Talk:Lifestyle

From Academic Kids

Copied from List of alternative lifestyles:

Some alternative lifestyles:

• Alcoholism
• Asexuality
• Atkins Nutritional Approach
• Bigotry
• Bisexuality
• Bodybuilding
• Bohemian
• Breatharianism
• Buddhism
• Chastity
• Christianity
• Farming
• Fetishism
• Heterosexuality
• Homelessness
• Lesbianism
• Marriage
• Monogamy
• Nomadism
• Parenthood
• Piracy
• Polyamory
• Poverty
• Quadrigamy
• S&M
• Sobriety
• Transvestism
• Vagrancy
• Vegetarianism
• Wealth

If Heterosexuality can be counted as a lifestyle, y not Homosexuality? --ILovEJPPitoC 06:06, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

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The word "lifestyle" apparently first appeared in 1939. (Previous generations may not have needed the concept. The concept is not relevant to a homogeneous society.)

Were most, or even many, societies really homogeneous before the 1930s? I can tell you already it is not so -- flappers come to mind, which were around in the 1920s. I'm sure there have always been heterogeneous groups in every society, we just don't know much about them, especially if the people of the time try to repress them and any memory of them. Often we know little about certain places in the past, having only a handful of documents of the time period. There could easily be important people in "different" groups who, it just happens, we don't know about. While the precise concept and word for "lifestyle" may not have been around since 1939, I think the general idea is timeless. - Furrykef 03:15, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

All societies are heterogenous (many gens, many types, many tribes). However, prior to the 20th Century heterogenaity was actively repressed by the dominant culture or the state. The first instance of social /tolerance/ of heterogenaity in class society could be the UK's tolerance of ultra-protestant dissenters. However, this is probably an example of an early capitalist state tolerating differentiation: dissenters were often astute capitalists. Describing cultural, religious, racial or ethnic minorities as "lifestyles" in the pre 20th century period is seriously a bit off. Fifelfoo 23:13, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps so, although I could argue about that, too. But the statement claimed that societies were homogeneous, and we agree that they weren't; whether heterogeneity was accepted or not has no bearing on if it was there. - Furrykef 01:44, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Moved commentary from article

I have moved the following from the article so it can be discussed. If we can arive at a conclusion that can be verified, then we can add that to the article.

Lifestyle is the logical extension of consumerism. We now choose our life like a hat, a car or the skin on our .mp3 player. There even appears to be a do-it-yourself movement, mentioned above, for people who enjoy playing with the existing machinery to make their own styles (see punk rock).

As pointed out concisely above, lifestyle describes a way of life that one acquires and also a standard set of images and words that companies can use to interact with their customers. This forms a feedback loop that reinforces who you are - theoretically, you become more and more like yourself (see narcissism). Anon.

On your first point that we choose between lifestyles in the same way that we choose between commercial products, I think is a simplistic view of human decision making processes. I do not think that we choose the punk rock lifestlye or the science nerd lifestyle or the nonconformist lifestyle or any other lifestyle. Lifestyles are not entities that a person chooses in their entirity. Lifestyles are not available to be "purchased" as a package. Nor do we consciously choose a lifestyle (in most cases). Instead we make thousands of small decisions that refect our individual aspirations and history. When a social scientist (like a sociologist) or an applied scientist (like a marketer) looks at the thousands of small decisions that we make, they look for patterns, and when they find a pattern that is common in the population they give it a label (such as the punk rock lifestyle). A lifestyle is not a package we choose to buy into, it is a label imposed on groups of people who make similar decisions. mydogategodshat 07:36, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)