The conspicuous consumption of luxurious goods in everyday life of affluent women of the Sanandaj city

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to do a qualitative study with grounded theory on how a specific kind of femininity is constructed through the consumption of luxurious goods. To this end, everyday consuming activities of wealthy women in the city of Sanandaj is studied. Historically, two theoretical approaches dominate the field of luxury consumption: Classic (luxury consumption caused by wealth), and Recent (luxury consumption caused by competencies). The theoretical basis of this research is a synthesis of both, with more emphasis being on classic approach. The purposeful sampling method was used to select samples and 21 affluent women from Sanandaj were interviewed in three districts: Shalman, Safari, Mobarakabad. The data were analyzed through coding processes and classified into five categories: causal condition, contextual condition, intervening condition, strategies and consequences. The concluding core category is the representation of a kind of hegemonic femininity which, according to data, is totally the outcome of luxurious consumption. The wealthy women use two different strategies to strengthen and reproduce this femininity: the first serves to construct a pseudo-aristocratic femininity and the second functions to reproduce their hegemonic status in the social hierarchy. The luxurious consumption has also some consequences which mostly serve to strengthen aristocratic values like pride and prejudice as well as the family lineage claim.

Keywords

• luxurious goods
• consumption
• affluent class
• femininity
• sanandaj