Latest news with #commodification
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Materialists director Celine Song reveals big problem with modern dating
The Past Lives director used to be a matchmaker like Dakota Johnson's character in her new film, and she tells Yahoo UK how the experience shaped Materialists. Finding love can be difficult. With online dating taking precedence, there are fewer opportunities to meet people offline, and one might even turn to matchmaking services as depicted in Celine Song's new film Materialists. But modern dating has its own problems, the director tells Yahoo UK, because it is "turning us into commodities". "In 2025, objectification and commodification has gotten worse because it's easier," Song explains. "Now we're so online, our identities are so there, and wealth is really overrepresented online." The Oscar-nominated director explores this and the theme of love in Materialists in a very different way to her critically acclaimed debut, Past Lives. The film stars Dakota Johnson as Lucy, a matchmaker who is forced to question everything she thinks she knows about dating when she meets charming millionaire Harry (Pedro Pascal) and reunites with her old flame John (Chris Evans) on the same night. This might seem a ripe premise for a rom-com, and it was certainly marketed as such, but the film is more introspective in its exploration of the issues of modern dating. It is, Song says, "a rom-com, it's just not escapist." That's because the director once worked as a matchmaker herself and wanted to share a realistic take on dating following her experience. "I worked as a matchmaker in my twenties because I couldn't pay rent, it was my day job because I was a playwright so I thought I would get a day job and that just kind of ended up being the only day job I could get," Song says. "I did it for about six months and, because I learned more about people in those six months than I did in any other part of my life, I left feeling like 'I'm gonna write something about it one day', and here it is." Song is a charming, refreshingly open person, and we bond easily during our short time together after learning we met our respective partners around the same time and avoided online dating completely in the process. We also both find it amusing, and rather ironic, that we're talking about her film's exploration of the merits of love and marriage when I'll be heading straight to a wedding dress fitting straight after our chat. "Me and my husband [screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes] predated Tinder; we were still meeting organically at the time, we knew that online dating existed but it wasn't quite there," Song reflects. "Now, of course, I think the dating market has just fully moved onto our phones." "I worked as a matchmaker when online dating had just started fully happening, like 2016. But I actually think it is a little bit different now because things have only gotten worse," she adds. "I feel like the movie is about objectification and commodification of human beings, right? And we see that in the way that the dating market is. It exists in the job market, it exists online, it's turning every human resource into an algorithm, like you can see the way that AI is, in a way we are turning ourselves into objects and commodities. "The most important line in the film is 'I'm not merchandise.' A piece of merchandise cannot love another piece of merchandise, but a person may have a shot at loving another person. I think there's something about that. "The thing that's really important is that we remember that commodification and objectification of human beings is going to always lead to dehumanisation, which we see in the movie." The filmmaker discovered a lot in her time as a matchmaker, and is frank about the cold and disconnected way people would try to look for love at the time: "I feel like dating is a game we all play in pursuit of love. Something that I learned is the way that we're talking about dating, and the way we talk about what we want in our love, felt like it was contradictory to what love is. "Because I would ask somebody like, 'Well, who are you looking for? What are you looking for?' And then they would say height, weight, income, and age. And then I would just know that none of those things matter." It's this notion that Song tries to bring across in Materialists through the character of Lucy, who spends her days trying to find out who ticks the right boxes for her clients. It's detached because her clients are detached, focused on looks and little else, like Song experienced. However this dehumanisation takes its toll on both Lucy and one of her clients. Focusing on the superficial felt contradictory, Song says: "At the time I was [a matchmaker] I'd just gotten married and I myself was trying to understand love and marriage and relationships. and I remember thinking none of these things —height, weight and all these numbers— seem to mean anything or even be that helpful when it comes to the thing that marriage is, and I think that when it comes to love all the numbers go out the window. "But I felt that contradiction when I was a matchmaker, I think that's what I really wanted to make the movie about. I wanted to talk about the way we talk about dating and then also what love is, which is a great ancient mystery, and total miracle when it happens, right? "The truth is the one thing that should be the non-negotiable for you when you're dating is that the person who is meant to love you loves you, that's the only thing." This is an idea that Song explored so brilliantly in Past Lives, but she while one might assume having your first film land an Oscar nomination would make the follow-up a stressful experience, Song says she didn't feel any different. She was happy returning to similar themes for Materialists despite the pressure, in fact having a successful first movie probably helped. "I think it's really funny cause I feel like the pressure over the first film is so intense because you could also make your first movie and nobody really thinks about it or cares about it," she says. "So I think that the truth is whether it's gonna be my second movie or my fifth movie the pressure is not gonna be any different. It's always gonna be there. "Like with my fifth movie I'll be like 'oh my God, my fifth movie!' But I think what I actually really loved is, having already made a movie, it was easier to ask people to have faith in this movie, getting it made, and it being great. So I think, to me, it was only actually a positive thing that Past Lives went well." Materialists premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 15 August.
Mail & Guardian
20-05-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Pixels and protection: Strengthening legal frameworks against digital child labour
Digital content may seem harmless but children are being commodified and South Africa's legal framework has not evolved to include the digital economy. Scrolling through social media often reveals a troubling trend: the commodification of childhood. Across platforms, South African children are increasingly featured in monetised content, from baby fashion showcases and toy unboxings to preteen dance trends and family video blogs (vlogs). Many of these 'kidfluencer' accounts, typically managed by parents or guardians, generate substantial income through brand partnerships and online followings. Although such digital content may appear harmless, even entertaining, it raises serious concerns about consent, exploitation, privacy and the psychological effects of growing up in the public eye. This presents a legal and ethical challenge. South Africa's legal frameworks, like those in many countries, are designed to regulate physical labour. They have not evolved to address the complexities of the digital economy, where children do unpaid or underpaid work, often without informed consent or sufficient oversight. These children usually lack meaningful agency and legal protection, falling into a regulatory grey zone. The dangers are not speculative. Documentaries such as Child Star and Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV have exposed the long-term harm faced by children pushed into public roles without adequate safeguards. These cautionary tales resonate in the South African context, where economic inequality and limited opportunities may push families to monetise their children's digital presence as a survival strategy. South Africa's Similarly, the International frameworks to which South Africa is a signatory further strengthen the case for reform. The While these instruments offer crucial guidance, they require contextual adaptation to digital realities. For example, how should digital 'labour' be defined? When does family-generated content cross the line into commercial exploitation? And what responsibilities do platforms and advertisers have in this ecosystem? South Africa's persistent socio-economic inequality amplifies the urgency of these questions. Children who achieve online fame may bring significant income into households, but often at the expense of their education, well-being and right to privacy. As the ILO notes, child labour and poverty are 'inevitably bound together'. Grace Abbott's enduring observation that New technologies are further complicating the child labour landscape. AI-generated content, sometimes involving deepfakes or manipulated images, has created a new frontier for abuse. South Africa must urgently criminalise the production and distribution of such content and equip law enforcement with the skills and tools necessary to investigate these offences. The existing legal framework must also be expanded to encompass exploitative digital activities, including the misuse of children's data and images in AI-generated content. The There is considerable scope to build a forward-looking legal and regulatory framework. First, South Africa should develop tailored legislation that recognises digital content creation as a form of child labour when monetised. Such legislation should clearly define the rights of child influencers, including rights to privacy, compensation, education, and redress. Second, the law should mandate parental accountability and introduce independent oversight of commercialised child content. This could include a registry for child influencers, compulsory financial trusts for income generated and psychological assessments to monitor well-being. Third, regulations must compel digital platforms to implement stronger child protection mechanisms. This includes age verification systems, flagging and removing harmful content, and providing transparent reporting channels. Algorithms that amplify exploitative content should be audited and adjusted. Fourth, South Africa should invest in education campaigns about the risks and responsibilities of sharing children's content online. Digital literacy programmes in schools and communities could equip children and parents with the knowledge to navigate these spaces safely. Fifth, companies operating in South Africa must be required to conduct AI-enhanced due diligence across their supply chains. Blockchain technologies can provide traceability, helping verify that child labour, whether physical or digital, is not hidden in production or promotional pipelines. Given the borderless nature of the internet, international cooperation is essential. Harmonised laws, interoperable monitoring systems, and data-sharing agreements will be critical for tracking and prosecuting offenders who exploit children across jurisdictions. As a regional leader in digital policy, South Africa is well-positioned to advocate for a continental framework that protects African children from digital exploitation. The African Union's The digital economy offers enormous potential, but also exposes children to unprecedented forms of exploitation. While the country's legal foundation provides a starting point, it must now be modernised to meet the demands of the digital age. By implementing robust protections, leveraging ethical technologies, and fostering international collaboration, South Africa can lead in crafting a just, inclusive, and child-safe digital future. The digital world should not merely be a space of risk for South African children, it can, and must, become a space of rights, resilience, and responsible innovation. Letlhokwa Geoge Mpedi is the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Johannesburg. Tshilidzi Marwala is a rector of the United Nations University and UN under-secretary general. The authors' latest book on this subject is Artificial Intelligence and the Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
