Commodification

A critical review: The Culture Industry The term culture industry, which created by those in power to maintain the status quo in terms of standardization and commodification was first developed by Ardono and Horkheimer based on the economic structure in the western society. It could be comprehended through the operation of cultural hegemony (i.e. how culture industry operates with the consent from the mass by the “dominant fundamental group”) that introduced by Gramsci. The following three…

Speaker, Anita Sarkeesian, in her video, Women As a Background Decoration, describes how women in video games are hyper-sexualized and most often recipients of violence. Sarkeesian’s purpose is to point out how women are portrayed as a “Non-Playable Sexual Object” and often degraded. She does an exemplary job at being effective in her argument by appealing to the three main rhetorical strategies and the specific language and style of her piece. Sarkeesian begins her video by firstly…

contemporary “mockbusters” and early horror film imitations or by embracing the commodity in excess. I will argue that the cult audience, through the marathon or the binge viewing of these horror cult classics, is in effect challenging the contemporary commodification of Halloween horror through cult audience…

In A.M Homes’s “With One Wheel Gone Wrong,” the commodification of the nameless protagonist suggests that her identity is fleeting until she has to buy it again. Indeed, the main character is the “perfect shopper… [who] prides herself on … buying in bulk … catnip and kitty litter [and] Pull-Ups and pomegranates” (Homes). The precise naming of these objects contrasts with her anonymity and suggests that she herself wants to become a commodity in order to be “perfect.” Thus, the protagonist has no…

Boys Don’t Cry, released in 1999 by director Kimberly Peirce, was adapted from the real life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was passing in rural Nebraska. After passing for some time and successfully dating local girls, Brandon was brutally beaten, raped, and murdered at the hands of two cisgender men who felt threatened by his masculinity. Peirce, with her “long-standing interest in transvestism and transsexuality,” sought to reclaim sensationalized media accounts of the 1993…

Larkins time spent doing fieldwork for her dissertation in Brazil’s largest favela Rocinha from 2008-2010. The book discusses themes of drug trafficker control within Rocinha and other favelas, the concept of spectacular violence, as well as the commodification of the trafficker image by Brazilian and foreign outsiders. Larkins dissects the role that violent spectacle plays in the everyday lives of favela residents and the ways that it is depicted in mediascapes and therefore commodified for…

In 1987, Toni Morrison published her novel, Beloved, examining the consequence of collective trauma experienced by many African Americans due to the monstrosity of slavery. The novel is based on the true story of a black slave woman, named Margaret Garner, who escaped her plantation and killed her own child in order to prevent her from returning to enslavement. In the novel, Margaret Garnet is portrayed by Sethe, who lives at 124 Bluestone Road with her only remaining child, Denver. The house is…

revealing her everyday life of dressing up her child. This practice incorporates what Boyd and Marwick see as a “performance” as Texan “reinforces social bonds” through connecting with audience by intimately sharing her child online (9). Thus the commodification of selling products is revealed as the costumes are labeled specifically by company brands. This promotion then encourages what Davies labels as a “taste of false luxury” as the audience is then encouraged to go out a “buy luxury” as a…

these sexually explicit urban areas. With increased tourism, more funding from such organizations like the World Bank are given to expand the areas of entertainment to keep tourist rates high (Poulin 2003: 38). Sex trade has developed into a commodification that is employed by the desires and fantasies of the open…

consequently devalues, disregards, and disrespects the life of the “stranger and neighbor.” And in doing so, intentionally undercutting any “theology” that is counter to the disease of commodification. Thus, reflecting the absolute devotion that the G-d of the “Market” demands of its followers—sanctifying (through commodification) the creation of the paradigm of marginalization—endangering the life and shared humanity of the entire human…