TY - JOUR
T1 - 'You can't use this, and you mustn't do that'
T2 - A qualitative study of non-consumption practices among Danish pregnant women and new mothers
AU - Gram, Malene
AU - Hohnen, Pernille
AU - Pedersen, Helle Dalsgaard
PY - 2017/7/1
Y1 - 2017/7/1
N2 - Anti-consumption literature focuses on consumers' reasons for avoiding certain products or brands emphasizing consumers' symbolic and/or political reasons for avoidance. Consumers' choices have assumedly been voluntary. In contrast, this article discusses anti-consumption as a less explicitly political but also less voluntary form of anti-consumption, termed non-consumption. The empirical data consist of nine in-depth interviews with Danish pregnant women and new mothers regarding potentially 'risky' products. The article shows how their avoidance of certain forms of consumption reflects their struggle to perceive themselves - and be perceived by others - as competent mothers(-to-be). Risk is avoided, minimized, modified or balanced against prevailing habits and discourses of womanhood such as the risk of parabens against ideals of beauty when using cosmetic products. The article contributes to the anti-consumption literature by offering insights into the highly normative but less explicitly political field of constrained consumption reflected in the everyday micro-consumption practices of Danish pregnant women and new mothers.
AB - Anti-consumption literature focuses on consumers' reasons for avoiding certain products or brands emphasizing consumers' symbolic and/or political reasons for avoidance. Consumers' choices have assumedly been voluntary. In contrast, this article discusses anti-consumption as a less explicitly political but also less voluntary form of anti-consumption, termed non-consumption. The empirical data consist of nine in-depth interviews with Danish pregnant women and new mothers regarding potentially 'risky' products. The article shows how their avoidance of certain forms of consumption reflects their struggle to perceive themselves - and be perceived by others - as competent mothers(-to-be). Risk is avoided, minimized, modified or balanced against prevailing habits and discourses of womanhood such as the risk of parabens against ideals of beauty when using cosmetic products. The article contributes to the anti-consumption literature by offering insights into the highly normative but less explicitly political field of constrained consumption reflected in the everyday micro-consumption practices of Danish pregnant women and new mothers.
KW - Denmark
KW - motherhood
KW - non-consumption
KW - Product avoidance
KW - qualitative research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85022054581&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1469540516646244
DO - 10.1177/1469540516646244
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85022054581
SN - 1469-5405
VL - 17
SP - 433
EP - 451
JO - Journal of Consumer Culture
JF - Journal of Consumer Culture
IS - 2
ER -