Supplemental Post #4: Elvis, Spring Break and More Midterms!?

Elvis is The King of Rock n' Roll, a heart throb... 

and a good ol' southern boy who loved his mama, but most of all, although he was a celebrity that started a literal cult following, the dude was also human. 

In celebration of his life and in coordinance with USC's spring break being around the corner here is The King's narration of how USC students will be feeling this week. 

TUESDAY: Only four more days until spring break. You may have a midterm coming up — no worries — Elvis wasn't that smart either.

WEDNESDAY: Happy Hump Day! Three more days until spring break. 

THURSDAY: Two more days until spring break.

FRIDAY: OMG spring break!!!!

Remember, your midterms are now over, so kiss USC goodbye and say hello to your well-deserved mini vacation.

Core Post #1: Elvis, Elvis and more Elvis (Insert screaming girls here)

The readings for this week discuss the role that Elvis played in popular culture throughout his life. During the 1950’s, Elvis was not only a music star, but also an actor and a sex icon — his sexual depiction resonating with many lifelong fans and impersonators alike.

Celebrities and trends may come and go, but very few obtain a cult following that is still celebrated to this day. Sure, every generation has its fix, but in terms of absurd amounts of stardom — and fandom for that matter — Elvis Presley was in a league all his own. Elvis started “fan-girling.” He was the reason why girls during the fifties and sixties would faint and get in hysterics — his rapid hip movements, movie star good looks, yet “boy next door” persona not only made him relatable and “the perfect guy” but his agents and representatives saw him as the perfect moneymaking enterprise. Unfortunately for Elvis, his personal goals were not necessarily met. Sure as a musical artist and entertainer he was revered around the world, but like any pop star, there comes a point in his or her career, where they want to be taken seriously. In Elvis’ case, he aspired to be a great, dramatic actor like Marlon Brando — his “people” felt it would be a more lucrative idea to appeal to his young, female audience and star in musical films with Presley as the lead. However, the appeals to his audience did much more than just get a bunch of teenage girls excited about sex and rock and roll — his popularity started a movement that not only would change the course of music history, but would change the way academics view celebrities of the Elvis degree.

The White Trash Aesthetic is one of the repercussions of Elvis’ popularity. Unfortunately, Elvis’s southern roots created a new class of people that would be viewed as lower class than African Americans. In our nation’s history, I don’t think anyone predicted that that would happen. Gael Sweeney’s paper “The King of White Trash Culture: Elvis Presley and the Aesthetics of Excess,” he talks about how the idea of why White Trash individuals are so much less desired than the whole African American race. Apparently, acting like someone who is black is worse than actually being black; essentially, acting black is racist, but of course saying that acting black is racist is in fact racist, so we have a never-ending catch-22 that our country so kindly created, oh so many years ago.

Supplemental Post #3: The White Trash Aesthetic, The Pine Barrens, and Chris Christie

I’m from New Jersey. Originally, I’m from a small town called Jackson in Southern New Jersey, near the Pine Barrens. After the reading Goel’s article “Blue Suede Shoes, The White Aesthetic,” I was thinking about the ways in which the "White Trash" Aesthetic lives in the Pine Barrens, my town, and then somehow I started thinking about Chris Christie. I come from a predominately conservative town who very much fit much of what Goel described and most people in my town loved Chris Chirstie. And somehow instantly I started thinking about the ways in which Chris Christie plays into and against the "White Trash" Aesthetic in New Jersey in order to get wield political power.

I think it’s more interesting to think of his beginnings in New Jersey as Governor before he entered the national news and presidential race. Before all of this, I think you see a politician being very specific and strategic with his persona and affiliations with not just working class New Jersey but also winning the approval of  predominantly “White Trash”  Southern New Jersey. At times, he embrace this “White Trash" Aethetic and persona for votes and at other times he distances himself from it to appeal a larger audiences. I think Chris Christie (at least when he was first elected in New Jersey) tired to appeal to the working class, white population of New Jersey. The governor before him, Corzine was a man of Wall street money.  Before the 2010 election had been getting very bad press including getting into car accident, not a seat belt. This car accident actually led to him being in crunches for most of the political debates between Corzine and Christie. This bolstered the idea that Corzine was this reckless, careless rich kid and that Christie was a no-nonsense, every-man.

In the debates and in his public self, Chris Christie puts on and exaggerates this persona in order to appeal to not only the white working class of urban spheres of Northern New Jersey but Goel’s "White Trash" class who predominately live in the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey.  He panders to working class New Jersey, working class New Jersey who very much define themselves as separate from "White Trash," Pine Barren New Jersey.  (These people from the Pine Barrens are usually reffered to as "Pineys" by people from Northern New Jersey.) He makes sure people know that he's worked for everything he's got. And because of this hard work, he gets to enjoy the privileges of his hard work. He sends his kids to a nice private school. He went to law school. He was a successful attorney. 

But at the same time, Christie takes up a lot of the qualities that Goel lists in oder to appeal to the backwoods, population of New Jersey.  He insults the intellectual, the corporate, the upperclass.He aligns himself with the big, loud rhetoric, the kind of rhetoric made to be “a philosophy on a T-shirt.”  (Goel) He has little use for the ‘order of things,’ the pretentious elite, and proud of the impolite. (Goel)   He says these things to spark emotion in the “White Trash” base. But then at the same time, he can pivot talking only about the working class of New Jersey and making sure that his own wealth and statue is recognized. He caters to the "White Trash" Aesthetic but always made it clear that he was separate, better, smarter, faster than that. He wanted the votes that came with that persona but he didn’t want to be reduced or over simplified to that stereotype.

Of course, there's so much to say and I've only just started to think about this…

Collection of Clips from Asbury Park Press called "Sit Down and Shut Up" and other Christie Moments 

http://www.app.com/videos/news/politics/new-jersey/chris-christie/2015/06/29/29461671/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

Core Post #2 - Versions of Elvis

The reading for tomorrow evaluated Elvis’s role in popular culture. From his appearance in the 1950’s, Elvis can be seen many forms, his role shifting depending on the lens you see him through. He can be a symbol for sexual liberation and an idol of the White Trash Aesthetic.

I think there is something about his fame that feels reminiscent of Valentino. Elvis is feminized, and sexualized in films, magazines for the viewer’s consumption. And at the same time he is actively sexualizing himself in his performances. Elvis’s performance dragged the private (the sexual, emotional) into the public. It sparked suppressed sexuality and encouraged a “shared access to feeling.”  (Doss) Elvis’s fans were met to gather together in collective hysteria, and sexual delight over him.  Women fainted, “fell down to the ground and screamed,” or “kick the seat in front or let out a 'rebel yell.’” These kinds of explosive displays of emotion, the physical reveal cracks in the Cold War era of containment, fear, and repressed emotion. (Doss) Elvis was a physical representation of their inner needs and desires – that felt incapable of acting out in their own lives and irresistibly drawn to in their fantasies, TV screens, magazines. This mirrors Valentino’s effect of young audiences, same goes with countless boy bands of several decades. (i.e. The Beatles, Jonas Brothers, One Direction, ect) He also seems to fit into a lot of what we discussed about Monroe. Elvis – and his body – become a spectacle for sexuality. Like Monroe, he embodies all our sexual desires in his performance and movement.  Yet at the same time, (and this maybe my opinion of Elvis) there is something about him that makes him seem harmless. Maybe it’s that he doesn’t seem too bright. He isn’t interested saving America like Cary Grant or standing up for morality like Jimmy Stewart. He just wants to have a good time. He’s sexual and sexualized but he doesn’t think too hard and therefore he doesn’t seem too dangerous.

On top of this, Doss and Sweeny both get into Elvis’s role in the military and politics that complicate his “rock ‘n roll” celebrity. Elvis’s personal and political affiliations reveals cracks in the way in which society used and saw him during the time period. Elvis was a product of the Cold War. He met Nixon. He was drafted. This may play into the White Trash Aesthetic; the boy does what’s best, and remembers where he cam from but it doesn’t do much for him as a symbol of symbolic liberation from society.  He’s not going against the establishment. He’s feeding into the system. This makes him incapable of sitting comfortably in a sexualized, liberal “rock n roll” life style.

Sifting through all these versions of Elvis, I’m wondering how Erika Doss’s very sexualized version of Elvis works with Goel Sweeney’s Elvis and his White Trash Aesthetic. What relationship do these two versions of Elvis have? It feels as though they counter and complement each other in ways that Dryer would only describe as “leaky.”  Doss’s description of the sexualized Elvis, I think complements Sweeny’s description of the White Trash body being a place for excess. Elvis in his performance is excess in movement and desire. His body is a place for hyper sexuality and fantasy.

Core Post #4: Elvis, White Trash, and Race

I absolutely loved Viva Las Vegas last week -- it was a fun mix of romance, music, energy, and of course, Elvis Presley. My parents were pretty into Elvis growing up, but this was actually the first of his films that I had seen. I thought he was really handsome and entertaining, definitely living up to the hype.

However, the articles we read for today redefined HYPE. Who knew fans would be so crazy as to constantly mob him, invite him to dinners, and other behaviors that today we would probably consider a little out of the ordinary. It's interesting and admirable to think that a celebrity could have such a (generally) positive influence on his fans, and be relatable enough that people considered him to be family.

I think the most interesting part of the articles was the discussion of white trash and its relationship to race. Nowadays, we primarily see racial discourse on African-American issues and white privilege; it's rare to see discussion over "lower class" whites, such as discussed in this article. The article states that "[white trash people] are seen as degrading to the dominant white culture because they reveal the lie of racism: the so-called inferiority of Blacks is embedded racially." Whereas Blacks are historically thought of as inferior, the white trash model inverts traditional racial stereotypes. The article goes on to state that blacks are often valued over white trash individuals, perhaps because they are seen as bringing the race down. It's a very interesting discussion. This is tangential, but I think it would be interesting to analyze the role that class plays in perceiving race. Are Blacks historically thought of as inferior because they are perceived to be poor? Conversely, are whites thought of as better because of their perceived wealth? What happens when that facade is broken or disproved?

The Mockery of White Trash

Going off of my core reading post, I think it’s interesting to observe how examples of white trash are mocked and somewhat sensationalized. It’s not rare to see a funny video of someone doing something so ‘trashy’ that it makes internet headlines.

What came to my mind instantly while reading was a video of a woman asking for a cigarette - and when the person she asks doesn’t have one, she reacts outrageously via shouting ‘FUCK OFF’. I think it’s hilarious that someone would react so outrageously, but the reason why it is so funny (to me, at least) is because of how little class she displays. The video went viral and someone also made a remix out of it which I thought was HILARIOUS.

Tying back to Sweeney’s thoughts on ‘White Trash’ revealing the falsity of racism, I believe class is composed by manners and actions rather than skin tone. What makes a person trashy is their actions, and this can translate across any human being regardless of race. Definitely displayed here. 


ORIGINAL VIDEO:

REMIX:

Core Reading Post // The 'Right' Type of White: White Trash in America

What interested me the most in Sweeney’s article was the concept of White Trash as interpreted by one’s actions, behavior, and composure, and why this is insanely frowned upon in white culture. While white complexion is highly considered the ‘desirable’ trait by western culture, much of what we associate with whiteness is also class, education, composure and sophistication. Sweeney most specifically mentions that “The White Trash body is, by definition, an excessive body...While the middle-class audience has critical distance--it applauds, distances itself, reacts intellectually to performance--the carnivalesque working-class audience is verbal, it reacts physically and emotionally: it often invades the performance space, wears colors or favors, mimics the performers, and intrudes upon the action...often with the tacit permission of the performers”. There’s a certain unspoken rule of class and composure among upper-class white communities not to act too rowdy or impolite, or else you’ll seep into a lower-class crowd because lower-class is most often associated with the black community. In this essence, class is achieved by control of one’s emotion, most specifically in understanding one’s distance from a performance or piece of art because reacting too carnivalesque, in the perspective of White culture, displays your lack of control. So, in essence, even though you’re white, you’re not the right kind of desirable white to fit the standard mold - all while still being a notch above black people because of your skin tone.

Sweeney additionally mentions why the idea of White Trash is so frowned upon. They mention that White Trash is perceived as ”’acting like blacks’, which in the language of racism is worse than being Black because it constitutes a degradation of ‘racially superior’ Whites...they are seen as degrading to dominant White culture because they reveal the lie of racism: that the so-called inferiority of the Blacks is embedded racially’”. Essentially, acting ‘black’ is even worse than BEING black because it uncloaks the falsity of the social construct of racism as a whole. No longer is the racist ideal supported by pigmentation because when white people ‘act like blacks’, the issue comes down to composure vs. skin color. When whites act like blacks, no longer are Whites ‘superior’, thus in order to propel this facade the white community must continue shunning those who don’t fit the standard, idyllic mold of whiteness.