Avatar of the self: Governing meta-body elaborated based on embodiments of consumption

Abstract

Purpose -The aim of the current study is to investigate how consumer performativity is enacted through embodiment transformation, based on the theoretical elaboration of the body in three dimensions, namely: resistance, utopia and desire.Theoretical framework -Based on previous literature, the study proposes a theoretical framework when embodiment transformations -i.e., politics, pleasures, and affects -overlap through consumer performativity, evoking Foucauldian concepts to understand the dispositif sustained in a consumption ethos.Design/methodology/approach -The study was conducted by investigating the cosplay practice based on the use of an ethnographic Foucauldian genealogy.Findings -The results evidenced three consumption embodiments based on dispositifs circumscribed amidst pairs of body dimensions: redemption, related to politics; reward, regarding pleasure; and rapport, about affection.Practical & social implications of research -Presumably, these representations are evidence of an attempt to improve the body that represents the best way to experience this consumption ethos, which is herein called the "avatar of the self ": a governing meta-body used to mediate consumption experiences through performativities.Originality/value -Avatar of the self is an interpretation of the theoretical generalization of phenomena of consumption embodiment through performativities.