ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the televised bullfight to explore some interdependencies, continuities and contradictions in the interface between the 'media event' and the live 'ritual' performed event. It situates the contemporary popularity of women bullfighters and their progression through 'men's' league tables in a bullfighting context that encompasses both live and media events. The chapter discusses their successes in connection with their particular relationships to ritual and media representation. The meanings invested in women performers and televised bullfights should be understood in relation to patterns and styles of domestic and public consumption. The chapter develops the same theme with some different materials and in connection with the broader media context. The commodification and evaluation of men and women performers likewise refers to particular ideologies, knowledge and criteria. The relationship between the bullfight as ritual performance, the current popularity of women performers, and the media can be usefully understood in the wider context of consumption and commodification.
