The Spectators

Mothers, Child Artists and Reality Television

  • Dr. Sithara Puli Venkatesh University of Madras

Abstract

This article explores the parental (mothers) intents behind the child artists participation in reality shows. I argue that the concept of successful mothering is rooted deep into social conditioning to an extent that a child’s screen presence is considered rewarding by the mother. This autoethnographic paper is written using Guy Debord’s (1967/ 2002) concept of the Spectacle and utilises the Spectacle’s unique social function of manufacturing alienation to understand the conscious and unconscious choices the mothers had chosen for their children. This paper intends to illuminate the truth behind the believed concept of mothering by the mothers of the child artist who had participated in various Tamil reality shows. The study is curated with a turn towards the narrative inquiry and also enhances the flow of narration with my personal experiences using mixed methods of selfreflexive writing from personal interviews and memory work.

Published
Jun 25, 2022
How to Cite
VENKATESH, Dr. Sithara Puli. The Spectators. Communication and Culture Review, [S.l.], v. 3, n. 1, p. 11-24, june 2022. ISSN 2582-2829. Available at: <http://communicationandculturereview.in/index.php/communication_culture_review/article/view/49>. Date accessed: 19 mar. 2024.
Section
Articles