By Brittni Brown (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: January 9, 2013
Over the past decade reality television has become the highlight of entertainment. It’s an outlet of escape, but it’s also an easily accessible and inexpensive form of class tourism. By providing an otherwise private insight into the lifestyles of others, they offer a temporary break from the boring normalities of the working-class lifestyle. This is true whether the individuals portrayed are rich or poor, admired or derided.
Typically, “reality” television has focused on the elite class. Programs such as The Simple Life, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Real House Wives, and Gene Simmons: Family Jewels quickly and easily gained a massive following – which made sense. It is understandable that “lower” class citizens would find an escape through watching the lavish lifestyles of others.
However, a new trend in reality TV is much more puzzling. Why is there such a high demand for shows which follow lower-class. down and out individuals? Do we simply enjoy watching the struggles of others? Or do we find them more relatable? Duck Dynasty, Dance Moms, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo are all examples of popular reality television shows introduced during 2012. All of which can be classified as class tourism.
In this form of class tourism viewers obtain pleasure from the customs, mannerisms and behaviour of people from lower social classes, especially when observed from an online multimedia source – essentially it is mockery.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is amongst the most popular and controversial television programs introduced during 2012; it is an extremely potent example of class tourism on television. The show has gained more than 2.4 million viewers since its premier in August but has still managed to top the list of 2012’s worst TV shows.
The show follows Alana (Honey Boo Boo), a six-year-old beauty contestant and her family, in their hometown of Georgia. Each family member has a silly nickname: the mom is referred to as Coupon Queen, the dad as Sugar Bear and the three sisters as Chickadee, Pumpkin and Chubbs. All members of the family are overweight and speak in a thick southern drawl.
Ultimately, the show portrays the family as un-classy, redneck and uneducated. It’s jam-packed with jaw-dropping “did she actually just say that?!” moments; during the opening credits the mom is introduced by farting and interrupting the song. The program gives a definite emphasis on the trashy and the terrible, drawing the viewer in with a sort of morbid curiosity.
The fact that the star of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is only six is also hard to overlook. Had the show portrayed Alana in a positive light it would be a different story. However, when the show is intended to poke fun at the mannerisms and redneck ways of a little girl, is there not something to be said about the network? And further, the viewer? Are we not just as crude and laughable for enjoying this sort of entertainment?
Recent tabloids have only added to the controversy by attacking Honey Boo Boo’s weight. One can only imagine how a six-year-old’s psyche will be affected by having her weight issues debated for the entertainment purposes of an entire nation.
Perhaps there should be stricter rules enforced to restrain networks from producing the crude programs which target little girls and people of lesser fortune. Unfortunately, much like other ugly aspects of society, if it sells, it stays.
