The Edamame Menace Part II: Boutique Mentality

In Part II of The Edamame Menace, I begin looking at the concept of the Boutique Mentality, a riptide cultural phenomenon that is sweeping across the world dragging millions of people into waters that are way too deep for them.

In today’s world we are being acculturated to develop an insatiable desire for expensive things. Everywhere we turn, we are bombarded with shows of wealth, luxury and exclusivity. We can’t escape it.

This constant pressure is overwhelming families from every social-economic status. Elementary school aged children must have designer shoes and jeans. If they don’t have the latest, greatest fashion, with a famous name splashed all over it, these children claim they will be ostracized by the other children in their school. Never mind the fact that these very expensive shoes will have to be replaced two or three times during a school year because children, in the course of being children playing on paved playgrounds, are very hard on shoes and wear them out quickly. In addition to these shoes breaking down, it ignores the fact that their feet will grow one or two sizes during the school year, Personally, I find it reprehensible to pay for holes in new jeans that would naturally appear through the hard wear. However, many responsible parents will not permit children to engage in childhood play in these expensive jeans. “You’re not wearing those jeans outside to play in and get dirty.

However, parents are not immune from the same marketing pressure as their children. Conscientious parents who want to help their children get ahead socially or educationally in school, get caught up in the brand name frenzy, and buy into every fashion or technological fad that comes along. Every elementary school child must have his or her own game boy and smart phone. If you don’t have a facebook page by the time you’re twelve, you’ll never be part of the in-group or A-crowd.

So that their children do not lose out academically in school, these parents buy the latest technological advances and educational add-ons . They pay for tutors to help their prize children achieve their full potential. Private music, dance lessons, and summer camps for high achievers are in great demand.

The pressure is intensified when the students reach Junior High School. Now they must have the latest, in-vogue sneakers or boots, and the most recent fashion releases from their teen-age sports or music idols. Fads are sparked by celebrities appearing on television. The fans must look just like their idols. So they have to have the brand name clothes. Only the authentic will do. They “wouldn’t be caught dead, in any cheap imitation.” They must also have the expensive pit tickets to their idols’ concerts. You’re not part of the action, if you get stuck in the balcony or have to wait to see the concert on the DVD or the pirated Youtube video.

For the boys who want to be sports stars, their sneakers must bear their sports idol’s name. This generally means it must come from an exclusive and expensive store, a sporting boutique. We are continually sold a bill of goods. “It is the shoes that makes the kid jump higher and run faster.”

This is the American dream. There’s one problem with this dream. It is a reality to only at most 20% of the American population.  For the rest of America, it’s really only a nightmare. Far more than half of the American families only see pictures of this life style. They have no opportunity to participate in it. Their family incomes are at or below a subsistence level of living. The cities they live in are falling apart, taxed to the max, and wracked with drugs and crime. Their schools are bankrupt and in disrepair.

In the next posts in this series, I will speak to what happens when children reach high school and college age. Unbelievably the pressures don’t decrease. They only intensify. What happens when young adolescents find themselves under the gun to succeed in a world for which they are not prepared?

Later in the series, I will also speak about the pressures on adults and organizations, including churches, schools, corporations, governments, and the health care industry. Where can we turn for answers and remedies? I am reminded of the modern folk classic “Turn, turn, turn.” written by Pete Seeger, who relied extensively on Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes.

 

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late

It seems to return us to the last line of the Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts, “Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.”