Jinghan's core post #2 The consumerism in female marketplace from Now Voyager to Gossip Girl

        Although it's been two years since the last episode of Gossip Girl has aired, I still remember the buying spree that Gossip Girl has brought to us, especially its influence in the market of female consumers. At the time, I was in China when the first episode released by the CW. It was not a hit show yet. But then when it comes to the second season, all of the sudden everyone, even boys started  talking about their dress, their lifestyle, their elegant home in the upper east side, and their limos. The hot conversations about Gossip Girl were everywhere in big streets and small alleys. However, no one cared about the acting, all people were talking about is just what they have wore and used in the latest episode. On a Chinese electronic commerce website, "same style as the one appears in Gossip Girl" has became the hot words. Yes that's what phenomenon Gossip Girl has caused in China, 10000 miles away from where the CW shoots the drama.
        Later, when I came to the U.S., my first time visiting Roger Vivier, the sales assistant at the Neiman Marcus specifically told me there were one shoes is the same style as Blair's when she met the prince. And she said, "it's sold out everywhere, we only have this last one left". Subsequently, I learned whatever the brand was, as long as it has appeared in this show, its sales boosted. Although most of the brands that appeared in Gossip Girl are luxurious brands, people (I mean women here) were still scrambled for having those merchandises. We want to look like Blair or Serena, but we forget that those two girls don't have to pay for those merchandises, those brands sponsored them. Until now, I just learned from Eckert that Hollywood plunge into American marketplace has started from 1920s. And I found the two histories he mentions are very true and clear: that of the showcasing of fashions, furnishings, accessories, cosmetics and other manufactured items, and that of the establishment of ‘tie-ups’ with brand-name manufacturers, corporations and industries.

        Also, the fans phenomena he writes in his article--
While DeMille perfected a film display aimed at the fashion conscious, fan magazines and studio publicity photos helped spread an indigenous Hollywood ‘outdoors’ style made up of backless bathing suits, pedal-pushers, slacks, toppers and skirts. By the early 1930s these styles had penetrated the smallest of American small towns and had revolutionised recreational and sport dress.
I think this is exactly what I'm talking about in terms of the stars power reflected from Gossip Girl.
         What is more, I could not agree more with Gledhill's criticize on the "notion that identity is defined by the opinions of others, whose approval and disapproval create the self, and that these judgments are based primarily on a woman's appearance" in Now, Voyager. In fact, I think this notion has been existed and has been the mainstream ideology even until now. Otherwise there will not be women who spend time on loosing weight, keeping a diet, going to beauty salons, and above all, became so crazy try to get whatever the star has used in her films or television dramas.