Sponsor
Hatfield School of Government. Department of Political Science
First Advisor
Nathan Gies
Term of Graduation
Summer 2023
Date of Publication
8-24-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science
Department
Political Science
Language
English
Subjects
affect, democratic decline, marriage, neoliberalism, parasocial relationships, reality television
DOI
10.15760/etd.3639
Physical Description
1 online resource (iv, 103 pages)
Abstract
This thesis uses reality television and the parasocial relationships it cultivates as a microcosm to better understand the current form of neoliberalism as well as the implications it has for democracy. I extend the preexisting scholarship surrounding neoliberalism and reality television by emphasizing the importance of social media in understanding that link. By conducting a case study of Netflix's Love is Blind, I demonstrate how both reality television content and the reality-television-participant-to-influencer pipeline serve to reinforce neoliberal values by constructing powerful cultural imaginaries such as a model of care and self-sufficiency that centers marriage and the household. I argue that the pandemic increased the commercial and social value of affective bonds as well as the role reality television has in producing them. Despite the anti-democratic and exploitative nature of formal reality television production, an active and critical viewing practice by viewers has the potential to foster non-statist democratic cultures and creative modes of affective resistance. These paradoxical possibilities demonstrate the powerful contradictions and double binds that define neoliberalism post-pandemic.
Rights
© 2023 Sophia Aepfelbacher
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40822
Recommended Citation
Aepfelbacher, Sophia, "The New Profits of Pleasure: Reality Television and Affective Exploitation in Post-Pandemic Neoliberalism" (2023). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6503.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.3639