Women’s Shopping
Imagine you are walking uphill on a pavement along a broad street among the fast-moving crowd, with countless fashion boutiques to your left and far right. As you move forward, you can’t help but glance at both directions, where you find displays of mannequins clothed under stylish apparel with matching leather handbags and pretty shoes. You then think of yourself in the outfit, one by one from each collection, thrilled to step into each shop to try on those pretty things, but don’t know where to start. Then you see a lovely white dress that stands before you, and your world suddenly becomes enchanted with fluttering butterflies and songs of nature. You then walk towards the shop without a second thought, as if lured by the dress and its charms. Then you feel the smooth silk on your bare palms, and decide to try it on in the changing room right away. Later on you walk out of the shop with that dress in your hands and a smile on your face. That’s when you taste the zest of shopping.
Shopping is literally the purchase of goods that largely involves selection. We visit different stores in search of merchandise, and we bargain for the item we are looking for to an agreeable price. However, the modern popular culture has a whole new definition of shopping, especially for women. There is more to buying the items we listed beforehand before we start our shopping spree – there’s also temptation, emotion, competition, and of course, diamonds. After all, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
Every piece of a diamond is as precious as a woman. It is bold, beautiful, and valuable indeed. Everyone loves the sight of it, especially as a piece of jewelry to adorn a beautiful woman. Other women passing by will turn green just by looking at each of her graceful gestures, and turn to their men for cash, or strictly speaking, diamonds. Diamonds, because of their characteristics, possess power. Therefore, any woman who puts on a piece of diamond indicates her decent social status and respected family background. That is when competition comes in among women, and the burning temptation at the sight of these precious gemstones. Diamonds, too, play with emotions. That is why we don’t find it unusual when we hear a woman asking questions like “Money, or love?” Indeed, even a piece of jewelry alone can cause such problems. Ironically, this is also the case in shopping for clothes and accessories.
Just as diamonds have their characteristics, each type of apparel, too, have their own. A particular apparel design may fit only a specific group of person, depending on the personalities of these shoppers. With every new design released each year, new trends also arise every couple of years. These trends generate the same problems diamonds do. They have their appeal to lure women fighting for social class and recognition of power. This is also why women often bring home things they later regret having purchased. Take the example of the financial problem I have experienced when I first settle down in the States to further my education.
The problem I had was pretty radical. I thoughtlessly spent a total of US$600.00 within the first 3 months since I stepped foot on the United States without myself realizing, and that amount alone was devoted to shopping. Before the States, I have always been treated as a princess at home. My parents buy me gorgeous clothes without me asking for them. Therefore, I didn’t have to worry about financial matters at all. However, this simple life turned upside down when I entered college life abroad.
I understood that this is my chance to explore the world outside, and indeed, I was taken to huge cities such as Indianapolis, Chicago, and New York City. Thank goodness Lafayette is not an urban city where you can find lots of retail stores of famous clothing lines, because those cities were where I spent most of my money. When I visited those cities I mentioned before, I saw shops that I don’t see here in Lafayette and was so delighted that I frittered away US$200.00 within a flash of light. I browsed each dress, skirts, and shoes with brief glances, and picked out the ones that immediately caught my attention. These are the apparel that often appear on the runway from television shows and from fashion magazines. Although there are a few garments that later made me smile as wide as yours when you held your white silk dress, many of the others were not worth the purchase, because I don’t really like them all that much.
One example was the diamond pendant necklace I bought a few months ago. It looks a lot similar to the necklace worn by an actress who played the main role in a Korean drama I once watched. It’s because of a popular scene in that drama, where they showed how important Polaris is in giving directions that made the pendant design famous. The design has a series of stars in different sizes assembled into one vertical line, with one star that is embedded with diamond studs to resemble the brightness of Polaris. I decided to buy it the moment I recognized the pendant design from the drama, because, like I said before, the thought of wearing a diamond necklace would make me to be recognized as someone in a position of prestige. After a week or so, I realized how impulsive I was, but what’s worse is that I don’t think the design is unique at all.
This experience led me to feeling guilty and regretful. It urged me to think in such a way that that astronomical amount of money was given from my parents to support my costs of living. My parents worked hard to provide our family, and yet I spent the money carelessly on the things I don’t really need. Moreover, they aren’t the money single-handedly make. Soon I realized that the dainty skirts and linen jackets were unnecessary compared to the textbooks I needed. This difficulty mainly taught me the financial aspects of living independently, and thus I have learned how to spend my money wisely ever since.
Of course, there is nothing wrong in withdrawing a portion of your savings to purchase a lovely white dress from a shop you found in that crowded district. After all, you love the dress so much. However, I should warn you that there are still many women around that crowd who walk in and out of different stores with more and more shopping bags in their hands. As much as I’m curious to find out more about how to control ourselves during our shopping sprees, all I have to say for now is, waste not, and find a way to kill those burning temptations!
92/100
Stacia,
Again I can tell from your work on this assignment that you really enjoy writing. In each draft, you have made significant revisions. This time, I’m glad to see that you added the part about the diamond pendant necklace; you gave your reason for wanting it to buy it at that time as well as your description of why you felt dissatisfied later on.
I still think that you could insert yourself into the paper a little earlier; perhaps the second paragraph is a place where you could give a hint that you yourself will become the main focus later in the essay. And in the final paragraph, you could add a sentence or two to explain your “curiosity” about finding out more information related to this topic. Otherwise, your content is wonderful, and your writing style is full of life. Although I made a few comments about verb tenses and plural/singular nouns, I really like your writing style. I enjoyed reading this paper a lot!
No comments:
Post a Comment