Consumption trends of the young people in the context of gender: Case study of Akdeniz University

The individual who participates in the family with the biological characteristics of the feminine or masculine identity learns to be male or female, by adopting the social values and norms surrounding the process of socialization. Thus, biologically innate sex, social values, and norms are adopted and internalized into gender. The construction of femininity and masculinity in every society occurs within a range of social and cultural values. It also has an impact on gender roles of women and men who have a significant influence on many aspects of social life such as family, education, working life. Consumption patterns in the postmodern era have emerged as a means of determining the identities of individuals. Just as the station (public state) of individuals change in direct proportion to their consumption, it also makes a difference in the consumption trends of men and women. In this context, in this master thesis, it is aimed to investigate the consumption trends of the young people studying at Akdeniz University in gender context. In a qualitative research study, a total of 52 students were interviewed in depth, as 26 female and 26 male students from Literature and Engineering faculties. As a result of the research, it is observed that both men and women are interested in shopping, but that women spend more time shopping than men. It is understood mainly in the frame of gender-based femininity and masculinity values that female students are more interested in clothing, cosmetics, and household goods while male students mostly buy technological products, sporting goods, and automobile products, and male students are also interested in care and cosmetics products. It has been understood that men also tend to have attentive and well-behaved bodies such as women, with a tendency to move away from the traditional sexist role patterns. To summarize, although shopping is identified with women, it is concluded that as a characteristic of consumer society, both men and women tend to have an intensive consumption tendency, but the products they buy differ according to their gender.