Labour web 2.0 - The case of suicide girl
Thursday, October 15, 2009 by Anonymous
If we take what Shoshana Magnet call a ‘utopian cyberfeminist perspective’ in looking at suicidegirl.com, we might view the site providing an infrastructure that free women from rigid norms of what is sexy, sexual and desirable female. It attempt to enhance female agency by giving voice to female participants. It operates as if it is following how liberated female wish them to be looked at and to be read rather than projecting the traditional female sexuality that often found in other mainstream media. In this sense, the site appear to activate the potential of Web 2.0 to foster democracy, interactivity, freedom and creativity by encouraging users to participate in posting their own material (nude photos and journals), commenting and voting.
However, model participants are paid for their contribution to the site in order for the site to ensure the amount and the quality of these ‘user-generated’ materials. To become a ‘suicide girl’, model’s submitted photos must be passed through the review of the staffs and other members. That means only a specific type of ‘beauty’ that cater to staffs and other members’ taste and definition of ‘punk, tattooed and alternative’ suicide girl will be selected to show on the site. At this sense, users do not have full control over what is to be showed and how it gets displayed, even though the site claimed to be ‘users generated’.
Motivated by the monetary reward, model’s personal identity, their sexuality and their thoughts and minds (represented in their journal and self-description) are commodified to reinforce the exchange-value of their product. It is unproductive and impossible to prove, but it is not hard to see there is specific pattern in the visual and text material that these models contribute. It leads me to doubt if the lives and the leisure time of these models are somewhat shaped by their participation in the site. Would they get more tattoo done to produce more ‘wow’ factor and to increase the chance to be selected? Would they more engage themselves to read feminist or punk literature in order to have more to say in their journal and profile – to attach more signifiers and thus increase the ‘authenticity’ of their product?
In encouraging a specific type of alternative beauty, the website is able to capitalize on niche market rather than activating any singificantly meaningful liberation and exploration on female sexuality. It facilitates capitalist mechanisms rather than democratizing online practices – cybersex. Those ‘suicide girls’ are just another users groups in Web 2.0 that have been exploited through the extraction of surplus value from labor not only by objectification of their creative inputs as commodities, but also, perhaps, the extension of productive work into some aspects of their life.
However, model participants are paid for their contribution to the site in order for the site to ensure the amount and the quality of these ‘user-generated’ materials. To become a ‘suicide girl’, model’s submitted photos must be passed through the review of the staffs and other members. That means only a specific type of ‘beauty’ that cater to staffs and other members’ taste and definition of ‘punk, tattooed and alternative’ suicide girl will be selected to show on the site. At this sense, users do not have full control over what is to be showed and how it gets displayed, even though the site claimed to be ‘users generated’.
Motivated by the monetary reward, model’s personal identity, their sexuality and their thoughts and minds (represented in their journal and self-description) are commodified to reinforce the exchange-value of their product. It is unproductive and impossible to prove, but it is not hard to see there is specific pattern in the visual and text material that these models contribute. It leads me to doubt if the lives and the leisure time of these models are somewhat shaped by their participation in the site. Would they get more tattoo done to produce more ‘wow’ factor and to increase the chance to be selected? Would they more engage themselves to read feminist or punk literature in order to have more to say in their journal and profile – to attach more signifiers and thus increase the ‘authenticity’ of their product?In encouraging a specific type of alternative beauty, the website is able to capitalize on niche market rather than activating any singificantly meaningful liberation and exploration on female sexuality. It facilitates capitalist mechanisms rather than democratizing online practices – cybersex. Those ‘suicide girls’ are just another users groups in Web 2.0 that have been exploited through the extraction of surplus value from labor not only by objectification of their creative inputs as commodities, but also, perhaps, the extension of productive work into some aspects of their life.