Fat women, performance and subversive commodification on Ghanaian reality television.
Critics of weight loss reality shows often present the contestants as victims of commodification and exploitation without any form of agency. This paper seeks to contest this one-sided view of such shows. It draws on interviews with the producers and 19 contestants in the first season of a dance rea...
| Publicado en: | Media, Culture & Society Vol. 43; no. 7; pp. 1230 - 1247 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications, Ltd.
Oct2021
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=154068115&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 154068115 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01634437 MCS jtl: Media, Culture & Society issn: 01634437 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Oct2021 vid: 43 iid: 7 pid: 2171 pub: Sage Publications, Ltd. artinfo: ui: 154068115 10.1177/0163443721999925 ppf: 1230 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: Fat women, performance and subversive commodification on Ghanaian reality television. aug: au: Resario, Rashida Darkwah, Akosua K affil: University of Ghana, Ghana su: Ghana Reality television programs Overweight women Commodification Television program ratings Television stations Ghanaians sug: subj: Reality television programs Ghana Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling Television Broadcasting Overweight women Commodification Television program ratings Television stations Ghanaians keyword: dance obesity performance reality TV subversive commodification dance obesity performance reality TV subversive commodification ab: Critics of weight loss reality shows often present the contestants as victims of commodification and exploitation without any form of agency. This paper seeks to contest this one-sided view of such shows. It draws on interviews with the producers and 19 contestants in the first season of a dance reality show in Ghana, the Di Asa show, as well as recorded video performances online. We argue that indeed the show was organised in a manner that commodified the contestants for purposes of improving the ratings of the private television station that hosted the show. However, to read these contestants purely as commodified objects misses half the story. We demonstrate that these contestants participated in the show with parallel motives to that for which the producers created the show, and were successful in their endeavours. They thus engaged in what we call subversive commodification, a situation where the object of commodification actively takes part in the commodification process to gain benefits that accrue solely to them and not the subject of commodification. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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