(Mis)recognition and the middle-class/bourgeois gaze: A case study of<i>Wife Swap</i>

Lyle, Samantha

doi:10.1080/17405900802405239

Cited by 35 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Against this backdrop, this article suggests that reality programs, which monopolize prime-time television across the globe, should be regarded as an important cultural site for classmaking (Skeggs et al 2008), which includes specific distinctions and symbolic boundaries (Lamont 2000). This examination is critical not only because it can assist in attaining an in-depth understanding of how culture and class contribute to the reproduction of everyday social inequality (Bourdieu 1984), but also because, as researchers have reported in recent years, reality TV programs offer intense dealings (or viewing) in the intersection of class, ethnicity, and race (Backstrom 2012;Lyle 2008;Park 2009;Weber 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), which includes specific distinctions and symbolic boundaries (Lamont ). This examination is critical not only because it can assist in attaining an in‐depth understanding of how culture and class contribute to the reproduction of everyday social inequality (Bourdieu ), but also because, as researchers have reported in recent years, reality TV programs offer intense dealings (or viewing) in the intersection of class, ethnicity, and race (Backstrom ; Lyle ; Park ; Weber ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethno‐Class Distinctions and Reality (TV)

Shoshana

2015

Sociological Forum

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This article offers a cultural‐sociological analysis of interpretations by viewers from different classes on the most popular reality show in Israel, namely, Big Brother. The findings of this study show dramatic differences in viewing practices according to class and ethnic distinctions of the viewers. Viewers from the upper socioeconomic class primarily addressed the way in which the subjects from the low socioeconomic class and marked ethnic groups appear in their eyes: that is, the processes affiliated with Othering. These ethno‐class distinctions were translated into unique viewing practices: the identification of what are called, “cult moments” or “grotesque moments.” These moments are depicted as ridiculing the “exaggerated” behavior of members of the low socioeconomic class and specific ethnic groups. Viewers from the low socioeconomic class offer more imminent (and less distant) perspectives on the Big Brother program. They relate to a broad spectrum of content that was broadcast in the program, identify with the participants from their group, criticize the judgments and the cultural hierarchies of marked group members, and describe how political anger accompanies their viewing of the reality program. The discussion section suggests the connection of these subjective interpretations and widespread cultural scenarios about class and ethnic identities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethno‐Class Distinctions and Reality (TV)

Shoshana

2015

Sociological Forum

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“…As described earlier, reality television is usually understood as a genre that promotes middle-class values, and the participation of working-class people has thus been understood as serving this function. The appearance of the working class in this genre could therefore be described as serving as an object of disidentication for the middle-class gaze (Lyle, 2008;Skeggs, 1997: 93). Naturally, the class-composition of reality television varies between different sub-genres.…”

Section: The Meaning Of Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Watching reality from a distance: class, genre and reality television

Stiernstedt

Jakobsson

2016

Media, Culture & Society

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The cultural significance of reality television is based on its claim to represent social reality. On the level of genre, we might argue that reality television constructs a modern day panorama of the social world and its inhabitants and that it thus makes populations appear. This article presents a class analysis of the population of reality television in which 1 year of television programming and over 1000 participants have been analysed. The purpose of this analysis is to deepen our understanding of the cultural and ideological dimensions of reality television as a genre, and to give a more detailed picture of the imaginaries of class in this form of television. The results bring new knowledge about the reality television genre and modify or revise assumptions from previous studies. Most importantly, we show that upper-class people and people belonging to the social elite are strongly over-represented in the genre and appear much more commonly in reality television than in other genres. This result opens up a re-evaluation of the cultural and ideological dimensions of the reality television genre.

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“…Samantha Lyle (2008) refers to a 'middle-class gaze' in Wife Swap that sets up a normative middle-class subject position from which to judge the behaviours of participants. Reality television's emphasis upon judgement is one of the new injuries of class (Couldry, 2011), and Beverley Skeggs and I have contributed to that debate by insisting that spectacularisation often detaches the behaviours of individuals from their social and historical contexts to highlight personal failure (Wood and Skeggs, 2008;Skeggs and Wood, 2012).…”

Section: Social Abjection and Reality Televisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The politics of hyperbole onGeordie Shore: Class, gender, youth and excess

Wood

2016

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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This article discusses MTV's Geordie Shore against the backcloth of current social conditions for working-class youth. It suggests that the aesthetic, physical and discursive features of excess represent hyperbole, produced from within an affective situation of precariousness and routed through the labour relations of media visibility. Hyper-glamour, hyper-sex and hyper-emotion are responses to the ideologies of the future-projected, self-governing neoliberal subject and to the contemporary gendered contradictions of sexually proclivity and monogamous heteronormativity. By 'flaunting' the realities of self-work and making the labour of themselves more/most visible, the participants of Geordie Shore are claiming an animated type of ill/legitimate subjectivity.

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(Mis)recognition and the middle-class/bourgeois gaze: A case study ofWife Swap

Cited by 35 publications

References 16 publications

Ethno‐Class Distinctions and Reality (TV)

Ethno‐Class Distinctions and Reality (TV)

Watching reality from a distance: class, genre and reality television

The politics of hyperbole onGeordie Shore: Class, gender, youth and excess

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