Defying Predatory Capital: Embracing Beauty, Resisting Ugliness, and Striving for Freedom

Research has explored the role of capitalist markets in the configuration of society and as social determinants. However, some niche markets have been taken by a form of capital, conceptualized as “predatory”, that has sought maximum benefit without caring for the social consequences of their activity on beauty, ugliness, freedom, and the overcoming of gender violence. This study addresses this gap by examining how “predatory capital” exploits various aspects of human life, including relationships, art, and music, by promoting ugliness over beauty. Through historical examples such as the tobacco industry's manipulation of women's liberation to promote smoking, this article reveals the detrimental tactics employed by predatory capital. It explores how the nightlife industry coerces youth into harmful behaviors through coercive dominant discourse, perpetuating toxic relationship dynamics and limiting individual freedom. Additionally, the study presents how the music industry reinforces harmful stereotypes and behaviors. Finally, it exposes how pseudo-theories, like those promoted by Foucault, are utilized to justify and perpetuate sexual violence, hindering progress towards freedom, gender equality, and social justice. This interdisciplinary analysis sheds light on the negative impact of predatory capital on human relationships, culture, and society, emphasizing the importance of critical awareness and resistance against its exploitative practices.

n current capitalist societies, the influence of market forces extends beyond economic transactions, shaping social structures and norms.In this context, a form of capital that we conceptualize as "predatory" has emerged as a focal point of concern.This predatory capital operates with a singular focus on maximizing profit from worsening citizens' lives.The activities of predatory capital have profound implications for various aspects of human life, including society's relationship with notions of ugliness, beauty, freedom, and gender violence.However, in its insatiable pursuit of profit maximization, predatory capital disregards the broader social consequences of its practices, perpetuating and even promoting detrimental dynamics that undermine individual individuals' agency and flourishing.
Building on the above, this study explores how predatory capital exploits various dimensions of human life, shedding light on the far-reaching implications for human relationships, cultural expressions, and societal norms.Focusing on education, the cultivation of critical awareness against the influence of predatory capital is key in challenging its prevailing narratives and advocate for greater equity, justice, and dignity for our communities.

Predatory Capital: Maximizing Profit Through Ugliness
The predatory capital has created and developed during the XX century diverse niche markets which have provided them with very high benefits at a very low cost.Three of the most important niches have been commercial advertising to force women to smoke, to force youth to have disdainful hookups in the nightlife and to force citizens to disdain beauty in arts.At the beginning of the XX century, very few women smoked and few developed lung cancer until the 60s (Tanoue, 2021).The coalition between the American Tobacco Company and a nephew of Freud planned how to impose on women the desire to smoke.They got some women to smoke and present themselves publicly as being modern and free women, while portraying the ones who did not smoke as traditional and submissive.This coercive discourse gave them very high profits during decades and provoked diverse negative consequences for women, for instance, each year, half a million women die from lung cancer (Thandra et al., 2021).
The opposition of many feminists and other women to this process was invisibilized by some "feminists" who promoted the images of the marketing of predatory capital (Brown-Johnson et al., 2014;Kullberg, 2017).For instance, pictures of Simone de Beauvoir were presented as being a free, egalitarian and revolutionary feminist.Most of them were intellectuals, film stars and, in general, from the middle and upper class.They also disdained the popular women who were not like them.Such disdain was very clear all over Beauvoir's work; for instance, in the book "The second sex" (de Beauvoir, 2011), she identifies as traditional and non-feminist those women who decide to have children.The commercial advertising of the predatory capital made popular women feel labelled as traditional if they did not smoke, and many of them started to do so.The publicity was so efficient that, after being smokers because of this external pressure, many of them felt as having an internal personal desire to smoke, and considered smoking as a practice of freedom.In turn, they also saw those women who did not want to smoke as submissive.Some of them even criticized the Years later, another publicity campaign was developed.The young, who had a salary and lived with their families, would give it to their parents.Predatory capital planned how to get this money.They imposed the obligation on young people to participate in the nightlife to avoid being labelled as boring and not attractive.In nightclubs, for instance, they had to pay an alcoholic drink for a price ten times higher than its cost.Besides, many men considered it much easier to have disdainful hookups if buying a motorcycle or a car, as it was a symbol of freedom, like the freedom of tobacco.This made them more attractive.It is worth mentioning that the attractiveness was intensified if they had a sports car or a motorbike and the guy also smoked.The predatory capital was successful in this business and the youth giving off their salaries to their families mostly disappeared (Lopez de Aguileta Jaussi et al., 2022).Like with smoking, the advertising of the predatory capital led many young people to have an internal personal desire to have disdainful hookups.They considered these a practice of freedom and those who did not want to have them as submissive.Some of them even criticized the dissemination of scientific information on the consequences of disdainful hookups for them and for those related to them.We deepen into this issue in the following section of this article.
Furthermore, at the beginning of the XX century, the predatory capital started to have very high profits, developing a new market of art.Creating a painting like Botticelli's "La Nascita di Venere" has a very high cost: only a few human beings are able to make it and should dedicate much time to doing it.In 1917, a urinary was presented as being art and later critics of arts considered it as the most relevant artwork of the century (Kilroy, 2017).Authorized copies of this urinary are being sold for 3 to 4 million dollars, although any human being is able to carry a urinary from the bathroom to the museum and is very quick and easy to do it.Of course, the cost-benefit for the predatory capital of the ugliness is very much higher than that of the beauty.This aspect is further developed in the third section of this article.

Beauty and Ugliness in Sex: Where Do Profits Lie?
Extant research shows that egalitarian and meaningful relations are key to human wellbeing and flourishing (Gairal-Casadó et al., 2023;Iñiguez-Berrozpe et al., 2021;Khalfaoui et al., 2023;Mineo, 2017;Waldinger & Schulz, 2010).Values such as desire, attractiveness, respect, or romanticism are present in egalitarian sexual-affective relationships, which can be of all kinds, stable and sporadic, as well as in other types of relationships.For instance, Gairal-Casadó and colleagues (2023) highlight the significant role of friends in supporting research participants to pursue higher education.Similarly, Iñiguez-Berrozpe and colleagues (2021) report that encouraging positive interactions between students and the whole educational community and fostering a school culture that rejects violence are key aspects in the prevention of school violence.(Joanpere et al., 2022) also show how such egalitarian bonds are effective in the prevention and overcoming of sexual harassment.In their study they show that the Network of Victims of sexual harassment in university was key in breaking the silence surrounding cases within universities, with this resulting in increased awareness, and more empowered victims becoming survivors and achieving victories in their struggles against violence.This collective effort transformed universities into safer spaces, free from violence.However, even if the aforementioned values, linked to egalitarian relationships and hence, to beauty, can also be exploited by the capitalist market, the margin of profit and rate of exploitation offers a smaller Return On Investment than that of disdainful nightlife, as explained in the previous section (Flecha, 2022).Being fully aware that quality human relationships do not cost money, and that love and friendship do not generate profit, the most sexist capitalist sector has ruthlessly pursued maximum profit at the expense of the deterioration of citizens' lives (Lopez de Aguileta Jaussi et al., 2022;Pedersen et al., 2017;Tutenges & Bøhling, 2019).
The Coercive Dominant Discourse (CDD) links attraction to violent behaviors and attitudes, portraying men with such attitudes as more desirable (Padrós-Cuxart et al., 2021).The effects of the CDD have been observed in certain peer interactions, where pressure is exerted to sustain undesirable relationships (Aubert et al., 2011).In turn, this fosters toxic and abusive dynamics, including those taking place in nightlife contexts (Duque et al., 2020).Thus, predatory capital has seen in the CDD a niche market, promoting practices and contexts aligned with it that contribute to its domination, despite this being at the expense of people's wellbeing (Johansen et al., 2019;Puigvert et al., 2023).Through these practices, this form of capital has fostered the idea that sexual-affective relationships are disposable, promoting a throwaway culture linked to ugliness in sex.It is important to put focus on the disposable nature of the relationships under the influence of the CDD, and not their duration, since the former is the one intentionally promoted and which influences youth's behavior and socialization in sex.Thus, by fostering such a disposability culture, predatory capital contributes to the perpetuation of harmful beliefs and stereotypes, with the sole purpose of maximizing its profit.
Research with a focus on nightlife has already unveiled the dynamics elicited by predatory capital practices.López de Aguileta and colleagues (2022) report that participants in their study explain that the drinks, the music, the dancing or going out with friends is not what motivates them to go to nightclubs.Rather, the motivation relies on how participating in the nightlife makes them feel attractive because it allows them to flirt and find someone with whom to hook up.Thus, predatory capital has colonized part of the nightlife, turning it into disdainful nightlife.Following its inner dynamics, this has been spreading to other contexts, such as festivals, alternative parties, etc., where predatory capital reproduces and feeds the same principles and strategies.Similarly, research on social dating apps has explored their use.The participants in those studies share that their reasons for choosing a potential sexual partner did not contemplate either beauty or goodness (LeFebvre, 2018).For instance, it is not uncommon that some young girls avoid mentioning in dating apps that they like classical music or attending museums, because this would attract a particular type of men, who are not the ones that are promoted by this predatory capital via the CDD: the traditional dominant masculinities.
Studies exploring the sexual experiences around casual dating and nightlife also support these findings.In these, participants reported engaging in nightlife experiences (drinking, going to nightclubs, etc), including seeking casual hookups, to fulfill the need to feel attractive and fitting the norm (Lopez de Aguileta Jaussi et al., 2022;Pedersen et al., 2017;Torras-Gómez et al., 2022).For instance, in Pedersen and colleagues' study (2017), one of the participants reports that "most of us intend to end up in bed with someone."(Pedersen et al., 2017), and all narratives bring forward sexual experiences in the context of partying that align with the CDD.Indeed, this expectation of sexual activity, far from emerging from the individual's freedom, reinforces the traditional model of attraction and relationships, where men are expected to sexually subdue women, and women are expected to submit (Gómez, 2015).This perpetuates unequal power dynamics in relationships and contributes to gender-based violence and coercion.Similarly, other studies (Torras- Gómez et al., 2022) show that participant women who engage in these types of behaviors act under the pressures of the CDD and do not report any feelings of pleasure linked to sex, but of disgust.This shows the lack of freedom in these relationships, and evidences that these disdainful hookups respond to other interests and discourses such as those pursued by the predatory capital.
This analysis has also been undertaken from the perspective of socioneuroscience, noting that the CDD created by predatory capital ends up enslaving sexual-affective desire, which translates into particular neural networks in the brain as a result of both socialization and the sharing of false memories because of social coercion.Along these lines, current research in socioneuroscience is examining how predatory capital is also a predator of neural connections that associate pleasure with beauty, and is instead implanting new neural wiring in the brains where an association between ugliness stimuli and an attraction response resides.Predatory capital is therefore making a profit from the plasticity of the human brain (Kandel et al., 1991;Ramón y Cajal, 1959) in the worst way possible.
Another example of how predatory capital fuels ugliness in relationships with the sole purpose of generating profit can be found in the strategies that bartenders and customers share to help the latter find sexual partners.Participants in the study by Duque and colleagues (2020) elaborate on bartenders' practices to strengthen the loyalty of clients.These included informing about on the behaviors of women who are frequent customers of the clubs to identify the "easy preys", enhancing the social or economic status of the customer to make them look more desirable, or using alcohol to inebriate women and make them "more available".Ugliness, linked to disdain, humiliation and lack of consent, is present in these casual relationships, as reported in the article.Similarly, in the examined studies, participants reported a relationship between the likelihood of hooking up and owning a car, with participant women confirming their interest in men with such possession (Pedersen et al., 2017;Torras-Gómez et al., 2022).This perception has been cultivated and perpetuated by predatory capital, compelling certain men to view the acquisition of a car as an economic investment aimed at bolstering their desirability.Nevertheless, research participants challenge the romanticism behind this practice and report a lack of pleasure in it (Torras- Gómez et al., 2022).However, participants in this same study also acknowledge a lack of honesty when talking about it with their friends, preventing the bubble created by the predatory capital from bursting.This includes exaggerating what really happened to make it look appealing or lying about having enjoyed the encounter, among others.As one of the participants said when sharing her memories of her sexual-affective experiences, "You enjoy talking about it more than doing it" (Torras- Gómez et al., 2022).
Thus, in light of the alarming prevalence of gender violence, affecting over a third of women globally (United Nations, n.d.), and its increasing severity among younger demographics (FRA, 2014), reflecting on the role of socialization models and communication patterns in perpetuating the issue is key from an educational standpoint.In this vein, equipping participants with knowledge and skills to navigate relationships safely and fostering supportive networks and challenging harmful narratives (Salceda et al., 2020) offers a promising avenue for promoting a culture of respect and equality that challenges the discourse of the predatory capital.

Beauty and Ugliness in Music: Where does Predatory Capital Gain the Most Profit?
Scientific literature has evidenced the link between capitalism and music, showing how, although many times music taste is mistakenly portrayed as immovable (Bourdieu, 1987), it comes highly influenced by economic profit-seeking sectors (Arditi, 2019;Barile & Sugiyama, 2015).However, in this article, the focus is on how this predatory capital sector makes more profit from music promoting ugliness than from that which fosters beauty.To our knowledge, no previous scientific literature has addressed this issue.We share two examples to illustrate this phenomenon.
The first one is that of a Youtube video (첼로댁, 2022) of a female cellist that plays the theme of Romeo and Juliet, "A time for us".Both the elegance of the performance, and the beauty of the song lyrics, which talk about a free love that is able to break the chains imposed by others, are highlighted in the comments made by the Youtube video users.In addition, it is known that, on average, professional classical musicians often dedicate up to 33 hours per week to playing and rehearsing (Kegelaers et al., 2022), highly based on repetition to perfect the technique throughout years (Altenmüller & Jabusch, 2010).Therefore, the effort behind the performance on the video is evident.Given the current challenge to promote effort culture through education (Cecchini et al., 2013), and taking into account that the high valuation of it among peers positively affects academic effort and achievement (Hamm et al., 2014), the potential social impact of showing this kind of videos and other cultural creation that require effort and time is evident.In addition, the values of perseverance and effort in education are associated with a higher purpose in life and academic performance (Guo et al., 2023).
The second one is the song "La chica del Batzoki" (The girl from the batzoki) (elviciodeolvidar, 2009).A batzoki is a bar usually visited by supporters of a moderateconsidered political party.These bars are linked with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), and the ones attending these bars are also usually considered to have more conservative values (Kasmir, 2002).The song specifically mentions that a man met a young woman at the door of the batzoki after she went to mass.In the lyrics of this song, this girl is portrayed in the Basque regional costume.These two features of the woman make her appear in line with the usually portrayed values of such batzokis.The song later explains, in a sexist way, that the man had sex with the girl in the bathroom: How she is!The girl from the batzoki my love, With her little rose face And then so fiery, how she is! (...)She winked at me at the toilet door She was coming towards me and I was hallucinating I didn't know what to do She closed the door igniting the passion And an hour later They were taking me out of there, shattered.
The lyrics of this highly sexist song have been very spread in some sectors, not only in the Basque Country, but also in other Spanish regions.It has usually been disseminated among self-reported feminists and alternative movements, where usually religion and other moral values are portrayed as old and non-attractive.In this case, it is clear what the lyrics are saying to those self-reported feminists and/or alternative women: that the women whom men find attractive are actually those who attend mass and represent the values that these self-reported alternative movements tend to criticize.In addition, playing or singing this song does not require great musical training, due to the simplicity of the melody and the harmony.When looking at the comments to this song's Youtube video, highly sexist and humiliating ones stand out.Many of those comments say that the girl in the official video does not correspond with her description in the song.Other comments make disdainful remarks about parts of the body of women and, finally, others refer to the disgust they feel of the bathroom-sex scene.
By implementing Social Media Analytics (SMA) (Pulido-Rodriguez et al., 2021) in X (former Twitter), one can identify many comments of users who feel coerced to hide that they like beautiful music.Many of them highlight how they have been called names such as "corny" or "boring", which constitute direct attacks on their attractiveness.Other scientific research has previously seen that peer interactions describing classical music with disdainful words has a negative influence on the development of taste towards this music (Vandenberg et al., 2020).The previously mentioned CDD is also present, therefore, in the area of music taste.
These discourses against beauty in the case of music, on many occasions, penetrate the lives of many men and women, who end up believing that classical or beautiful music is chauvinist, that it is designed for old times and people, that only men save the women in these works, or that only men are recognized in the classical music repertoire.Therefore, it is evident that many music works based on beauty are not being promoted in many sectors, as it is for the benefit of the interests of predatory capital that is being discussed in this article.For instance, in Beethoven's only Opera, "Fidelio", Eleonora, a woman, disguises herself as a man to enter the prison where her husband is held.Another example is the music by the female composer Cécile Chaminade, highly known and recognized by classically trained flutists.The works of the latter are highlighted as of high level in harmony, architecture and structure.There are even scientific articles analyzing some impacts of Chaminade's music pieces on listeners (Rodriguez et al., 2023).
The discussion here is not about beauty or ugliness in music, but about how predatory capital takes more benefit from music that promotes ugliness.It is not about the music style, whether classical or modern, whether rock or folk; but about the intentions that predatory capital poses in them.This analysis aligns with prior scholarly research indicating that even within purportedly more alternative music domains, which profess to distance themselves from capitalist influences, capitalism still exerts significant influence in determining which musicians receive promotion.This influence is often driven not by musical merit, but by economic and ideological considerations (Garland, 2019).
Previous scientific literature has analyzed the impacts of listening to some sexist songs and its educational implications.For instance, a link between preference for listening to sexist songs and sexist attitudes was found (Saldarriaga et al., 2023).Other works have highlighted that songs fostering violence are more spread among adolescents in many contexts (Ruiz, 2020) and even very little children are exposed to sexist songs according to research carried out in the field of education (Chao-Fernández et al., 2020) In addition, and related to what the previous chapter has shown about the CDD, highly sexist songs can become a booster of the social status of the singers (Eze, 2020).Sexist and violent songs are also linked to a form of socialization of young people (Hormigos- Ruiz, 2023).Therefore, there are many educational actions aiming at offering a critical view of such songs and showing alternatives (Díez-Gutiérrez, 2021).Nevertheless, it is already known that, if it is not done through the language of desire (Rios-González et al., 2018), many of these alternative music not promoted by predatory capital may be seen as boring, convenient, or even snobbish, but not exciting (Vandenberg et al., 2020).If language of desire is attributed by the predatory capital to music promoting ugliness and this discourse ends up penetrating peer groups in schools, it is very likely that music promoting ugliness will shape the taste of many young people; in fact, peer interaction does play a role in music taste and consumption (Castro & Rezende, 2023).
For instance, SMA reveals some posts about the song "The girl from the batzoki" where a user posted at late hours of the night that he wanted to meet someone like the girl described in the song (elviciodeolvidar, 2009).Taking into account previous scientific evidence about CDD, it is likely that such behavior ends in a disdainful hookup later that night.Frequently, it involves a woman coerced into a disdainful hookup by the CDD, stemming from a perceived lack of attractiveness on that particular night (Lopez de Aguileta Jaussi et al., 2022;Tellado et al., 2014).On the other hand, SMA has also revealed the kinds of comments made towards music promoting beauty, such as the improvement of the passion of an elderly couple.Comments such as "the majority of people do not have disdainful hookups while listening to Beethoven's 5th" exemplify what the predatory capital also makes in music.

Pseudo Theories Benefiting Predatory Capital and Its Consequences
Predatory businesses like the one in the disdainful nightlife needed the normalization and promotion of the aforementioned practices of gender violence taking place in disdainful hookups.For such normalization to occur, any person writing and speaking in favor of gender violence was presented as a great intellectual or a great feminist.As a meaningful example, Foucault defended the depenalization of pederasty and rape.Many of his supporters deny that he defended pederasty and rape or recognize that he supported these, but that this was what everyone did in this historical context.There is much evidence proving that both statements are false.For instance, in the following dialogue (Kritzman, 1988, p. 200), it is clear that Foucault defended pederasty and rape, as it is also clear that the two feminists in the dialogue were against such violence in Foucault's same historical context: Foucault: One can always produce the theoretical discourse that amounts to saying: in any case, sexuality can in no circumstances be the object of punishment.And when one punishes rape one should be punishing physical violence and nothing but that.And to say that it is nothing more than an act of aggression: that there is no difference, in principle, between sticking one's fist into someone's face or one's penis into their sex... But, to start with, I'm not at all sure that women would agree with this… M.Z:.No, not really.Not at all, in fact.Foucault: So you accept that there is a "properly sexual" offense.M.Z.: Oh, yes.M.-O.F.: For all the little girls who have been attacked, in parks, in the underground, in all those experiences of everyday life, at eight, ten, or twelve: extremely traumatizing...In fact, almost all those who promote Foucault as a referent figure of feminism or education in their lectures hide his defense of rape and pederasty (Valls et al., 2022).This shows not only a lack of ethics, but also a lack of intellectual and scientific level.When the presentation of the evidence makes it impossible to maintain this trickery, frequently the defense moves to promote an admiration of Foucault as if he were a great intellectual.If a student is required to pass an exam on a particular book and confidently asserts that the word 'structure' does not appear in the text, when in fact it appears over seventy times, including once in the index, what would likely be the outcome?They would likely fail.Foucault said in his 1969 book "The archeology of knowledge" that in his 1966 book "The Order of Things" he did not use even once the word 'structure'.However, anyone can check and see he used this word more than seventy times, one in its index.
The elementary flaws of Foucault's books and their intellectual mediocrity are not identified by those who, like himself, have not read the main relevant books of the social sciences.Many of the latter think and say that Foucault makes very clever criticisms of power.These followers do not know or do not even understand the writings of the author they admire.Foucault (1991Foucault ( (o.p.1975), p. 194) ), p. 194) wrote: We must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it 'excludes ', it 'represses', it 'censors', it 'abstracts', it 'masks', it 'conceals'.In fact, power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth.The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production For both feminism and social sciences, sexual relationships with consent are good and society defends the right to have them.Sexual relationships based on power, not on free consent, like rape and pederasty, are negative, and society acts to avoid them.Authors who are great intellectuals and scientists make contributions to the very difficult task of clarifying the criteria to decide when there has been consent or not in all kinds of circumstances and cases.Mediocre authors do not make any contribution to this clarification, for instance, they say that all sexual relationships are power relationships.This contributes to justifying child sexual abuse, and all kinds of gender violence, and reinforces predatory capital.They do not know if a particular relationship is based on consent or power, and they assume they do not need to analyze it, as they just state it is all power before starting the analysis of the particular relationship.
Predatory capital does not take profit from the excellent intellectual and scientific contributions that clarify the negative consequences of sexual violence.It takes great profit from the power relationships, like sexual violence, normalized in predatory capital businesses, for instance, in rapes and disdainful hookups provoked by their business.This has crucial implications for practice and for the life of many.When professionals in gender, education, social work, and related fields instruct others in theories like Foucault's, which supports sexual violence, they perpetuate violent relationships instead of addressing and resolving them.Conversely, there are professionals who ground their practices and train others on excellent and rigorous scientific research that elucidates the mechanisms by which predatory capital creates and promotes a coercive dominant discourse leading to gender violence.They contribute to enhancing people's health, and freedom in a plural society, and even do save lives.This article has shared some examples of how this happens.

Conclusion
The analysis presented in this article sheds light on how predatory capital exploits and manipulates various aspects of human life for its own profit.Through the examination of niche markets such as the promotion of smoking among women, the normalization of disdainful hookups in nightlife, and the propagation of ugliness in art and music, it becomes evident how predatory capital thrives on perpetuating harmful behaviors and attitudes.By fostering coercive dominant discourses that link attraction to violence and promoting practices that objectify and degrade individuals, predatory capital not only undermines the well-being and flourishing of society but also perpetuates inequalities and contributes to the perpetuation of gender-based violence.Moreover, the article highlights the role of pseudo-theories, such as those espoused by certain intellectuals like Foucault, in legitimizing and normalizing behaviors that benefit predatory capital at the expense of human dignity and freedom.Moving forward, it is imperative for individuals, professionals, and society as a whole to critically examine and challenge these exploitative practices and ideologies to promote genuine human flourishing and well-being.This is particularly relevant for the field of education, where the narratives of the predatory capital have also permeated, in order to challenge its discourses and build new and more desirable possible futures.In this sense, by both recognizing and navigating the influence of predatory capitalism, and by prioritizing values such as consent, respect, and equality, citizens can work towards creating a more just and equitable society that is not beholden to the profit motives of predatory capital.
information on the consequences of smoking for the health of smokers and those around them (passive smokers).