![]() ![]() This article was amended on 21 May to remove a term that was not consistent with our style guide. If there's a subject you'd like to see covered on Comment is free, please visit our You Tell Us page They play into the idea of there being not just an economic, but a moral divide between people, and it's important for us all to remember that they're only reality shows in the very loosest sense. Honey Boo Boo may pretend to show a sympathetic depiction of its characters, but the editing and framing of the show make it hard to avoid the sense that the cast is being presented not so much as a different class, but practically a different species altogether. To use a hackneyed metaphor, it's a Daily Mail way of looking at the world, where the poor exist in a state of parasitic depravity, far from the "respectable middle class" that stands in as TV's normality, let alone the wealthy, blow-dried glamour of Made in Chelsea. In an atmosphere of cuts and austerity, the existence of a demonised underclass makes a useful crutch for the withdrawal of services from people who would supposedly only abuse them anyway, by politicians whose actual contact with those sections of the country is sparse at best. ![]() More and more, this is how the working-class are portrayed on television, both in fiction and in reality programming, and when these negative stereotypes are played on and exaggerated enough, they end up becoming cultural shorthand, the way that words like "benefits" and "council estate" now seem to be synonymous with scrounging and violence. Liverpudlians might remember a similar representation in 80s shows like Bread and Boys from the Blackstuff. Manchester was home to several diverse programmes in the 90s, but in the last few years it's chiefly served as a base for underclass unemployment and criminality in shows like Shameless, Ideal and Waterloo Road. The trend is reflected on British TV too and not just in reality shows like Geordie Shore and The Valleys. In a sense, it does for Georgia what Jersey Shore did for New Jersey. If the programme was solely about one family, it could be dismissed as merely an exploitative freak show and a sign of modern society's lack of shame, but when the Thompsons go mudsliding and bobbing for pigs' feet at the Redneck Games, or bulk buy doughnuts and corn chips at a food auction, the camera will linger on the most overweight and slovenly people around them, and you realise that it's more a depiction of an entire part of America, complete with subtitles and an omnipresent banjo soundtrack. Occasionally, they'll interact with a more respectable figure like an etiquette coach or family photographer who will barely conceal their horror beneath arictus mask of politeness. The show's centrepoint is Honey Boo Boo herself, seven-year-old Alana, who runs around in a twitching, sugar-and-caffeine-fuelled frenzy spouting catchphrases like " A dollar make me holla". ![]() Here Comes Honey Boo Boo revolves around the Thompson family, who manage to encompass an exaggerated version of practically every white trash stereotype imaginable. Honey Boo Boo star and former child beauty-pageant contestant Alana Thompson revealed Wednesday that she will be traveling to the Big Apple to undergo weight-loss surgery shortly after her. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |