Class-passing: social mobility in film and popular culture

Abstract

Reassesses the rules of social standing in American popular culture. Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Roseanne Barr, and Britney Spears typify class-passers - those who claim different socioeconomic classes as their own. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster asserts so in Class-Passing: Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture. According to new rules of social standing in American popular culture, class is no longer defined by wealth, birth, or education. Instead, today's notion of class reflects a socially constructed and regulated series of performed acts and gestures rooted in the cult of celebrity. In examining the quest for class mobility, Foster deftly traces class-passing through the landscape of popular films, reality television shows, advertisements, the Internet, and video games. She deconstructs the politics of celebrity, fashion, and conspicuous consumerism and analyzes class-passing as it relates to the American Dream, gender, and marriage. Class-Passing draws on dozens of examples from popular culture, from old movie classics and contemporary films to print ads and cyberspace, to illustrate how flagrant displays of wealth that were once unacceptable under the old rules of behavior are now flaunted by class-passing celebrities. From the construction worker in Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? to the privileged socialities Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie of Simple Life, Foster explores the fantasy of contact between the classes. She also refers to television class-passers from Apprentice, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and Survivor and notable class-passing achievers Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Martha Stewart. Class-Passing is a notable examination of the historical, social, and ideological shifts in expressions of class. The first serious book of its kind, Class-Passing is fresh, innovative, and invaluable for students and scholars of film, television, and popular culture.