Page 465 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Representat ons of Class

roseanne
When it comes to working-class representation on TV, Roseanne (ABC Television, 1988–97)
is the exception to the rule. Based on the comedy of Roseanne Barr, this family sitcom ex-
plored the trials and tribulations of a white, blue-collar family of five from the vantage point
of its feisty matriarch. Roseanne brought a distinctly feminine—and often explicitly feminist—
face to the working-class hero, who has been historically coded by labor organizers as male.
The program dealt regularly with “downbeat” issues such as workplace discrimination, low
wages, lack of job security, unemployment, and social discrimination, which are routinely
ignored by other sitcoms and by TV news, even though they impact many people. While
Roseanne didn’t delve too deeply into the politics of capitalism, it did express the everyday
injustices and resentments it breeds. For many critics, Roseanne remains the most dignified
portrait of working-class life to ever appear on television in the United States.

See Julie Bettie, “Class Dismissed? Roseanne and the Changing Face of Working Class Iconography,”
Social Text 14, no. 4 (Winter 1995).

Popular journalism complements these Hollywood mythologies by focusing
on their real-life equivalents. As DeMott points out, “humble” socioeconomic
origins claimed by pop stars like Britney Spears, sports figures like Michael Jor-
don, and CEOs like Donald Trump are accentuated as can-do parables by our
celebrity-oriented media culture. This affirmative discourse tempers the stigma-
tized view of the working class by affirming that anyone, regardless of birthright,
can aspire to follow in the footsteps of these successful and admired individu-
als. While most people recognize this as an unlikely fantasy, the growth of the
self-help industry, combined with cultural trends like reality TV, promises or-
dinary people the chance to “make over” themselves in more believable ways
and offer instructions for doing so. Programs from Dr. Phil to I Want to Be a
Hilton to What Not to Wear promise to help facilitate individual class mobility
by teaching people how to develop a “winning attitude,” dress for success, or
perfect their manners and personality. These programs acknowledge that class
is partly a matter of access to “approved” cultural resources, and in so doing
they may demystify the way that class inequality is perpetuated. However, the
programs inevitably downplay the shared politics of class oppression and help
to perpetuate the same class-based cultural hierarchies they claim to alleviate at
the individual level.

Don’T Envy ThE riCh

While media promote self-transformation techniques and fantasies of class
mobility, they also characterize the super rich as dysfunctional, greedy, and out
of control. From Hollywood films like Wall Street to television programs like The
Simple Life and My Super Sweet Sixteen, these cautionary tales present privileged
elites as objects of moral scorn rather than envy or emulation. Yet, whether it is