Pink tasks: Feminists and their preferences for premium beauty products

Abstract

Consumers of different genders often have different consumption habits, especially pertaining to routine, daily practices. Anecdotal evidence, as well as scholarly research, suggests that feminists may experience conflicting pressures surrounding consumption associated with a feminine identity—such as applying make‐up, shaving one's legs, keeping fingernails manicured, and styling one's hair. We investigate how consumption experiences surrounding beauty work differ for feminists and nonfeminists. Employing a variety of methods—including online experiments (Studies 1 and 4), secondary data (Study 2), and a behavioral study (Study 3)—we demonstrate that feminists report higher preferences for premium beauty products than nonfeminists. Feminists’ preferences stem from associating beauty work with feelings of empowerment or, more specifically, self‐determination. We discuss implications for our work and conclude with a call for additional research examining how consumers experience consumption dictated by social standards and expectations rather than individual choice.

Are brands that perform gendered product differentiation perceived as sexist? An experimental investigation

“…Finally, this research adds to the emerging stream of research on feminist consumers and how they respond to marketing stimuli (e.g. Choi et al, 2020;Harrold et al, 2023). The present research shows that consumers with a strong feminist identity are more likely to perceive brands that perform gendered product differentiation as sexist.…”

Generation Z's psychology and new‐age technologies: Implications for future research

“…Hence, future research can explore how individuals in this generation, given the challenges they face in the context of social media, smartphones, and online gaming, would perceive and behave in an enhanced virtual environment (such as the metaverse) and compare this with findings in relation to earlier technologies. In addition, we encourage researchers to extend the findings of previous research on Gen Z body image and selfconcept (e.g., Harrold et al, 2023) by exploring how this generation makes decisions about the avatars that represent them in the metaverse.…”