Sexist Ads and the Shopping Mall

This perspective about the American Mall and the age of the consumer is shocking to me because I was raised as an American Mall-goer. I am the third generation of an seemingly endless age of middle class consumers. I see the behavior that Margaret Crawford describes in almost every woman in my family. Most of my aunts, grandmothers and my own mother are obsessed with the things they own and have, always wanting the "next variation" because satisfaction is just out of reach without the newest version. I believe this cyclical behavior of obsessive consumerism became instilled in women during the 1950s by the means of sexist ads. 

Shopping malls provide a diversion from the day-to-day and a pleasure in the cosmic universe of consumerism as described by Rem Koolhaas. So really the question is, is it the architecture that promotes this behavior or the mass of sexist advertising that is handed down, generation after generation? I believe the ads are to blame and the architecture actually just fosters this behavior. 

We need to keep in mind that extreme consumerism is not something that has been going on for a long time. Its a post-world war ideal. If we break the behavior and boycott the ads then we can break the shopping mall. The shopping mall is a place that I was taught to enjoy, by my mother. But as a designer and a critic of the built environment, I align more with Rem Koolhass, that Junkspace (like shopping malls) are like being in a perpetual jacuzzi with millions of your best friends. We are being condemned to the infinite recycled air of the HVAC system. 

Today, I believe that society is recognizing this rampant behavior and questioning it. Gender roles are shifting, the main consumer is not SOLELY the woman anymore. Ads are adjusting to empower women, which is the reason, I believe that I am able to reflect on myself and this hereditary behavior in my family. 

But then again, maybe gender ads have just made a 180 and the shopping mall is here to stay.