Discipline And Resist:Power, Body And Reality TV

In Contemporary society, patriarchy and consumerism ideology closely interacte, together control and construct the female body. Under the control of patriarchy, women’s bodies plunged into the traps devised by consumerism ideology.Now a monitoring mechanism established by media technology and women’s self-control formed a more rigorous and subtler discipline mechanism.Reality TV, is currently the most popular site involved female body. One of the most popular reality TV shows in China, "If You Are the One", which provides a perfect model for investigating the issues of body and power. This dissertation has explored that in the discipline mechanism created by patriarchy and consumerism ideology,Reality TV’presentation and reconstruction of the female bodybring impact on female college students, especially their subjectivity.Based on Foucaut’s theory of discipline power, this dissertation employed a gender specific perspective and built a discipline power-female body-reality TV research framework. Through the analysis of the text and audience, especially the female college student audience analysis, this disssertation has got the following conclusions.First,patriarchyandconsumerismideology conspire "slim", "beauty","feminine" and "good wife and loving mother" discourse strategies to control the female body. Patriarchy and consumerism ideology interact closely in the site of female body, and together create a fabricated and rigorous discipline technology-"slim", "beauty", "feminine" and "good wife and loving mother" discourse, encroach on the women’s self-awareness, and even make women enter a kind of illusion,they were empowerd. And therefore,they perform physical discipline practices more actively, control and supervise tthemselves more rigorouly. They supervise other women at the same time.Second, "If You Are the One" "really" presents and reconstructs a "female body landscape",whic brings impact on female college students."If You Are the One" meets and reshapes female body discipline mechanism, presents slim, beautiful, feminine "body landscape". In the process of "real" presentation and reconstruction of female body, "If You Are the One "also has become a discipline space of female body and joined the mechanism’s operation of discipline power.Female college students is the main audience group, who has been trained by " reality TV language". Spectatorship refers to a process of normalization. Reality TV reshaped the gendered body discipline mechanism, limits the initiative and creativity of the bodies of female college students, and therefore affect their reading of presented female body,Third, in post-disciplinary society, female owns resistance strategies through body and the possibilities of subject construction. Patriarchy, consumerism, and media culture on the basis of the regulation jointly create a "post-disciplinary society". In post-disciplinary society, Discipline power’s dictatorship is much subtler and more rigorous. This dissertation has found that women resisit discipline power mechanism by some strategies such as refusing losing weight, refusing feminine dress-up, and independent consumption. Through the discourse resistance in the field of subjectivity,female challenges gender norms, and construct female discourse in the subject position.At last, female intellectuals should actively participate in the construction of female discourse,and seek for dialogue and cooperation with men. Female subjectivity constuction is not just an academic research, but a kind of practice and activity. Female intellectuals should actively enter the public discourse spaces, construct female discourse, and cooperate with alienated men. For example, through Mircblog and BBS,female intellectuals may speak independently andgradually constuct female discourse.The first chapter, is an introduction of the dissertation.The second chapter discusses "If You Are the One" has built a "real" situation for women, and fabricated female guests. The second chapter focuses on the disciplinary strategies for female body appearance and the "real" presentation of the female body. The fourth chapter probes into the disciplinary strategies for female body movements"If You Are the One" itself also became a discipline space of female body through the reconstruction of the female body and involved in the operation of the disciplinary mechanism. The fifth chapter explores the female college students’ reading of presented body, and discusses possibilities of female subjectivity from subject positions. The last chapter makes conclusions and further discussions.