Promoting the Consumer Citizen: Seals, Spectacles, and the Gendered Consumer in Depression-Era America

<p>This thesis will argue that New Deal legislation accounted for increased importance placed on consumers and the articulation of consumer citizenship as female during the Great Depression. Once New Deal programs and legislation determined and legitimized the consumer citizen, the consumer citizen exercised influence though purchasing power. Analyzing the ways the federal government defined women as consumer citizens through programs like the National Recovery Administration’s Blue Eagle Campaign offers important insight into who was considered to have a voice. Notions of citizenship define groups by who has the necessary attributes and qualifications—in this case the means to purchase goods—to be included. By naming a group, like consumer citizens, those excluded become highlighted. Through these relationships this thesis will examine gender norms, a nation and economy in crisis, consumerism, advertising, citizenship, issues of class, and identity formation. The content of this paper will examine questions such as, who has access to being considered a consumer citizen? What are the limits of consumer citizenship?</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Master

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Liberal Studies

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Wetmore, Danielle B

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Tanya Agathocleous
• Cindy Lobel

• American Material Culture
• American Popular Culture
• Cultural History
• History of Gender
• Labor History
• Other American Studies
• Other Film and Media Studies
• United States History
• Visual Studies
• Women's History
• New Deal
• National Recovery Administration
• Blue Eagle Campaign
• Great Depression
• Consumerism

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3772

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-4814