in real nonns,and cultural ideologies." Thus, we behavior." (Wells andAnderson 1996, p. havethe beginningsof one rationalefor 125.) Television,therefore, would seem to studyingconsumption on television: mass offer us a viable and importantsetting for mediatedentertiainment provides the study of consumptionfor two reasons. "symbolically symbolicallyrich modelsfor enablingsell First, it is a pervasive" definition. This rationaledrives Sherry's (Sherry1995) medium that offersviewers (1995)atelethnography''of coffee as it is guidanceabout how consumptiongoods can consumedin televisionprogtams. Sherry be usedin their everydaylives; andsecond, "surrogate" recognizesthat the depictionof coffee it may act as a reasonable for consumptionwithin the programming real life in the study of consumerbehavior. contextconditions, at leastin part, viewers' While the goal of this studyis not percepionsof coffee,thus "ostensibly generalizationto the everydayworld', the deliveringa receptiveaudience to particular consumptionpatterns

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