Class and Feminine Excess

The Strange Case of Anna Nicole Smith

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4926265
AutoresJeffrey A Brown (0000-0002-5661-1172, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen81
Número1
Páginas74-94
Fecha de publicación2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400240
OpenAlexW2027164142
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas13

Cultural concerns about race, class and beauty often intersect with mass-mediated depictions of the female body. Drawing on Foucault's theories about disciplining the public body, this article examines the changing public perception of Anna Nicole Smith from an ideal beauty to a white trash stereotype. This analysis argues that Smith's very public weight gains, her outrageous behaviour and her legal battle for her late husband's fortune is presented in the media as an example of inappropriate conduct for a white beauty ideal and thus is repositioned as white trash culture. Central to this repositioning is the constant tabloid depiction of Smith as an 'out of control' grotesque. This article argues that contrary to the optimistic understanding of female grotesques as effective agents of cultural criticism and social change, Smith represents the female grotesque as an agent of cultural control that instructs middle-class women on how to avoid committing classed, racial and gendered transgressions. The article concludes that the case of Anna Nicole Smith functions as a cautionary tale that reinforces cultural standards of normalization

Aesthetics · Art · Battle · Beauty · Criticism · Cultural history · Depiction · Femininity · Feminism · Ideal (ethics) · Literature · Middle class · Political science · Sociology · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · South Asian Cinema and Culture