{"id":4593,"date":"2012-11-05T18:24:51","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T23:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=4593"},"modified":"2012-11-30T08:46:44","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T13:46:44","slug":"honey-boo-boo-vs-the-bullies-redneckognizing-accountability-in-cultural-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/honey-boo-boo-vs-the-bullies-redneckognizing-accountability-in-cultural-critique\/","title":{"rendered":"Honey Boo Boo vs. The Bullies: “Redneckognizing” Accountability in Cultural Critique"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest: reality television dominates American screens, and almost everyone says it\u2019s the end of Western civilization. If you\u2019ve ever wondered what it would be like to have nineteen children (\u201c19 Kids and Counting,\u201d courtesy of the Duggar family and TLC), be a redneck millionaire from duck-call sales (\u201cDuck Dynasty\u201d on A&E), revamp your failing restaurant, bar, or tattoo parlor (on Spike TV), or live in a beach house with a crew of self-styled guidos (you guessed it), reality television can provide a glimpse into another life. Reality television is an exercise in rubbernecking, reassuring viewers that somebody else\u2019s life is more laughable than his or her own. Most of the time, critics dismiss reality television with a huffy eye-roll. But once in a while, a show bypasses the ennui to have a gasket-blowing effect on the nation\u2019s culture police. This time, the outrage is aimed almost entirely at a seven-year old girl.<\/p>\n

Enter \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo,\u201d TLC\u2019s latest hit on the reality circuit. This show takes one of the most energetic cast members from TLC\u2019s highly controversial show, \u201cToddlers and Tiaras,\u201d which documents the often-sordid world of child pageants. Alana Thompson, nicknamed (by herself) Honey Boo Boo Child, quickly gained notoriety in \u201cToddlers and Tiaras\u201d for imbibing (courtesy of her mother) \u2018Go-Go Juice\u2019 before pageants, which is basically a mix of soda and energy drink. Not that Alana really needs it\u2014her hyperactive, self-styled diva character, along with her family\u2019s country bumpkin lifestyle, made a show about her life off the pageant stage too good for TLC to pass up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo\u201d explores the lives of Honey Boo Boo, Mama June, Sugar Bear, Chubbs, Pumpkin, and Chickadee (Alana, her mother, father, and three older sisters) in their rural Georgia home near the train tracks. As with any family, there are questionable dynamics; Chickadee is pregnant at age seventeen, all the daughters are from different fathers, and Alana is wearing makeup and bikinis for pageants at age seven. The show has become infamous, among other things, for June\u2019s weight and poor hygiene (such as the infamous forklift foot<\/a>), the family\u2019s \u201cSketti\u201d<\/a> recipe of margarine and ketchup, and the family\u2019s propensity to fart, sneeze<\/a>, play in mud, and other offensive acts that posh Americans have deemed \u201credneck.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most outspoken and oft-cited critics of the show, Tim Goodman from The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, sternly declares: \u201cYou can say no to TLC. And you can say no to Honey Boo Boo Child. Somebody has to.\u201d Looks like nobody took his advice, with \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo\u201d outdoing (on the same night) the Republican National Convention with 2.9 million viewers: 1.7 million more viewers<\/a> than the Convention. We\u2019re not listening to Tim Goodman\u2019s admonishments because, for better or worse, this type of down-home redneck stuff is dominating the channels and honestly, can be ridiculously funny. I love to tune in and watch Alana play dress up with her pet pig, Glitzy, and to spout aphorisms about her life and circumstances (see below). What seems more compelling than just whether or not people like the show is the critical reaction. Why has \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo\u201d inspired such vitriol?<\/p>\n

Some people genuinely love Honey Boo Boo, comparing her to a modern-day Shirley Temple. Others–admittedly from the netherworld that is the YouTube comments section–call her a poster girl for forced sterilization. Disagreements are fine, yet the mean-spirited tone that characterizes not only the internet babble over Honey Boo Boo,\u00a0 but also the allegedly sophisticated criticism. This illustrates a disturbing trend in the way that we feel licensed to comment on modern culture.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s so bad about Honey Boo Boo? Pageants, they say. Her mother makes her do pageants! Oversexualization of young women! As Ryan McGee points out in his review<\/a>, \u201cThe pageant life seems slightly creepy, but turn the channel over to The Olympic Games and think about all the craziness involved there. We\u2019re somehow okay with it when it involves young girls robbed of their childhood for gymnastics instead of pageants.\u201d Culturally and socially, we are conditioned to believe that the oversexualization of young girls is worthy and laudable in some activities, and deplorable in others. Take, for instance, the insertion of body image and weight into every little activity Alana does: on her official Facebook page<\/a>, Mama June posts a picture of Alana holding up donated toys for the family\u2019s annual Christmas toy drive. A commenter (Itay Hadar) rains on the parade of positive comments and offers for toy contributions with \u201cyou need to have a diet.\u201d<\/a> Why? Because it\u2019s useful to be slender in charity work?<\/p>\n

Comment sections for videos of Honey Boo Boo are infested with offensive comments that need no repeating, but serve to reiterate the common cultural conception that females, regardless of age, are just there to be objectified. Of course, the internet is an ugly place where anonymous trolls will say the worst things without a second thought to others\u2014and often experience no consequences. We all know that internet comments tend to be scraped from the bottom of the cultural sludge barrel, but everyone telling Alana what to do with her body\u2014whether that\u2019s shutting her mouth, losing weight, or some of the more disturbing things non-fans have suggested\u2014is participating in the sexualization of a young girl.\u00a0 Forget the pageants: living in America today as a woman means that you are subject to rape culture<\/a> at large.<\/p>\n

If you think that only immature YouTube commenters are making fun of Alana\u2019s weight, you\u2019re sorely mistaken. Being overweight in America is often attributed to personal failures and weaknesses<\/a>, while it is more likely a product of government policies that the incentives to buy cheap, crappy food high.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Respected critics, like Goodman, for all their high-minded desires to save us from Honey Boo Boo, use this fallacy to insist that Mama and Honey Boo Boo know \u201cdeep down in their rotund bodies\u201d<\/a> that their family is a \u201ccar crash.\u201d Why, because they\u2019re fat? The aggressive tone in which grown men insist that this standard should be held, that we should say no to TLC, is problematic when most of their dialogue trends towards Alana\u2019s weight. It is hypocrisy to criticize a show for portraying oversexualized child pageant culture by calling the show\u2019s star fat and unlovable. Clearly most critics today aren\u2019t much better than their YouTube counterparts.<\/p>\n

So, why the endless drivel about Honey Boo Boo\u2019s weight? Is it really her doing, her dogged love of chicken nuggets, or is it her family\u2019s income bracket and the difficulty of affording healthy food or even learning how to prepare it? It\u2019s fair to say that Honey Boo Boo represents some of the negative facets of lower middle class America. To then make the leap to hold her accountable for these failings, as most criticism of the show has, buys into the myth that because she is the \u201cstar\u201d of the show she is responsible for its message. At a certain age, we don\u2019t hold kids responsible, because they just don\u2019t know. For instance, Honey Boo Boo\u2019s Jerry Springer-style \u201csnap a Q\u201d patois has often been cited as latent racism, a parody of the stereotypical angry\/sassy black woman. Or maybe it\u2019s just that she was raised watching daytime TV. Why hold a child accountable for the quirks of \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo\u201d that are not her fault, not her design, and probably completely lost on her?<\/p>\n

This paradigm of accountability speaks to the issue of exploitation within the show. Non-farting, non-sneezing critics of the show seem apoplectic that TLC is giving the audience \u201cthe green light to laugh at rednecks and fat people.\u201d<\/a> To do so, which millions of Americans have, is mildly abusive. In fact, most criticism of the show (when it\u2019s not about weight) has been that the Thompsons aren\u2019t in on the joke and they don\u2019t know they\u2019re being laughed at. And even if the Thompsons get it, critics aren\u2019t happy: suddenly the family is \u201c\u2026annoying because now they\u2019ve taken the power we had over them — laughing at their pathetic lives — and are turning it into cash.\u201d This comment<\/a> is particularly insidious for its judgment that the Thompson family would be just fine if they kept their fat, uncultivated lives to themselves instead of having fun and making money when they\u2019re not thin, wealthy, or highly educated (the basic requirements of human happiness).<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s about class, too. Dan Chambers, in his article, \u201cAnalysis: Honey Boo Boo show is a sign of our times\u201d<\/a> notes the pop culture trends that surround instances of declining middle class incomes. He says, \u201cThere is a tendency for many to want to believe while they may not enjoy the middle class income that they used to earn\u2026they want to believe that they do hold on to middle class values.\u201d He declares that viewers watching \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo\u201d can watch a bunch of rednecks on ATVs throwing grass in their front yard and feel validated in their moral and cultural superiority. Annual income might not separate you and the Thompsons, but your elite middle class values can. At least you don\u2019t eat roadkill.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, what are these middle class values that indicate we should scorn \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo?\u201d Values always seem to change in election years, and America is bitterly torn on issues of middle class taxes, abortion, gay marriage, and what to do about unemployment. Honey Boo Boo\u2019s family has some surprisingly progressive perspectives:<\/p>\n

On gay rights: About her gay uncle, Alana says: \u201cAin\u2019t nothing wrong with being a little gay. Everyone\u2019s a little gay.\u201d About her cross-dressing pig, Glitzy, she says, \u201cYou can\u2019t tell that\u00a0pig what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

On teenage pregnancy: While laying in a hospital bed, still suffering childbirth pains,\u00a0Chickadee is asked by a condescending off-camera voice if she would recommend that\u00a0another seventeen year old girl get pregnant and go through this. She responds, \u201cDo\u00a0whatever you want,\u201d and rolls over. Not a bad response to being baited with the teen\u00a0pregnancy morality debate while you\u2019re in the worst pain a human can experience.<\/p>\n

On tax reform: Alana\u2019s catchphrase: \u201ca dolla makes me holla!\u201d<\/p>\n

On body image: \u201cMama says pretty comes in all sizes, and my size is cute!\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really see the point of outrage. The family is tolerant, loves each other, and isn\u2019t running around telling other people how to live their lives. However, I will grant that there is exploitation inherent in the show: financially, at least. Most critics use the term \u201cexploitation\u201d in the non-monetary sense, as a pitying remark to insist that the family is just too stupid to understand they are being made fun of for profit. Yet there is<\/em> a level of abuse, and it\u2019s mostly TLC\u2019s fault: The Thompsons are absolutely being underpaid<\/a> for the success they have brought TLC. For the next season, they have negotiated $10,000 an episode, up from the previous estimate of $4,000 a show. For context, Jersey Shore cast members can make upwards of $150,000 per episode. The Thompsons are, of course, being ripped off and should be paid more, though that doesn\u2019t seem to bother them. Both TLC and Rosie O\u2019Donnell (a huge fan) have offered to buy the family a new house, but Mama June has declined<\/a>\u2014she wants the family to stay true to their roots.<\/p>\n

Fans of the show are outspoken in their love for Honey Boo Boo, and often respond to criticism with two main arguments: back off, she\u2019s a child, and if you don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t watch it. This is common sense advice, and is therefore practically useless in the age of internet culture. The fact is, criticism of this show is blinded, in part, by the very mechanism it uses to critique \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo.\u201d She is a product of her culture, but she is a child. Critics are also a product of their culture, which is perhaps why they think that overweight people are fat because of their own personal failings, and that if women just dressed differently or didn\u2019t go out at night it would all be different. These critics are adults, though, and should<\/em> be held responsible for the implications of their statements. \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo\u201d is lowbrow, no doubt, but highbrow bullying centered on Alana\u2019s body and upbringing only serves to reinforce the gender and cultural stereotypes that the show puts forth. So tune in, love the show, get your name Honey Boo Boo-fied<\/a>. <\/em>Or not\u2014but don\u2019t bully in the name of cultural concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s be honest: reality television dominates American screens, and almost everyone says it\u2019s the end of Western civilization. If you\u2019ve ever wondered what it would be like to have nineteen children (\u201c19 Kids and Counting,\u201d courtesy of the Duggar family and TLC), be a redneck millionaire from duck-call sales (\u201cDuck Dynasty\u201d on A&E), revamp your failing restaurant, bar, or tattoo parlor (on Spike TV), or live in a beach house with a crew of self-styled guidos (you guessed it), reality television can provide a glimpse into another life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":4594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,214,212],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4763,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions\/4763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}