Aunt Becky goes rogue: de-celebrification and de-mothering in the college cheating scandal, Operation Varsity Blues

Abstract

ABSTRACT In March 2019 actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were among wealthy parents charged in a university entry fraud scheme that ensured privileged children gained entry to coveted institutions, dubbed ‘Operation Varsity Blues’. Drawing on celebrity and criminology studies, this paper discusses how Loughlin and Huffman have been mediated as ‘de-celebrified’ but also as mothers who have threatened their children’s futures and consequently, have also been de-mothered. Whilst transgressive celebrity mothers such as Britney Spears exemplify the narrative of the de-celebrified, de-mothered star, in the cases of Loughlin and Huffman, because they famously played the mother characters Aunt Becky (Full House), and Lynette Scavo (Desperate Housewives), their de-mothering is amplified and complicated via this performative mothering on screen. The negative resonance of Huffman and Loughlin’s transgressive maternal behaviour is mediated through social media hashtags and memes that compare their personal criminal actions in the ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ scandal with their alter egos. Huffman and Loughlin must now negotiate both their de-celebrification and their de-mothering in the intersecting realms of celebrity and motherhood, amplified and complicated by the intensive mothering roles that have defined their careers.