part i don't get

Liz part of that scene is about the subliminal message throughout the film that there are some in this world who think objects equal importance. The guy in the film is an object, the fashion is an object, the vehicles are objects. Everything is so objectified that real truth doesnt exist. At least not for these characters.

Think aobut how many friends you have who've told you they have the "perfect image" of a relationship. Within thier mins they have assembled the "perfect wedding" with their image of the "perfect freinds". Everything in their fantasy are interchangable peices.

The hairspray in the film is one of the center peices that the writer wanted you to focus on because hairspray and the 80's go hand in hand. The scene was a little overdone in my opinion. I knew women who used hairspray in the 80's and i never saw them fight over it. Yet, thats what makes the scene a little funny in my opinion that these women would fight over hairspray.

It would be like me and my freinds fighting over a can of soul glow (hair relaxer featured in Eddie murphy's film Coming to America)

I doubt it has anything to do with materialism or the important placed on objects. I think it was just to show how childish the two characters are and this basically supports why they are so dependent on men and are so naive/ desperate.