Fruits and vegetables are bought and sold on the market based on supply and demand. “The marketing of fresh fruits and vegetables can be very chaotic as prices can and do rise and drop dramatically within a day or even minute by minute.” (1) Similarly, in a manner of speaking, the female body is a commodity used by media outlets to drive the popularity of product advertising and commercial programming. Women’s bodies have a presumed market value that increases or decreases over time, based on her body’s ability to be and remain appealing within the male gaze.

 

The Videodrome is a multimedia video presentation comprised of studio selfportraits. The short sound and video presentation and “film stills” explore how the female body is overtly sexualized and commoditized within American culture. This is a Videodrome of carnal imagery. The images instigate objectification of the female body and at the same time they suggest the controversial nature of participation in the public act. Yet, as self-portraits, the viewer’s gaze has been directed and controlled. Consequently, we must ask who has, in fact, been diminished by this performance?

 

The series was inspired by the 1983 David Cronenberg science fiction movie of the same name starring James Woods. Woods’ character, Max Renn, discovers that global, malevolent government forces use violent and sexual television imagery as tool of mind-control and as a way to permanently alter and damage the perception of the viewer.

 

(1) Manfredo, Mark R. and Libbin, James D. The Development of Index Futures Contracts for Fruits and Vegetables. http://www.jab.uga.edu/Library/S98-1.pdf