ABSTRACT
Karl Marx (1976) introduced the term “commodity” to describe a good or service that “enters” the (capitalist) economic system. Marx distinguished between the “use value” of an object/good versus its “exchange value.” 1 Whereas the use value of an object (e.g., a doll) is dependent on the costs associated with its production and distribution, its exchange value is variably influenced by the particular cultural desires and wishes (or fetish, if you will) associated with (owning) the object (doll). Hence, Marx utilized the terms commodification and commodity fetishism to characterize the complex dynamics of both subjectification and objectification in processes of “consumption” of goods and services in capitalist economies.
