Greek Women's Desired and Undesired Selves: Identity Conflicts and Consumption

Greek women's desired
and undesired selves ,
identity conflicts and
consumption
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Table of Contents
Comparison of Maria's and Nancy's stories, Similarities and Differences......................................3
Example of when I had an identity conflict.....................................................................................5
(a) What did I do to work through that.......................................................................................5
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Comparison of Maria's and Nancy's stories, Similarities and Differences
Maria was 46 years old and lived with her husband, daughter and son. All her goals were
primarily focussed on her children. Two of her most prices possessions were her house and a
necklace, which she bought on the birth of her daughter (Corneau, 2018). Maria never took the
necklace off and thought that if she lost it, she would die from a broken heart. Whereas Nancy
was 31 years old and lived with her parents. She had been in a long distance relationship for over
2 years and thus valued her mobile phone as well as car the most. Her desire was to me more
knowledgeable and stand out from others as a result of which she started travelling because she
felt that through this, she will be able to learn new things.
Similarities
Both women had their own priced possessions that had a meaning behind them. For
example- Maria bought the necklace when her daughter was born and always wore it without
taking it off. She did this because she associated the necklace with her daughter, i.e.,
irreplaceable. Similarly, Nancy also valued her car and her mobile phone the most as she had a
point that the phone enabled her to communicate with her partner whom she was in a long
distance relationship with for over two years and her friends. Also, she gave a name to her car
and valued it as it gave her a sense of security and that she did not had to depend on anyone for
transportation and could go wherever she wanted anytime. Both women had a deep connection
with their respective possessions and took care of the same at all times. Therefore, it can be said
that products and services play an important role in consumers' lives.
Both Maria as well as Nancy faced dilemmas in their lives like Maria thought that she
was neglecting her house and children whenever she dressed up and went out with her friends for
entertainment. She had stopped taking care of herself and and did everything for her daughter.
Only if any time, money and energy was left, she would do something for herself. On the other
hand, Nancy was dissatisfied with not being financially independent completely and having to
liver with her parents for this reason (Karanika and Hogg, 2020). Thus, different views of
customers about themselves play a very important role in their consumption of a particular
product or service. Both women had their own share of difficulties and opted for strategies that
they thought will help them come over the same.
Differences
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