Does The Media Make Female Financial Irresponsibility OK?
From real-life and fictional role models to lifestyle media, are women being conditioned to think that maxing out their credit cards, taking on a big mortgages and driving / carrying / sporting the latest and greatest is a basic way of life? As I’m in the final stages of completing my Diploma in Financial Planning, I’ve apparently become hypersensitive to this undercurrent that seems to run through our media and entertainment sources.
Think it’s all in my head? Carrie Bradshaw in Sex And The City once famously announced that she’d spent $40,000 on shoes and as a result had no money for a home deposit. Recently, an Australian publication, Shop ‘Til You Drop promoted a new diffusion line from a local Australian designer for a chain store and tacked on the end of this information “sorry, bank manager”. My fiancee’s assessment when I mentioned this amounted to the idea that ‘Shop ‘Til You Drop’ is not a financially sensible title. What did you expect?’.
It seems to me that there is an ongoing belief that if women are passionate about something; cars, fashion, sport, whatever then they can’t enjoy it in a fiscally sound way. Perhaps this is a throw-back to days gone by where women were largely considered to be incapable of managing financial affairs. Today though, we cling to this notion as though it’s not okay, as a woman, to say you’re financially secure and damnit, you can afford the designer shoes on your feet and the car that you drive.
When coupled with the instant gratification mindset that has gripped society in the last 20 years, this ongoing innuendo that encourages financial irresponsibility has the power to not only prevent women from achieving financial independence, but also has the added affect of making us financially dependent if we don’t recognise it for what it is. That is, the vocalisation of society’s belief that women can’t handle money. Moreover, that it’s not only OK – it’s almost expected that you can’t mange your cash sensibly. But then, perhaps it’s the truth.
Did Destiny’s Child teach us nothing?
