exploitation

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of utilizing something; industry.

   “the exploitation of natural resources”

   “Whereas in the middle ages the idea of acquiring wealth was limited by a body of moral rules imposed under the sanction of religious authority, after 1500 those rules, and the institutions, habits, and ideas to which they had given birth, were no longer deemed adequate. They were felt as constraint. There were evaded, criticized, abandoned, because it was felt that they interfered with the exploitation of the means of production.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The improper use of something for selfish purposes.

   “the exploitation of children in beauty pageants”

   “"The second function is for seers who have used magic, but do not know about the second function. This criteria selects the informed while preventing premeditated exploitation of this function."”

3. (countable, uncountable)The act or result of forcibly depriving someone of something to which they have a right.

   “Undocumented migrants are vulnerable to exploitation.”

4. (countable, uncountable)The marketing and promotion of a film.

   “This territory continued to be the greatest field for the exploitation and distribution of our films non-theatrically, […]”

   “The difference is that obtaining increased financial input during the production phase of the film reduces the risk during the exploitation phase.”

5. (countable, uncountable)A genre of media focused on lurid depictions of topical social issues such as violence, sexuality and marginalized groups.

   “[…]certainly it is not an adventure story, either, as McKernan seems to suggest, an exploitation novel aiming to attract readers through the use of "the odd," "the perverse," or "the exotic."”

   “It is here that we arrive at the main question of this paper: can an exploitation director be an auteur?”