Making money out of leisure: The marketization of handicrafts and food blogging
Résumé
1.8 million handcrafters sell bags, clothes and jewelry on the web platform Etsy. Thousands of cooks make money from their blogs and commodify their food services (homemade meals, cookery classes, cookbooks…). These activities, as hobbies, were traditionally belittled because of their high feminization rate. In addition, economic profits from marketization are often extremely low. Then why do middle-class women engage and persist in such commodification? Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, the authors examine the social meaning of the marketization of handicrafts and food blogging. It often represents an offsetting activity begun during a hiatus in women’s trajectories. Non-economic benefits (sociability, social recognition…) sustain the commodification as well as the extra work it requires. Finally, the so-called empowering effects of marketization on women are discussed.