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

[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.