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From the Boardroom to the Bedroom: Sexual Ecologies in the Algorithmic Age

Bowen, Bernadette
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8830-8215
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647543728483027

Abstract Details

2022, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Media and Communication.
This project examined traditional gendered discourses surrounding the ends and means of sexuality, the emerging role of digital sexual technologies in purported sexual empowerment, and the socio-material aspects which revolve around these technologies, sexual medias, and sexual discourses. Combining critical feminist insights with media ecology, this project explored happenings within the sociosexually violent pre- and present-COVID-19 United States ecology, documenting novel and rigorous contributions in our increasingly algorithmic world. This study of the U.S. context critiques foundational constructs created by Enlightenment decisionmakers who rationalized colonial rhetorics and logics built into each preceding iteration of capitalisms from industrialism into neoliberalism since national origin. As such, it extends critiques of mechanistic models of the human body and sexual communications and situates them within the vastly uncriminalized sexual violences, as well as insufficient sexual education standards. Theoretically, I argue that a mechanization of humans has occurred, been pushed to its extreme, and is flipping into a humanization of objects. To demonstrate this, I critical feminist rhetorically analyzed 75 biomimetic sextech advertisements from the brand Lora DiCarlo, contextualizing them in salient discourses within 428 present-COVID-19 TikTok videos, investigating: “What rhetorical themes occur within advertisements for biomimetic sexual technologies marketed to vulva-havers in the late-stage present-COVID-19 neoliberal U.S. landscape?” “How have biomimetic sexual technologies marketed to vulva-havers effected how their sexual experiences are created and maintained in the sociosexual U.S. landscape?” and “How are biomimetic sextech changing vulva-havers sexual sense-making, experiences, and relations within the sexually violent late-stage capitalist present-COVID-19 U.S. landscape?” Using a feminist eye, this brings to media ecology a contextualization of biomimetic sextech devices marketed to vulva-havers, situating their socio-political and cultural nuances in conversation with otherwise taken for granted biological components of cisnormative and heteronormative life, among other relevant characteristics. Ergo, this project debuts a brand new liberatory embodied research paradigm.
Ellen W. Gorsevski, Ph.D (Advisor)
Kristina N. LaVenia, Ph.D (Other)
Lara M. Lengel, Ph.D (Committee Member)
Terry L. Rentner, Ph.D (Committee Member)
278 p.
Adult Education; American History; American Studies; Bioinformatics; Black Studies; Communication; Economic History; Education; Ethnic Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Health Education; Higher Education; Individual and Family Studies; Information Systems; Information Technology; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Medical Ethics; Middle School Education; Modern History; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Public Health; Public Health Education; Rhetoric; Science Education; Secondary Education; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology; Systematic; Systems Design; Technical Communication; Technology; Web Studies; Womens Studies
critical media ecology; mechanization; humanization; feminist epistemologies; histography; critical feminist rhetoric; critical discourse analysis; media ecology; advertising; TikTok; commodification; femvertising; anthropomorphism; algorithmic age; identity studies; gender and sexuality studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bowen, B. (2022). From the Boardroom to the Bedroom: Sexual Ecologies in the Algorithmic Age [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647543728483027

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bowen, Bernadette. From the Boardroom to the Bedroom: Sexual Ecologies in the Algorithmic Age. 2022. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647543728483027.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bowen, Bernadette. "From the Boardroom to the Bedroom: Sexual Ecologies in the Algorithmic Age." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647543728483027

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1647543728483027
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© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.