Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 66

62

Popular Culture Review

to interact with one another. Consumption takes place in isolation, in the private
sphere of the home. Consumption takes place outside of its usual context, the public
marketplace.
Another problem is that on-line shopping is an elite form of consumption. It is
estimated that two-thirds of all U.S. households will have access to the Internet by
the turn of the century. At the present time, however, it is estimated that only about
one-fifth of all U.S. households have access to the Internet (Spence 33).
These elite consumers buy and are encouraged to buy nostalgia-based products
at the Martha Stewart Web store. The Perfect Pie Kit is just one such example
illustrating this appeal to nostalgia. The description of this forty-eight dollar kit
reads, “Nothing tantalizes the senses like the smell of a pie baking in the oven.
One whiff and you instantly feel comforted. Treat your family (and yourself) to
some of that old-tim e, home-baked goodness; it’s never been easier”
(www.marthastewart.com, accessed July 28, 1998). The pie plate looks similar to
“the highly collectible tins from pie bakeries of long ago.” Of course, the related
product is a pie basket, the perfect way to transport the perfect pie to a picnic.
If this brings to mind a calm, comfortable, traditional leisure activity for the
weekend, there may a reason for your nostalgic feelings. Bonnie Dow, describing
television content, claims that nostalgia may be an antidote “to the perceived
instability and incoherence of postmodernism” (171). Further, she asserts that
“nostalgic cultural forms go beyond simple sentimentality; they are reactions to
and symptoms of postmodernity that are both opposed to and inflected by the
times in which they are produced” (171). MSLO seems to be applying Dow’s
notion of nostalgia in it’s marketing practices. The success of MSLO may be due,
in part, to the fact that many women find themselves at odds with the ambivalence
of postmodern society. It may be comforting to use the same kinds of products that
Granny would have used, products recalled with a degree of fondness by today’s
women. The MSLO nostalgia products are marketed on the notion that women
want to be good homekeepers. MSLO encourages women to assume or resume the
traditional role of wife and mother.
Johnson describes the traditional role of wife and mother as a weak role, a role
outside of the public sphere and a role in which women need to be behaviorally
attractive to their husbands (269). A supportive behavior might take the form of
housewifery and women would therefore engage in cooking, gardening, decorating,
entertaining and providing costumes and treats for children at every holiday.
Interestingly, these are precisely the product categories for the MSLO products.
Hall and Neitz claim that women’s work is consumption (107); the MSLO line of
products featured at the Martha By Mail Web store provides many opportunities
for this sort of work.
The preceding analysis of on-line shopping suggests several implications for