The harsh reality behind Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (TLC comes to the UK)

[HiPointDem]

Recently, you might have seen the spate of billboard adverts featuring a piglet wearing a tiara, signalling the UK launch of an American TV channel called TLC... TLC specialises in what it calls "extraordinary people and relatable life moments", which translates into trashy reality shows like My Strange Addiction, Extreme Couponing and Little People, Big World. Their flagship show is called Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which combines several of the channel's main obsessions – obesity, teen parenthood, large families and child beauty pageants – into a depressingly popular show that may be the closest television has got to invoking the spirit of a travelling show.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo revolves around the Thompson family, who manage to encompass an exaggerated version of practically every white trash stereotype imaginable... 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...

The trend is reflected on British TV... 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. Liverpudlians might remember a similar representation in 80s shows like Bread and Boys from the Blackstuff. 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.

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...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...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/20/here-comes-honey-boo-boo-harsh-reality

[dkf]

1. I'm sorry but this is pure snobbery.

Who are they to judge like that? Say what you will about Honey Boo Boo, that little girl has more personality in her little finger than the jerk who wrote this piece. I've only seen her once but I thought she was adorable.

[cynatnite]

3. It's only child exploitation and trash TV to boot. n/t

[Pelican]

26. Don't be closed minded... They can both be terrible people...

[JCMach1]

27. exactly, skip the humanity and focus on the stereotypes

[Gormy Cuss]

2. It's not really about a cute little pageant contestant.

I agree completely with the summary paragraph:

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. 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.

[Hekate]

4. The author has a very valid point

The little kid may be cute -- but as you point out with the summary paragraph, the editing and framing are anything but sympathetic.

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.

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.

[BainsBane]

5. the author trades on those stereotypes

and insults the child by referring to "a piglet in a tiara." That is just rude. She is a little girl.

[MattSh]

6. Project much?

The article states...

Recently, you might have seen the spate of billboard adverts featuring a piglet wearing a tiara

At no place does the article refer to this little girl as being the pig in a tiara. Did it even occur to you that the pig in the "pig in a tiara" might be of the four legged variety?

[BainsBane]

7. Do you know that's the case?

I looked in the article for such an image and saw none.

[Berlum]

8. Sigh. From the tlc website.

[Lunacee_2013]

9. Wait, it's an actual pig?

What has TLC become and what are they doing to that poor kid? I've only seen part of one episode, but it does seem like they're stereotyping poor, working class people.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. It's a pig that the girl owns

or owed - a quick google search indicates stories about her having to give it up, last year. But it still appeared with Anderson Cooper after that.

[dipsydoodle]

19. Given that we're both here in the UK

were it not for this article would you have known the TLC even existed ? I certainly didn't but given my general aversion to watching drivel I wouldn't watch it anyway. I suspect it will last about as long as some other US channels have lasted here - here today gone tomorrow.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. In the UK, no, I wouldn't have known

Billboard ads are not ubiquitous - there's only one site I can think of that I see around here. TLC is available on Sky and cable; I don't know if they advertised it on those media, since I have neither. I had heard of the US channel, since there have been plenty of complaints on DU about how something that started as "The Learning Channel" with what you might call 'proper' documentaries descended into all kinds of reality shows (which often feel fake, of course).

It may well last, in the sense of remaining on satellite and cable - there are huge numbers of channels on them that you'd imagine get tiny viewing figures. If they've got the bandwidth, they'll put something on it; the Wikipedia page for it shows there are a few homegrown shows they're putting on it, so they're spending a bit of money at the moment, but the imported American shows are effectively free for them, I'd think.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

38. Yes, and the pet pig crapped on the kitchen table.

Caught that in a video clip, and that was enough "Honey Boo Boo" for me.

[BainsBane]

32. "sigh"

because it's just the same as not knowing Shakespeare or the name of the President of the US.

[Hissyspit]

33. As far as basic fact-checking and not knowing the facts before you righteously accuse, yes, it is

the same.

[BainsBane]

39. righteously?

really? I didn't know how to fact check billboards seeing as I don't have teleporting abilities. It was a comment on a message board. Not a criminal complain. Good god.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. The specific billboard ad for the UK launch:

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Why, then, does the billboard show a real piglet?

Along with the 'here comes TLC' line, it's apparent to me that the swine in that photo is a metaphor for the human girl in the show under discussion.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. I expect TLC would say "it's her piglet; it appears in the show"

but I can see that the metaphor may well be what they were aiming for.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. You got it-- not very subtle, eh?

[Gormy Cuss]

34. More like a metaphor for the whole show

which is the author's point in the excerpt I posted above. It's just a new variant of "lipstick on a pig."
TLC promoters of course can claim there's no such meaning, that it's merely highlighting the potbellied pig that briefly was Honey Boo Boo's pet.


eta: I watched a few episodes to see what the buzz was about and having grown up in a very low income community where the 'rich' families were working stiffs who owned their modest houses, I found myself wanting to throw bricks at the TV. The show never missed an opportunity to exploit the stereotypes of lower income people and/or Southerners.

The kindest thing I can say about it is that this child and her family are raking in enough money to live without squeezing every nickel.

[HiPointDem]

37. no. the girl has a pig, and she put a tiara on it. the *advertisers* may be using it

that way, but in fact the girl has a pig and put a tiara on it.

[Eleanors38]

11. Poor whites are everybody's favorite target; they deserve it, doncha know?

[Cirque du So-What]

15. I've read that

exploitative shows featuring families from other ethnic groups have been considered, but complaints put the kibosh on them. Seems there's not a big enough groundswell of opposition to keep the shows in TLC's stable out of production.

[Eleanors38]

17. Yeah, you need a groundswell to deter crap stereotypes, it seems.

[Cirque du So-What]

21. And as you mentioned earlier

poor white people are fair game. 'Twas ever thus. Although Li'l Abner had some other redeeming values, it would never have passed muster if any other ethnicity had been portrayed - even in the dismal pre-Civil Rights era when it was first syndicated. The 'Slobbovians' in that comic strip were transparently Russian, but there wasn't anyone to protest on their behalf either. Despite its social relevance, I recall some degree of dissent when The Jeffersons was spun off from All in the Family, based on its fish-out-of-water depiction of an African American family who become nouveau riche (bigots would substitute another n-word for nouveau, of course). I don't recall anything in the way of protest against The Beverly Hillbillies, although I was fairly young when that show debuted. Speaking of 'hillbilly'...is there any other ethnic group which is freely referred to with such a pejorative in polite company? Their melanin level notwithstanding, I believe that no group of people deserves offensive tags, even though they share their complexion with the rich and powerful in their society. It's derogatory because it makes assumptions about their economic status; race is secondary. As I said, it's not tolerated with any other ethnicity.

[Eleanors38]

24. When B. Hillbilies came out (I was 16), I found the

stereotypes and predicaments so unimaginative that the whole show was boring and tedious. Even now, here in DU, this reverse minstrelcy is played out with more glee than humor.

Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: "The antipathy in our culture between the urban and the nonurban is so durable, it has its own vocabulary: (A) city slucker, tenderfoot; (B) hick, redneck, hayseed, bumpkin, rube, yokel, clodhopper, hoecake, hillbilly, Dogpatch, Daisy Mae, farmer's daughter, from the provinces, something out of Deliverance. Maybe you can see where I'm going with this. The list is lopsided. I don't think there's much doubt, on either side, as to which class is winning the culture wars."

[Cirque du So-What]

25. Add to the list

the terms 'red state' & 'flyover country,' which become more prevalent around election time. Nothing like winning hearts & minds, right?

[arely staircase]

41. the beverly hillbillies was pure genius

sorry, you are just wrong. only the the Andy Griffith show rivals the b hillbillies for sitcoms of that era.

tedious, my ass.

[Eleanors38]

42. Andy Griffith, I'll take. Hillbillies: Bleet.

[arely staircase]

43. ok, well at least we agree on andy

[Eleanors38]

44. Good stories, great cast.

[arcane1]

28. "Class Dismissed - How TV Frames the Working Class" is a great documentary about this topic

I may have to watch it again today

[Cirque du So-What]

29. Yes, I've seen it too

It's worthy of a doctoral dissertation. Really thought-provoking as it points out a lot of subtleties that may be missed in how cultural media portrays the working class.

[BuelahWitch]

35. Thanks for the info, I just watched it

It's on Youtube

[leftyohiolib]

13. what a disgrace the LEARNING channel has become

[HooptieWagon]

30. Yes, it used to be pretty good.

Although, to be honest, all TV has gone into the crapper.

[kentauros]

46. That disgrace encompasses all of cable-tv now.

It's all about branding and name-recognition, and no longer has anything to do with their roots. TLC is just a string of letters to most viewers. The owners don't even call it "The Learning Channel" any more because that's no longer their focus (teaching doesn't make nearly as much money as exploitation and "extreme" (insert common subject matter here.)

[Nye Bevan]

20. Thank goodness nobody on DU ever bashes poor Southern whites (nt)

[Cirque du So-What]

22. What? They're fair game!

After all, EVERYone bearing that melanin-deficient complexion benefited from 'white privilege,' yunno.

[cordelia]

40. I know! Here's where a DUer wished us early deaths.

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10022906911#post56

[L0oniX]

31. Post Jerry Springer ...can only go down hill from there.

[Tom Ripley]

36. It all began with "COPS"

[MindPilot]

45. I think it all began with "Green Acres"

But yeah COPs was an interesting evolution from its beginnings as an unvarnished look at the day-to-day lives of real cops, it morphed into a weekly PSA for authoritarians. I'd love to see the out takes--where they pull over some well-dressed white guy in a BMW whose papers are all in order yet they still drag him out and rough him up because they KNOW he has coke. You'll never see that one.

[Generic Other]

47. I was prepared to make fun of the family

I watched and found myself unwilling to be judgmental.

They are real people. I have known families like this. They aint middle class. So what?

They aren't mobsters' wives, alcoholic aging rock stars, spoiled princesses, shrieking bridezillas, or fat ass Kardashians. Those are people who deserve ridicule.