Big Brother is monitoring

This chapter explores how a feminist surveillance studies approach can help interrogate and understand the elisions in consumer culture between digital technologies, surveillance and gender. We provide an overview of extant literature that explores these intersections at the levels of individuals, their social relations and the broader constitution of consumer categories. This ranges from wearable technologies that record individual moods, activities and biometrics giving rise to the ‘quantified self’; to apps that structure and facilitate our social relationships and how we appear to others; through to the organisation and valuing of consumers through data generated profiles. Across these topics, we discuss how a feminist surveillance lens offers insights into the gendered dynamics at play. Finally, we map directions for future research for gender and feminist scholars in consumer research and marketing to understand the gendered implications of digital technology consumption intensifying tracking and monitoring in our lives.