Emotional Exploitation in Digital Labor from a Feminist Perspective: A Case Study of the Collapse of the Image of a Top Streamer

Abstract

This article uses feminist theory as the analytical framework to deeply examine how digital platform capitalism systematically exploits digital emotional laborers, and to reveal the underlying gender power dynamics in this process. This study argues that the exploitation of digital emotional labor on digital platforms is not merely a new form of exploitation, but rather a continuation of the traditionally gendered and privatized emotional labor that existed in patriarchal societies, intensified and complicated within the context of the platform economy. This study, using Marxist feminist theory, defines the emotional management and emotional performance on digital platforms as a productive labor, in which a certain value is captured by the platform economy. Furthermore, in the context of traditional society, platform capitalism has utilized platform algorithms and rules to discipline digital emotional laborers, resulting in a separation between the true emotions of digital emotional laborers and the emotional masks they create. After the alienation of digital emotional laborers, the consumers' expectations for genuine emotional interaction are shattered, and the consumers themselves become alienated. It can be seen that platform capitalism has exploited the disciplinary power to invisibly force digital emotional laborers to perform "feminine" emotional displays that conform to the expectations of patriarchal society, resulting in the dual alienation of both laborers and consumers.