Glossy commercial imagery shapes working-class desire toward aspirational consumption

Evidence

As the Doll has learned early on, money brings a degree of freedom. She fetishizes designer goods and dreams of making enough money from stripping and dancing for rich clients to leave the adult-entertainment business. She is aware of the attraction of wealth and power, inscribed in the glossy commercial images encountered everywhere in day-to-day life. Her ambition is to buy an apartment, transform it in line with the popular styles touted on makeover shows and in magazines, and then “trade up,” preferring, while working under the lascivious gaze of her audience, to focus on “all the things money could buy … all the things money made her feel” (34). — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 360

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to Naqvi’s Home Boy, where the narrator’s immigrant aspirations are shaped by flashy American consumer imagery before 9/11 shatters them.