Crossing boundaries/drawing lines: A look at the nature of gender boundaries and their impact on marketing research

Abstract

In this work I am concerned with the ways in which gender based knowledge is created and sustained in marketing research, and its increasing odds with postmodern phenomena. Drawing from personal testimony, scholarly texts, film, advertisements and music videos, I highlight crossing gender boundaries in marketing and consumer behavior, i.e., movement across lines that demarcate male/masculine and female/ feminine consumer cultures in the U.S. Marketing research implications of these gender crossings focus on: (1) the bias of the masculine subject position, (2) the limitations of the dichotomous treatment of gender, and (3) the absence of individual agency.