AMST 3700 post #3

In reading "Building Suburbia" I am taken back first and foremost about how manipulated the average American was to buy a home in the suburbs. I guess it is because everyone at the time and even in today's society did so. According to the first chapter mass marketing was partly to be held responsible for a flood of families to planned neighborhoods during different times of the 19th and 20th century, and even today.

Living in a "neighborhood" created a micro society in each suburb of America that brought out new gender roles not seen in it's past. Men were often seen as the bread winners of the family that went to a job everyday and women were the ones who cooked cleaned and took care of the children. Advertisements and marketing were huge in making this picturesque ideal larger than life. Once this has been established, there became a flood of new businesses, transportation companies and owners of utility companies that were ready take advantage of the market.

This is very interesting to me because I feel like this still exists but in a more diverse way, with niches being taken care of too when it comes to advertising. For instance in the book the author writes about how hair salons were huge in flooding the suburbs. Now, there is more than just hair salons, there are nail salons, tanning salons and in most small cities there are even nail supply shops. You could open up your own store if you would like.