Teenage consumption of cleanliness

1. Teenage consumption of cleanliness Kirsten Gram-Hanssen Kitchens and bathrooms, 27-28 January 2005 The University of Manchester, UK

2. Background • One third of water and energy is consumed in the households • Teenagers consumes more electricity and water than average adults • From a environmental point of view teenage consumption of cleanliness is interesting • Teenage years: Where norms and habits are established

3. Teenager-effect

4. The study • Qualitative interviews with nine families • Teenagers and parents together • Questions of daily habits of changing clothes and showering • Questions related to how norms are negotiated and established

5. The presentation • Norms and variations in the habits • Theoretical interpretations: • Habitus as a way of understanding habits • Lifestyle, peer-groups and reflectivity • Hedonism or risk handling • Routines and technology in everyday life consumption • Cultural understandings of clean and unclean

6. Norms in the habits • No smell of sweat!!! • A bath a day, even though not all do it • Change at least socks and underwear every day • Sports demands more showers and clothes washing • Socks are disgusting, under pants are not mentioned

7. Variations in the habits “The most clean” • Shower once or twice a day. Change everything every day, including towels: 5 loads/person/week. “We have to wash all the laundry” “The least clean” • Shower once or twice a week. Only change socks and underwear every day: less than 1 load/person/week “If you need to shower every day at least you can make them short”

8. Theoretical interpretations Bourdieu: Habitus as a way of understanding habits • Pre-conscious and pre-verbal relation between agent and structure • Habitus express and sustain social status and class Teenage cleanliness • Easy to find habits transferred from one generation to next • Difficult to find relations between social classes and cleanliness. • Within or without the norm, that is important

9. Theoretical interpretations Lifestyle, peer-group and reflectivity • When classes disappear you must create your own identity • Teenagers especially concerned about their peer-group Teenage cleanliness • Strong pressure towards cleanliness among the young “They told me I smelled and then I decided to go home” • Show maturity rather than group belonging “When you grow older you do it every day”

10. Theoretical interpretations Hedonism or risk handling • Pleasures and daydreams of consumption • Reflectivity in handling global and personal risks Teenage cleanliness • Showering is necessary not fun, and bathing is boring • Environmental concern do not influence level of cleanliness but maybe the length of the bath • Dry skin and allergic reaction as an argument against often bathing

11. Theoretical interpretations Routines and technology in everyday life consumption • Ordinary or conspicuous consumption • Dependencies between social structure and technology Teenage cleanliness • Routines are also grounded on social norms • Technology analysis more relevant historically

12. Theoretical interpretations Cultural understandings of clean and unclean • Absolute dirt exists only in the eye of the beholder • Dirt is disorder, matter out of place • Strongest taboos about the orifices of the body Teenage cleanliness • Dirt is primarily from inside the body not outside • Smell of sweat is absolutely not accepted • Clothes washing is not only about sweat but also about order

13. Conclusions • Smell more that dirt. From inside more than outside • Showering is only about cleanliness whereas clothes washing also is about order • Habitus: how norms is passed on from parents to children • Cleanliness is not about social classes • Strong pressure from peer-group on cleanliness • Not much hedonism, risk handling or self producing • More about basic cultural understanding of hygiene