Consumerism, Stress & The Male Psyche

[Victoria]

Another interesting piece, this time, which I found on a blog which describes its purpose as, "Sociology, Criminology, Self-indulgery*". Heh.

"When i give a lecture, i accept that people look at their watches...

... but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped. - marcel archard

characteristically, the sunday times dug up a book attributing the rise of the $8,000 handbag to modern female psychology: "overworked, emotionally starved and unlucky in love, they seek the “security blanket” of the perfect leather sidekick." uh, no. the phenomenon looks like classic veblenian economic sociology to me. as for gender, dudes have done the same thing for years.

(-ed Vbarret: Ugh, don't get me started on Veblen and his "Theory on the Leisure Class")

flipping through a men's magazine (no, not that kind of men's magazine), i couldn't believe all the advertisements for high-end watches. it would appear that wealthy men are just as overworked, emotionally starved, and unlucky in love as wealthy women. tiger woods, uma thurman, and all manner of celebrities and sports figures were trying to sell me $5,000 timepieces.

my current watch, purchased for $15 at target a few years ago, is shown above.*

(-ed Vbarrett: Actually, like many objects at Target, a chain store which "targets" working middle-class people in the US, it looks good and is decently priced. I wouldn't wear it, but it's not odious)

even if i could afford it, it seems really silly to spend more than a few dollars on a watch today. a generation ago, an expensive watch would have delivered vastly superior functionality and accuracy relative to a cheap watch. today, the cheap ones function quite well and the kids tell time via cell phone rather than wristwatch anyway. rolexes are flashier, i suppose, but some very flashy cheap watches are available at any dollar store if one is so inclined. some of the shady ones even say rolex right on the dial.

they look sort of like those cartoonishly masculine super bowl rings to me, shouting "behold my power! my thick and muscular bejeweled accessories are not girly at all!"

(-ed. Remember Joe Montana and his "Panerai"? Here he is with his Super Bowl haul)

i've learned that i'm not personally cut out for a rolex, since i once drew laughs by pronouncing their submariner model as submareener rather than sub-mariner. this one is more my style.

(-ed. VBarrett: )

but i shouldn't be too picky. if you just have to get me something for the holidays, i'm more partial to patek philippe for dress and bell & ross for knockin' around. who knows? someday i might need to blog from 11,000 meters.

From: hxxp://chrisuggen.blogspot.com/2006/11/when-i-give-lecture-i-accept-that.html (change xx to tt)

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So, what do you think, RWG males?

Are you really "overworked, emotionally starved, and unlucky in love", and hence your interest in high-end watches?

Or do you do so to assert your natural superiority amongst the great unwashed who blissfully just wear Timexes?

By the way, one of the best ripostes to Veblen's theories was by none other than maverick American journalist, H.L. Mencken. He said this about our consumer motivations:

"Do I enjoy a decent bath because I know that John Smith cannot afford one - or because I delight in being clean?"

[Pugwash]

Are you really "overworked, emotionally starved, and unlucky in love", and hence your interest in high-end watches?

No, we're merely pretending to be, hence our replicas.

[cranium]

Nice one, Pug.

My take is that men aren't so much "overworked, emotionally starved, and unlucky in love" as much as that we are just easily amused.

Since childhood, boys are (for the most part) fascinated with Legos, toy cars, guns and swords, and of course, seeing how far they can pee (which has nothing to do with this post). Watches are yet another hobby that starts small and then winds out of control ... I know men who collect stamps, guitars, toy trains, masks, it goes on ... not necessarily because they're emotionally starved, more so because it's just in our nature. We are fascinated by how things work.

And speaking of Veblan ... yes, a complete absence of vested interest and the absolute pursuit of pragmatic philosophy could make our economy more efficient, but it sure would be boring. I'm guessing this Chris guy spends thousands of dollars a year on computer gear, or music, or books, or 60" plasma TVs, or whatever. In fact, from the looks of it, he spends a great deal of time working on perfecting his 80's hair-do. But he sure is proud that he wears a $15 watch.

[Victoria]

My take is that men aren't so much "overworked, emotionally starved, and unlucky in love" as much as that we are just easily amused.

More so than that -- you like to challenge. This is why male humour tends towards the childish, like fart sounds.

Again, neither here nor there to the topic at hand. Just thought I'd throw that out, so to speak.

Since childhood, boys are (for the most part) fascinated with Legos, toy cars, guns and swords, and of course, seeing how far they can pee (which has nothing to do with this post).

I think that has EVERYTHING to do with this post! Again, about challenge, even with the self.

Watches are yet another hobby that starts small and then winds out of control ... I know men who collect stamps, guitars, toy trains, masks, it goes on ... not necessarily because they're emotionally starved, more so because it's just in our nature. We are fascinated by how things work.

Yes.

I'd just like to note that I collect militaria, and like my father, was a philatelist when young. I specialised in Romanian stamps. Don't ask.

And speaking of Veblan ... yes, a complete absence of vested interest and the absolute pursuit of pragmatic philosophy could make our economy more efficient, but it sure would be boring.

Utilitarianism would be just as boring, however laudable Jeremy Bentham calculated everything in its most logical form. There is something very cold and unnatural about such utopian people, like Bentham and Veblen.

I'm guessing this Chris guy spends thousands of dollars a year on computer gear, or music, or books, or 60" plasma TVs, or whatever.

RIGHT! I'm glad you brought that up. Although he does note he likes Patek Phillippe and B&R watches, at the end, which reforms him from mere self-righteous posturing.

In fact, from the looks of it, he spends a great deal of time working on perfecting his 80's hair-do.

LOL! An A. Whitney Brown effete intellectual Supercuts special.

But he sure is proud that he wears a $15 watch.

Quite.

He is the reverse of what I would imagine 99% of us here are -- proud of always being practical above the mere consumer-numbing tastes of richies and poseurs, as he sees us.

I especially like his dig at athletes and their love of jewelry. The tiniest inference that these macho men are in truth closet cases.

[TeeJay]

LOL! An A. Whitney Brown effete intellectual Supercuts special.

That's a nice way of saying 'comb-over'

[Desuetude]

Precisely. I disassembled and reassembled pretty much everything in my house until...well basically until I moved out I shouldn't even get started with the borderline felonious things I did with cars as a teenager. I generally buy things because I have a genuine appreciation for them. I own some watches that are totally unknown to anyone except the true watch cognoscenti. Do I find that others are often interested in what watch I happen to be wearing? Absolutely...but I certainly didn't buy the watch to get that reaction. If they happen to react the same way I did to a given watch, then I give them respect for having good taste . If not, it's fine...I didn't buy the watch for them anyway.

And I don't feel overworked...I'd go crazy if I wasn't working hard. I am happy, emotionally fulfilled. I'm certainly not unlucky in both platonic and romantic love. I just think that the writer is bitter, and feels a need pat his own back. He's the one who appears to be emotionally unfulfilled.

Well said, Cranium. I like to tear things apart and put them back together again, and I love how little mechanisms work. I love to fix carburetors and I love to get the timing on a race engine juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust right. I admire fine craftsmanship and good art, and to me a mechanical watch embodies all these things.

I wouldn't give a dime for a quartz watch... too uninteresting. In fact I'd rather wear a Swatch mechanical than the highest end quartz chrono-mega-ultra-machismo-doodad.

Just don't get us males started on the interest in BIG watches.