Abstract
In 2007, under Urban Dictionary’s first and most-approved-of definition of “white trash” (1,929 thumbs up, 511 thumbs down) was the statement “Paris Hilton proves you don’t have to be poor to be white trash.”1 By May 2013, the votes were 7,585 up, 2,563 down.2 The stigmatizing label has been assigned to the millionaire Hilton heiress because of media coverage detailing her pornographic lifestyle, laziness, expressed ignorance (e.g., expressing on the reality show, The Simple Life, the belief that Wal-Mart sold “walls”), arrest for drunk driving in 2006, defiance of the law (speeding at 70 mph in a 35 mph zone and repeated driving with a suspended license), serving a subsequent jail sentence in 2007, and expressing “bad taste” when posing nude covered with gold paint to promote Rich Prosecco, a canned version of an Italian sparkling wine. In 2007 the Guinness Book of World Records dubbed Hilton the “Most Overrated Celebrity.”3 An AOL poll found that Hilton was voted the Second Worst Celebrity Role Model of 2006, just after number one, Britney Spears.4
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Notes
Urban Dictionary (2004), “1. white trash,” Oct 10, retrieved June 8, 2007, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=white+trash.
TMZ Staff (2006), “Paris Hilton, World Record Winner,” TMZ.com. August 15, http://www.tmz.com/2006/08/15/paris-hilton-world-record-winner.
Associated Press (2006), “Britney Tops Poll of Worst Celebrity Role Models,” December 28, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16381980.
Tom Lutz (2006), Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 307.
The Superficial (2007), “Kevin Federline Hits on Lindsay Lohan,” January 3, Hollywood, CA: SpinMedia, http://thesuperficial.com/2007/01/kevin_federline_hits_on_lindsa.html.
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Howard Becker (1963), Outsiders: Studies on the Sociology of Deviance (New York: The Free Press).
Marsha Rosenbaum (1986), Women on Heroin (Crime, Law and Deviance Series) (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press).
Diane Vaughan (1986) Uncoupling: Turning Points in Relationships (New York: Oxford University Press).
David Karp (1996), Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection and the Meanings of Illness (New York: Oxford University Press).
Kid Rock (1998), Devil without a Cause, CD, track 2, “Cowboy” (Lava Records).
Dlisted (2006), “What’s Missing from This Wedding?” Posted August 29, http://dlisted.blogspot.com/2006/08/whats-missing-from-this-wedding.html.
Austin Scaggs (2007), “Kid Rock’s Cure for Heartbreak,” Rolling Stone 1037, October 18, 52.
Associated Press (2006), “Reports: Britney’ Son Fell from High Chair,” FoxNew.com, April 13, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/04/13/reports-britney-son-fell-from-high-chair.
Joal Ryan (2006), “Inside Britney’s Underpants,” E! On-line, November 30, http://images.eonline.com/news/53864/inside-britney-s-underpants.
Achoo Alergy Blog (2007), “Is Britney Spears Allergic to Underwear?” A post by Craig on Friday, October, 19, http://www.achooallergy.com/blog/britney-underwear-allergy.
Associated Press (2007), “Britney Spears Loses Custody of Children: Judge Orders Boys to Remain with Federline ‘until Further Order of the Court,’” NBCNews.com, October 10, http://www.today.com/id/21087621/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/britney-spears-loses-custody-children/#.UbNrl5wjn3U.
Wendy Snanker (2012), “Jamie Lynn Spears: ‘The Last Time Anyone Heard from Me, I Was 16 and Pregnant,’” Glamour.com, March, http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/2012/02/jamie-lynn-spears-interview-glamour-march-2012.
Caralyn Green (2007), “Britney Spears Might Be the Greatest Punk Icon of Our Times,” Philadelphia Weekly, Posted November 14, http://www.breatheheavy.com/exhale/index.php?/topic/5103-philadelphia-weekly-britney-spears-might-be-the-greatest-punk-icon-of-our-generation.
Roy Harvey Pearce ([1953] 1988), Savagism and Civilization: A Study of the Indian and the American Mind (Berkeley: University of California Press), 5–6.
Stephen J. Pfohl (1985), Images of Deviance and Social Control: A Sociological History (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press).
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© 2013 Karen Bettez Halnon
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Halnon, K.B. (2013). Super Trash Spectacles. In: The Consumption of Inequality. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137352491_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137352491_7
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