Buying fakes are ok

Materialistic goods are important factors in determining one’s social status. The more a person consumes the more it displays their wealth. Their wealth is represented through their consumption of goods. For those who cannot keep up with the consumption fad they have to resort to purchasing counterfeits in order to have a taste of luxury life. According to the book Fashion-ology by Yuniya Kawamura, “Under these conditions, emulation or imitation is increasingly significant and meaningful as a strategy by means of which people lower in a given social hierarchy attempt to realize their aspirations towards higher status, modifying their behavior, their dress and the kind of goods they purchase” (Kawamura, 96). In other words, for those who purchase imitations to have a false reality of having a high social status, they know what they own is fake but at least they can project a false sense of wealth onto others. In a way it’s like living a lie, they can fool others but not themselves.

According to a website, buying imitations have become socially acceptable for consumers. Many people who regularly purchase counterfeits proudly tell others that they buy fakes. More and more people are choosing to buy fakes as oppose to the real thing because for one it’s cheaper and second they don’t see the point in paying the full price for the real thing.

As for the Compact Challenge, I’m proud to announce that this is the second to last week til the end of the challenge and I still haven’t purchase anything unnecessary. But this is partly due to the fact that I have not have the chance to consume this week, which isn’t a bad thing. Hopefully, I can turn this anti-consumption challenge into a personal habit.

Marcella Lee
Blog #5

[Inside source: Kawamura, Yuniya. Fashion-ology An Introduction to Fashion Studies. New York: Berg, 2005.]

[Outside source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jul/23/business.scamsandfraud]