Analyzing Women's Commodified Sexuality as an Erotic Power

Abstract

This study examines how the depiction of women in the web show Who’s That Girl produced by flippish.com substantiates the issue of commodification and the implications of such portrayals on women’s expression of their sexuality. It emphasizes how the camera visually portrays women and how it affects women’s behavior in the show and men’s behavior toward women featured as Who’s That Girl babes—selected female subjects who completed the challenges and dares of the web show’s producers. The researchers conducted textual analysis to describe the extent of commodification of women methodologically complemented by focus interviews with a sociologist and with the producer of the web show. Results reveal that women are commodified in the web show and their expression of sexuality show an implicit emerging resistance from male domination and commodification by expressing their sexuality in front of the camera as an erotic power—challenging the so-called powerlessness of women in the hands of men.