“Reading” whiteness in consumer research

The concept of whiteness has been widely debated in the social sciences and humanities but has rarely surfaced as a theme in consumer research. This paper introduces whiteness theory as an additional theoretical perspective available to consumer researchers to add to those that are well established. The empirical section of the paper comprises a textual analysis of articles published in the Journal of Consumer Research from 1974–2004. The findings suggest that consumer research is dominated by “white faces” and “white spaces,” resulting in many investigators consciously or unconsciously performing whiteness. The ways whiteness can be re‐articulated to stimulate more interest within consumer research are discussed.