Babytøj - et billede på den ideale mor: En undersøgelse af de symbolske betydninger som nybagte mødre knytter til forskelligt babytøj, og den rolle som babytøj spiller i konstruktionen af deres moderskabsidentitet

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to provide suppliers of baby clothing with an understanding of mothers’ use and consumption of baby clothing. The thesis examines how new mothers, in their use of baby clothing, deal with the image of the ideal mother – with special attention to the symbolic meanings they attach to different brands – and how baby clothing support them in their identity construction as mothers. The study is based on eight semi-structured interviews with new mothers. All interviews are audio recorded and transcribed resulting in 146 pages of interview text. In the analysis units are elected from the interview text and matched against the theoretical framework and through a social constructivist approach an interpretive explanation of the studied phenomenon is presented. The thesis draws on different theoretical frameworks within Interpretive Consumer Behavior. The analysis shows that mothers attach different symbolic meanings to different baby clothing, making baby clothing representative of an ideology of motherhood. Therefore, the individual mother can draw on different symbolic meanings from different baby clothing and thereby pursue to construct an identity as a good mother, - an identity that accommodates the ideology of motherhood.