So, it dawned on me while watching a documentary directed by an obviously well-to do upper-middle class guy, that most media is slanted towards upper-class sensibilities and perspectives more often than not. This is especially prevalent in movies and tv where the main characters are typically upper-class or even rich. I’d always had an aversion to these depictions, but I’ve never fully articulated my disillusionment with it. The problem is that these depictions of “average” families are woefully unrepresentative of your average person.
My question is: what is some media, in any format, that is informed by a working-class perspective?
I’ve found a few obvious authors out there, like Steinbeck, Bukowski and Irvine. But am interested in not only authors, but artists of all kinds and different mediums. Alternative comix and independent cinema, and things like zines spring to mind as mediums that might have more representation along those lines. Are there any specifically worker derived works that any of you can recommend?
Interesting, however sitcoms in general really aren’t my cup of tea as well. It was mentioned in other places that Roseanne was one of the few shows to depict working class life somewhat accurately, and with some dignity. A lot of the time the working class is shown in a shallow, stereotypical depiction of what upper-class people imagine it’s like.
Yes! Kids shows are particularly egregious about this. All the kids shows are about rich kids and their rich parents. That’s not to say that kids shows need to explicitly put the problems of class society front and center (although, some small discussion of class and social relations would be nice) but consistently showing kids living out these hyper-capitalist consumerist fantasies is pretty cringe-worthy.
Exactly. The thing that repulses me the most is the fake-y, artificial looking life that is so often represented in entertainment, and then that is what is spun as “normal”. Which I imagine is why these upper-class people even in real life look like the shallow Stepford Wives aesthetic that the movies and tv depict them as, life depicting art it seems.
In my initial short searches I did earlier, Antonio Gramsci comes up as addressing the issue of “cultural hegemony”, where art and entertainment tends to represent the dominant bourgeois culture, which makes a lot of sense. I’ve heard of Gramsci in passing, but haven’t read anything by him yet. I think it’s a good place to begin regarding a critical analysis.
Although, even without a thorough critical analysis, it’s pretty straightforward to realize that the economic barrier for art, entertainment and creating media in general leads to an over-representation of the wealthy since they have the money and means to create and distribute media to the masses, which in turn consolidates their dominance of the popular narrative.
What’s particularly sad about this, is that people that grow up working-class are absorbing messages from media that marginalize their narrative, and cause them to internalize a narrative that leads them to being oblivious towards their class standing and even hostile towards it. The whole “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” concept that causes people to denigrate the poor and working class, even if they themselves are a part of it.
Also worth reading is Camus’ short piece “Create Dangerously”, on the responsibility that artists have to challenge.