Scholarly Research and the Future of Body Aesthetics in the Sport Marketing Literature

Academy of Marketing Science Review,  2008  by S, George,  Konstantinakos, Pantelis D

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The Cartesian dualism of mind/body distinctions also gave rise to other metaphors of the body that privileged the mind over the body, such as "homoeconomicus." The use of such a metaphor creates a particular textual reality that appears to be fixed. Homoeconomicus forces us to think of human consumption behavior as primarily economic in character and eliminates consideration of other aspects of consumption, such as hedonism or symbolism. Maximization of gain and rationality have come to be regarded the cornerstones of economic activity. Even when consumers have been discussed in a context such as information processing, they have been regarded as rational problem solvers who carefully consider the objective features and functional benefits of products and services. The use of such a metaphor based on rationality brings to prominence the mind-body dualism that privileges the mind and cognitive activity over the body and emotional or physical labor (Bristor and Fischer 1993). As Hirschman (1993, p. 545) observes, from a marxist and/or feminist perspective, such ideology is distorted and incomplete, because it excludes all other forms of social behavior other than contractual relationships. The rational economic model of consumption has now given way to more affective modes of consumption, but the gendering of the consumer, as for instance in "man as computer," still is privileged in the literature (Belk 1987).

However, analyses that are more recent have highlighted a number of characteristics of consumption building upon the existing body of literature that have not been readily acknowledged in the past (see Table 1):

TABLE 1

Characteristics of Consumption Building upon the Existing Body of Literature

The above points are a selective summary of these recent studies, but highlight the seedchange in thinking about the nature, value and importance of consumption in shaping economic change and including innovation. In particular, such studies stress that to be an effective consumer involves time and resources. Thus they in part take up part of Lancaster's (1966, 1971, 1991) theory of consumer choice, in that the consumer needs to be an active agent and invest in time and resources to build up capabilities to consume effectively. These studies, in highlighting the development of consumer competences and routines, also echo and build upon Stigler and Becker's (1977, p. 78) neo-classical concept of the accumulation of 'consumption capital'. Just as innovations require considerable investment to produce, so do consumers need to invest in new capabilities and routines to consume them.

Body and post-modernism