The Commercialized Body: A Comparative Study of Culture and Values

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the social construction of the body in information society. In a word, how is the body viewed and treated by postmodern society via its vehicles of communication. To answer this question we focus on television commercials in two information-based countries: America and Japan. The rationale for medium selection and comparative focus are specified in the text.
The research involved the systematic collection of over 7,000 ads from the 7 major networks (4 in Japan, 3 in America) in cities of roughly comparable geo-political and demographic characteristics. Via theoretical sampling, a subset of 2353 (1221 from Japan, 1132 from America) was selected. Coding revealed that 581 (or 25%) involved the body in non-trivial ways. The presentation and use of body differed by country: 30% of American advertising versus 20% of Japanese CMs contained body content.
Four working hypotheses guided analysis. H1: two vastly different societies would commercialize the body in ways more similar than different; H2: a high degree of “body content” would exist in both societies; H3: “body consciousness”—i.e. intentional use of the body—would be higher in America than in Japan; H4: recurrent tendencies in body presentation would be uncovered. With specifiable qualifications, all four hypotheses were confirmed.
Four key findings emerged from this research. (1) confirmation of converging culture; (2) the narrow, repetitious and powerful messages in commercial media; (3) the centrality of societal images concerning identity and personal behavior (as communicated via the body); and (4) the emerging importance of the body as a social object in America and Japan. I conclude that the commercialized body is an increasingly central object in contemporary society.