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What is rich-washing?
INTRODUCTION
What is rich-washing? It is when cultural products and advertising make it seem like everyone is rich.
It's similar to whitewashing, where a problem is covered up and made to seem fine, when it is not; or Hollywood whitewashing, where white actors take roles over people of colour; or activist whitewashing, where white activists are spotlighted over people of colour;Â or greenwashing, where things are made to seem environmentally good, when they are not.
Much has been written about the media biases regarding sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, harmful depictions of mental illness, and other biases that stereotype or denigrate specific groups of people. However, not as much has been written about classism in North American media and entertainment.
Rich-washing is a type of classism, but it is much more than that.Â
Rich-washing completely flips the facts: in the real world, thereâs a huge majority of financially precarious people at the bottom and a tiny minority at the top.Â
And for those at the very top in the U.S., their wealth is growing.Â
Rich-washing takes the bulk of people on the planet and makes them disappear ââ they are over-looked, glossed over, cropped out of the picture, written out of the story.
Rich-washing is gas-lighting on a grand scale. It is so wide-spread that it is almost invisible. Like the dish soap ad used to say, weâre soaking in it.
Because it is such a blatant misrepresentation of the world, rich-washing has many harmful effects on people and the planet. It is important to expose this type of propaganda to reduce its harm.
However, the answer is not to change entertainment to only reflect social reality. No, this is not a call for censorship, but to point out how pop-culture is currently censored by those who hold the purse strings. Ultimately, the answer is to change our social reality to make it less harsh and more livable for everyone. More on this at the end.
Pop-culture is being censored by those who hold the purse strings
Most people are not rich but youâd never know that in todayâs 21st century North American TV shows, movies, print media, social media and especially advertisements. (For whatever reason, entertainment in the UK has more social realism and much less rich-washing.)Â
Images of the rich and super-rich have come to dominate everything in a massive cultural mono-crop of shining hair shining teeth shining cars and shining homes filled with shining gadgets.
Yes, there are exceptions (see end). However, these exceptions are mostly âdrowned in a sea of irrelevanceâ (as Aldous Huxley said).
Ursula Franklin called this general effect âcensorship by stuffingâ. Specifically with rich-washing, the ârichâ images are so numerous that they obliterate every other view of society.Â
âIt is all too easy to confuse the sheer quantity of media with diversity of viewpoint. We do not notice that essentially the same messages are being repeated.â ââ Mediaspeak, 1983
Get out the corporate pressure-washer, aim it at the public, turn it on max.
Or as Bertolt Brecht said: âThe powerful of the earth create the poor but they cannot bear to look at them.â
Advertisers also donât like it when the poor look at each other.
âIn the 1960s... CBS dropped a number of popular prime-time shows such as âThe Beverly Hillbilliesâ and âAndy Griffithâ because they attracted the wrong audience ââ elderly, low income, and rural viewers. Advertisers had become keen on young, affluent urbanitesâŚâ ââSocial Communication in Advertising, 1986
One of the worst things rich-washing does is make people think they are in a minority when in fact they are a huge majority.
Most Americans, for example, live paycheck-to-paycheck according to Forbes.
Rich-washing takes an enormous psychological toll because it creates the idea that lack of income is some kind of personal failing, rather than a systemic economic failing that affects many, many people. Thatâs one reason why unemployment is a huge factor in suicides.Â
âWhen the money isnât there... feelings of deprivation, personal failure, and deep psychic pain result. In a culture where consuming means so much, not having money is a profound social disability.â ââJuliet Schor, The Overspent American,1999
Rich-washing also creates social solidarity and affinity with the rich, since proximity creates affinity.Â
People get used to seeing things from the point of view of the rich and may also take on the idea that their own riches are just around the corner. This has political implications (more on that below).Â
In addition, itâs common for negative characteristics to be attached to people who are poor.Â
Laziness, criminality, stupidity, and lack of morals, are often characteristics attributed to fictional poor people. This has real world consequences.
Film critic Roger Ebert famously said that movies create empathy.
â...the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us."
While many movies have indeed had a positive effect on society because of this empathy effect, entertainment products can also empower negative stereotypes. And when it comes to the war on the poor, Hollywood most definitely is not on the side of the poor.
âIn a lot of films, especially coming out of Hollywood, less fortunate families are portrayed as imbeciles.â ââChris Stuckmann, movie review of Parasite, Nov. 6, 2019
âItâs a central assumption of our pop-culture that people who have nice shit are good, and people in poverty are bad.â ââCracked Podcast, âWhy pop-culture hates poor peopleâ 2015-03-02
âThereâs class warfare, all right, but itâs my class, the rich class, thatâs making war, and weâre winning.â ââWarren Buffet, quoted in Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland, 2012
With all the vilification and humiliation of poor people in pop-culture, who would want to identify with the poor and not the rich? Who would want to identify with the economic losers and not the economic winners?
ââŚit is the general policy of advertisers to glamorize their products, the people who buy them, and the whole American and economic scene.â ââElmer Rice, quoted in Mediaspeak, 1983
Advertisements are highly polished rich-washing because companies need their products associated with winners not losers.
But rich-washing sells more than just consumer products.
Rich-washing sells political ideas.Â
Rich-washing reinforces policies and laws that benefit those at the top of the income pyramid. So it is not surprising when we learn that income inequality and wealth concentration have been getting worse.
Income inequality and wealth concentration in the U.S. increasing since 1980s.
âRay Dalio, the billionaire founder of the worldâs biggest hedge fund, says income inequality in the U.S. has become so dire that if he were in the White House, he would declare it a national emergency.â Barronâs, 2019Â
Instead of looking at the big picture and wondering why is it that so many people are poor, people assume or are told that it is their own fault if they are poor. People point fingers at themselves, at other poor people (lateral violence), but almost never up at the top.
âIf there was ever a system which enchanted its subjects with dreams (of freedom, of how your success depends on yourself, of the run of luck which is just around the corner, of unconstrained pleasuresâŚ), then it is capitalism.â ââSlavoj Zizek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, 2009
This type of deflection ââaway from the rich and scapegoating the poorââ was also behind the witch-burning craze of centuries ago.Â
Anthropologist Marvin Harris in his book on âthe Riddles of Cultureâ noted:Â
 âthe principal result of the witch-hunt system (aside from charred bodies) was that the poor came to believe that they were being victimized by witches and devils instead of princes and popes.â ââMavin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches, 1975
It turns out that if you get people fearful of imaginary things and suspicious of their neighbours, they are less likely to join together in a peasant revolt and storm the castle, pitchforks in hand.
âIt is from us and our labour that everything comes, with which They maintain Their pomp [!]â John Ball of the violent Peasant Revolt of 1381
When it comes to numbers, it should be obvious that the one percenters at the top have a precarious hold on power.Â
âWhy has the response to rising inequality been a drive to reduce taxes on the rich? ... Itâs not a simple matter of rich people voting themselves a better deal: there just arenât enough of them.â ââPaul Krugman, The Great Unraveling, 2003
Rich-washing protects the status-quo by reinforcing the idea that most people are rich, and if you are not, it is your own fault. Rich-washing thus deepens poverty and enlarges the holdings of the super-wealthy.
Rich-washing can also push people into unhealthy behaviours ââ everything from compulsive shopping and debt, to self-medicating, and even crime.
As it turns out, when people started watching TV in America in the 1950s, a particular type of crime suddenly rose: larceny (theft of private property). Researchers attributed the increase in larceny to feelings of ârelative deprivation and frustrationâ and that upper- and middle class lifestyles were âoverwhelmingly portrayedâ on TV. (Impact of the introduction of television on crime in the United States, 1982, noted in Mediaspeak, 1983)
Another troubling by-product of rich-washing is how people become very vulnerable to scams and schemes.Â
âWe are no longer âfamilyâ we are âwarm prospects.â ââanonymous reviewer of False Profits, 2015
People want to believe the promises of all kinds of scammers offering them the American Dream. (Check out Season 1 of The Dream podcast). Because of the shame and pain of being poor, because of being an outcast from the perceived norm of upper-middle class consumption, people are desperate to get some dignity and hope back. Many women get into recruitment marketing for âthe sense of community, friendship, and purpose that comes with being a vendor.âÂ
However, less than one percent of Multi-Level Marketing participants make a profit.Â
âFailure and loss rates for MLMs are not comparable with legitimate small businesses, which have been found to be profitable for 39% over the lifetime of the business; whereas less than 1% of MLM participants profit. MLM makes even gambling look like a safe bet in comparison.â (PDF) John M. Taylor, 2011 Consumer Awareness Institute paper at FTC.gov.
Ironically, the stories of big-time con artists and scammers have become popular entertainment themselves and are the subject of many documentaries, movies and podcasts.Â
Finally, the biggest harm from rich-washing is to the environment ââour biosphere upon which all life depends.
âModern economies expand, but the ecosystems that provide for them do not.â ââSteven Stoll, The Great Delusion, 2008
Mass consumption is a requirement of the current economic growth model and rich-washing helps keep it all going. So we end up with things like âfast fashionâ, disposable everything, and planned obsolescence.Â
âLeft unconstrained by other forces, the free-market system is one of the most restless, destructive arrangements ever contrived ââtearing down and building up, obsoleting last yearâs fashions and praising this yearâs, ... and scheming always to reduce the arts and sciences to sycophancy. None of which is a secret...â ââThomas Frank, The Wrecking Crew, 2008
Rich-washing irony ââwho is ruining the environment: rich or poor?
âWorld's richest 10% produce half of global carbon emissions, says Oxfamâ ââGuardian, 2015
Rich-washing has another sadistic effect on low income peopleâs mental health. The world, it seems, is waking up to the potentially catastrophic harm being inflicted on the environment. And yet poor people are still made to feel like pieces of shit, even though they consume the least and do the least harm to the planet. So really... f*ck off with your spectacle of sparkling gold-plated glorification of the wealthy, please.
Three reasons for rich-washing
As previously mentioned, one reason for rich-washing is that corporations want their advertisements to reach higher income viewers. Another reason for rich-washing is for political propaganda: it protects the status quo by pushing the idea that everyone is mostly rich, and if you are poor, it is your own fault.Â
A third reason for rich-washing is that media creators, like everyone else, need to survive financially. Creators need to attract viewers. In most cases, this has led to an overwhelming focus on the rich and famous.
âSponsors prefer beautiful people in mouth-watering decor, to convey what it means to climb the socio-economic ladder...â ââMediaspeak, 1983
Today, due to an increasingly crowded arena and variety of cultural products, this is a bigger challenge than ever before. Whatâs going to get peopleâs attention? Whatâs going to be popular escapism? Very often this will be flashy settings, fancy costumes, a focus on the wealthy or the royal. Just how many shows about royalty do we need? Never too many apparently.Â
And when a story goes for gritty settings and characters, this usually means crime, jolting action and high conflict.
As Jerry Mander wrote in his now ancient 1977 book about television, things like violence, death, jealously, lust, materialism, conflict, the loud, the bizarre, the shocking and the superficial are easier to depict on television than their quiet, cooperative, and nuanced opposites. He laments that this is the type of world that TV âinevitably transmitsâ. No wonder he argued for the elimination of television.
(However, it should be noted that people used to worry about bad effects from âpenny dreadfulsâ and pocket-books, although Mander points out that watching TV puts people in a passive state, but reading does not.)
David Simon, creator of The Wire, one of the most critically acclaimed TV series ever made, had this to say about the impact of advertising on media:Â
âAnd how exactly do we put Visa-wielding consumers in a buying mood when they are being reminded of how many of their countrymen - black, white and brown - have been shrugged aside by the march of unrestrained bottom-line capitalism?â ââDavid Simon, The Wire, Truth Be Told (book), 2009, HBO
(Read more about The Wire below, under âExceptionsâ)
Another irony about media rich-washingâŚ
Low income people often consume a lot of escapist media because it is a cheap and easy way to get a break from the health-ruining, cortisol-producing daily grind of life on poverty incomes. Fictional and fantastical worlds are often the only affordable escape for those of meagre means. Thus, it is not surprising when people get an intense attachment to their favourite entertainment if it provides them with stress release, comfort and meaning.
â⌠a 21-year-old in Michigan, finds it easier to get excited about playing games than his part-time job making sandwichesâŚâ ââAndrew Yang, The War on Normal People, 2018
The opening scene of the movie Ready Player One envisions an extreme dystopian version of this. Rickety trailers in squalid surroundings are stacked sky high. Those living inside wear virtual reality goggles to escape from their over-crowded lives into limitless virtual worlds.Â
Itâs important to note that escapism as a form of coping with stress and trauma has its place. The answer is not to take away peopleâs beloved forms of escapism. (E.g. the excellent book by Raziel Reid âWhen Everything Feels Like the Moviesâ.) The answer is for humanity to strive to create a healthier and less stressful world where people donât feel such a tremendous need to escape from reality.
But you donât need to watch dystopian movies to see that public spaces are shrinking and becoming more unlivable. Even city benches are designed to be a miserable experience. (You know. To solve homelessness of course.) It is no wonder people stare into their screens like never before. We are ruining the public sphere and forcing people into private spaces where the goodness or badness of those places is determined by how much money you have.Â
The bright glare of rich-washing might be dimming
âAm I alone in being disgusted by excessive wealth? It seems like a moral failing rather than something to celebrate or aspire to.â ââNigel Warburton Philosophybites (twitter), January 19, 2020
In 2019 there were three movies that ripped the shiny bandaid of rich-washing propaganda off the reality of mass income inequality: Jordan Peeleâs US, Bong Joon-Hoâs Parasite, and the controversial Joker... a character study only remotely related to the comic book story.Â
Thereâs been much written and spoken about these movies already. Suffice to say that poverty and the underclasses jump out of the screen in unexpected ways and the wealthy are not shown with shining virtuous haloes.
Even the super-rich (in real life) are starting to notice the current economic system is a disaster:
âAt least a dozen billionaires have made public statements that call for the super-rich to pay more in taxes.â Forbes, Oct. 15, 2019
Meanwhile, support for a universal income benefit is spreading rapidly. (Thanks in no small part to Andrew Yang.) People are calling bullshit on the idea that there can ever be a living wage job for everyone who needs one. People are also calling bullshit on the idea that only paid work is real work. Thereâs a huge constituency of people who provide unpaid care for their loved ones. These unpaid carers have been diminished and ignored for far too long by both the political right (who are full of cheap platitudes about âthe familyâ) and the political left (who are full of out-dated platitudes about âthe workersâ).Â
People are also calling bullshit on poverty itself since itâs obvious that there is more than enough for everyone on the planet to live with dignity and health. There is no reason for poverty to exist at all ââother than out-of-control greed and massive economic lies. Both of which are propped up by rich-washing. Â Â
Because of the increasingly obvious and growing gap between the haves and have-nots, cultural products might finally be moving away from rich-washing to something similar to what Brecht brought to the theatre 100 years ago:
â...the higher world of upper class sentiments is presented from the ruthless viewpoint of the common people.â ââMartin Esslin on Brecht, 1959
Rich-washing erases the vast swath of humanity from seeing any dignified reflection of themselves. Itâs time to identify this assault on regular people.
To quote the Vancouver poet Bud Osborn*:
ânorth america tellin lies in our head make you feel like shit better off dead so most days now I say shout shout for joy shout for love shout for you shout for us shout down this system puts our souls in prison say shout for life shout with our last breath shout fuck this north american culture of death shout here we are amazingly alive against long odds left for dead shoutin this death culture dancin this death culture out of our headsâ
*Bud Osborne 1947-2014, from Amazingly Alive and Other Poems, Vancouver, BC, 1997, Independent release, Lonesome Monsters
TO SUMMARIZE...Â
Hereâs the thing. Public spaces are becoming increasingly harsh. Jobs and incomes are ever more unsteady, unpredictable and unlivable. Peopleâs anxiety is on the rise. Healthy ways to relieve stress are few if you are broke. So people turn to entertainment as a form of escape. But this subjects them to rich-washing which is harmful to individuals, to society, and the environment. Â
Entertainment and advertising media have been teaching people that it is ok to hate, denigrate, or laugh at people in poverty. In addition, it has been teaching people who experience poverty to blame themselves, or even hate themselves.
âPropaganda offers him an object of hatred, for all propaganda is aimed at an enemy. And the hatred it offers him is not shameful, even hatred that he must hide, but a legitimate hatred, which he can justly feel.â ââJacques Ellul, Propaganda, 1962
It is important to expose this type of propaganda to reduce its harm.
However, the answer is not to change entertainment to only reflect social reality. The answer is to change our reality so it is not so harsh for so many people. Â
Art canât be censored. But it can be bent by those who hold the purse strings for their own purposes.
There is no reason for poverty to exist. Letting poverty exist is the costliest, stupidest and most tragic thing society can do. As described in Maslowâs Hierarchy of Needs, people first need to eat, we need shelter, we need health care, we need a material foundation before we can hope to have healthy, happy life. When people struggle to meet physical needs, they canât pursue happiness needs. Or to put it another way:
 âEven honest folk may act like sinners, unless they've had their customary dinnersâ (âHow to Surviveâ from Threepenny Opera)
Ending poverty with a universal income benefit (aka Freedom Dividend, Guaranteed Livable income, Universal Basic Income ) is the most affordable and doable solution for people and the planet. It is our best bet to create a livable economy, a livable natural environment, and a livable social and cultural environment for humans. Â
In a world with income security for all, we might find our entertainment would drastically change for the better. Advertisers would no longer dominate entertainment. Creators would have more freedom to create. People would no longer seek so much escapism.
Of course, we will not have utopia âânor should we try to create a utopia. But at least we would not be flinging ourselves into a certain dystopian future because we think thereâs no other choice. Â
A livable income for everyone gives us a choice. #Livable4all - now- for people and the planet.
***
But wait! Thereâs more....
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EXTRA SECTION 1:Â FAKE POVERTY TROPES
Fake poverty tropes in popular culture are different than exceptions to rich-washing (see examples next section). They are not. They are just story-telling short-cuts. They can be fun escapist entertainment, but they are ultimately rich-washing wolves in sheepâs (cheap) clothing. Â
i) Rags-to-riches: When someone starts poor and ends up rich. In the past, these tales were called Horatio Alger stories, where hard work and honesty bring success to the hero. A sub-genre of this trope is the criminal rags-to-riches story. Riches are won through criminality, violence, hustles, or scams. This usually ends badly for the anti-heroe(s). However, usually not before a display of luxurious settings and wardrobes. Or in some shows, just piles and piles of cash, gold, jewels, etc.
ii) How can they afford that?:  This is when people with very marginal jobs and incomes somehow have homes and/or lifestyles that would be impossible with a similar income in real life. These are the kind of TV shows that leaves the audience wondering: âWhat? how can they afford that?â Â
iii) Rich Relations: This is when financially poor characters live on the periphery of rich people. These characters might be broke and in debt, but they have close family or friends who are very well-off. Again, even though the main character might be âskinsâ, the audience is shown some fancy settings and aspirational fashion.Â
iv) Magic Money Wand: This is when the poverty problems of the hero are magically solved when the hero gets a sudden windfall of money from a wealthy family member, friend, mysterious benefactor, or by winning something.
EXTRA SECTON 2:Â RECENT EXCEPTIONS TO RICH-WASHING
There are a few notable exceptions to rich-washing described here. Note: UK productions (except for one) are not included because, for whatever reason, the UK has an abundance of TV shows and films from a working class perspective. (See also the films of Ken Loach and Tony Garnett.)
The Wire began in 2002, was only 5 seasons, and is now considered a masterpiece of television. One reviewer describes it as being about âpost-industrial collapseâ and âinstitutional dysfunctionâ in an American city (Baltimore). Sounds bleak, but it was rare social realism with unconventional heroes and story-telling. It had low ratings at first. Apparently, showing that the âAmerican Dream was deadâ did not catch on right away. However, HBO, which relies on subscriptions, not advertising, was willing to âsimply let it beâ said creator, David Simon. He also describes just how much the mass media has failed Americaâs disenfranchised
The Wire (TV series)
âThe Wire avoided victories, preferring to show corruption, failure and decay. ... The Wire was as much journalism as entertainment â a form of protest television.â ââDorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 2018
The Wire began in 2002, was only 5 seasons, and is now considered a masterpiece of television. One reviewer describes it as being about âpost-industrial collapseâ and âinstitutional dysfunctionâ in an American city (Baltimore). Sounds bleak, but it was rare social realism with unconventional heroes and story-telling. It had low ratings at first. Apparently, revealing the âAmerican Dream was deadâ did not catch on right away. However, HBO, funded by subscriptions, not advertising, was willing to âsimply let it beâ. according to its creator, David Simon.Â
ââŚhow can a television network serve the needs of advertisers while ruminating on the empty spaces in American society and informing viewers that they are a disenfranchised people, that the processes of redress have been rusted shut, and that no one - certainly not our mass media - is going to sound any alarm?â ââDavid Simon, The Wire, Truth Be Told (book) 2005
Atlanta (TV series)
â...the showâs brilliance [is] at combining absurdist comedy with heartbreaking reality to create something entirely unique.â ââYohana Desta, Vanity Fair, 2017
Atlanta is a mix of sharp social realism, sudden comic moments, gut-wrenching scenes and hard-hitting parody that includes a searing fake commercial for childrenâs cereal. It is like the Eduardo Galeano of TV, but with some Salvador Dali, Brecht, and comedy thrown in. Series creator Donald Glover needed to disguise his vision in order to get it made.
âI was Trojan-horsing FX. If I told them what I really wanted to do, it wouldn't have gotten made." ... My struggle is to use my humanity to create a classic workâbut I donât know if humanity is worth it, or if weâre going to make it. I donât know if thereâs much time left.âââDonald Glover interview, New Yorker, 2018
Black Mirror - Fifteen Million Merits (series)
âWhat archetype dystopian future does Black Mirrorâs âFifteen Million Meritsâ choose to model itself after? Orwellâs or Huxleyâs? The answer ends up being: a little bit of both.â ââDen of Geek, 2018
Fifteen Million Merits stars Daniel Kaluuya (also the star of Get Out). The episode begins with a dystopian-lite near-future story. However, it quickly compresses the characters ââand viewersââ into a painful claustrophobic nightmare vision of a capitalist hostage-taking entertainment monopoly.Â
Breaking Bad (TV series)
This was massively popular show that ran from 2008 to 2013. The main character is a chemistry teacher named Walt who was first motivated to be Bad due to a cancer diagnosis and fear for the financial future of his family. However, once he started down the bad path, he quickly accelerated to the far reaches of very bad badness. Partly this was because of his âalmost-got-richâ backstory. In one episode he goes to the house party of his former business partner who is now very wealthy. Waltâs feelings of poverty, failure, and humiliation are stark. In real life this pain is usually turned inward, but in the show it becomes grist for the monster that the character becomes. Millions of people related to this character who lived under the fear of poverty in the land of plenty.
However, Breaking Bad is mostly a rags-to-riches fake poverty trope even though it was a lower-middle class characterâs fear of rags that sparked his need and greed for riches. With its very individualistic focus, the story continues the myth of independence carried over from the fictional old wild west of heroes and outlaws. But in this case the outlaw is the hero. Â
But perhaps its lasting legacy will be an oft seen meme showing how Breaking Bad would have had no story at all had it been set in a country with universal healthcare. Itâs accurate to say the real monster in Breaking Bad is a modern wealthy country without healthcare.
Shameless (TV series)
âFew shows have attempted to situate themselves in the living nightmare of povertyâthe countryâs quiet shame, the marginalized that the middle and upper classes donât want to see next to the numbing comfort of Modern Family. Television ignores the poor just as Americans do.â ââFlood Magazine, 2016 Â
In a lot of ways Shameless is a big brash bold exception to rich-washing. The creator of the semi-autobiographical British version said âItâs not blue collar; itâs no collar.â Â However, after 9 seasons, the US version succumbs to several fake poverty tropes. Nonetheless, it is unique, and its many fans find the characters in the chaotic, desperate, scrounging, scamming, and poverty-stricken Gallager family relatable.Â
âI love how it addresses sex, drugs, poverty, absent parents, and other topics like those.â ââcommenter, TV Criticism blog, 2014
Critics have questioned the series for its condescending stereotypes, for turning poverty into entertainment, for relying on too many nude scenes, and for their treatment of black characters. Â
But the overarching message and source of comedy for this show is in the title, which tells us that if you are poor, you should feel shame. This family doesnât feel shame about their poverty. They are âshamelessâ, some more than others, and comedy ensues from their rude, crude, shocking behaviour and occasional truth-telling observations about society.
EXTRA SECTION 3:Â WAY BACK EXCEPTIONS
In the 1970s there were many more TV shows featuring regular people: Sanford & Sons (set in a salvage yard); Laverne & Shirley (factory workers); and, in Canada, The Beachcombers (salvage).
There were even some down-market detectives including the very popular Columbo who wore rumpled clothes and drove an old jalopy. Fans loved how rich villains would be caught because of their arrogance and snobbery: they assumed Columbo was a bumbling idiot because of his humble presentation.
The Rockford Files detective (1974-1980) also had a shabby vibe. The main character (Rockford) had done time, lived with his father in an old trailer, and had no office or secretary ââjust an answering machine on his cluttered desk. He did, however, have a fast car and was played by James Garner, former star of the popular TV western Maverick.Â
Rural set TV series were also fairly common.Â
âOver one-third of shows in 1950 were set in small towns or rural areas, mostly Westerns and comedies.â ââBrookings Institute
The Beverly Hillbillies was popular comedy in the 1960s. It was a rags-to-riches and fish-out-of-water story. However, the show regularly made rich people look ridiculous even though the suddenly oil-rich hillbillies were also comic characters. But they were the heroes of their story. This show got cancelled despite its popularity as advertisers wanted younger urban viewers and not the rural and older viewers that show attracted. (Social Communication in Advertising, 1986)
Other rural set shows were Green Acres (inept rich people try to homestead with comic results), Petticoat Junction (another comedy), The Waltons, and Little House on the Prairie (dramas). There was also 17 seasons (1954-1973) of Lassie (a dog) with farming and wilderness settings.Going waaay back... Â growing up Canadian in the 1960s and 70s meant watching The Forest Rangers and Adventures in Rainbow Country, both shows featuring child characters who showed off skills such as fishing, wood craft, horseback riding, and wilderness survival. Â
EXTRA SECTION 4: THE WORLDâS LONGEST RUNNING SOAPÂ
âSo I'm a British guy who had an overnight stay in Toronto to connect a flight, and I noticed Corrie is shown in primetime on CBC... Iâm just astonished anyone outside of Northern England would give a toss about it.â Reddit comment, 2018
You canât talk about exceptions to rich-washing without talking about Coronation Street, the worldâs longest running soap. Set âon the cobblesâ of a small fictional corner of working class Greater Manchester in Northwest England, it began in the 1960s and is still going strong. (Update May 2020- the pandemic has in fact interrupted Corrie.)Â
Coronation Street has grit, unlike US soaps, which would never have characters working in an underwear factory and organizing actions against management, or working in a fast food shops, barber shops, driving taxi, or grease pits fixing cars. With a few exceptions, most homes on the street look over-stuffed and very lived-in. The real living room of the street is the local pub, a cosy nostalgic setting, and nostalgia is a big part of the showâs popularity.Â
The street has changed and expanded over the years, but it has changed slowly. Characters who come and go with frequency except for the core characters. This includes several very popular and very elder actors who get substantial storylines. In addition, âCorrieâ, as the fans refer to it, is also known for having snarky battle-axe women characters. One of the oldest was Ena Sharples, and one of the newest, Evelyn Plummer. And unlike U.S. entertainment, younger characters donât all look and sound like glossy over-polished models-slash-actors.Â
In recent years Corrie has tackled numerous serious social issues such as suicide, homelessness, mental health, addiction, male rape, human trafficking, teen pregnancy, life after jail, and spousal abuse (to name just a few). These storylines are done carefully with advice from experts and advocate groups. They also frequently address classism. However, the show is not all doom and gloom. Coronation Street blends silly comedy, murderous villains, crimes big and small, and many ridiculous eye-rolling storylines. Fans heap an equal amount of complaints as praise. But big picture, Corrie is notable for the fact that it almost never got onto the airwaves at all.Â
 Contrast between a working class UK soap and a US soap
Other Resources:
Books:
Deer-hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant, who writes about populism in southern rural poor communities in the U.S. (and his hometown) and why they might vote against their own self-interest.
Somebodies and Nobodies by Robert W. Fuller who writes about abuse of power by those who have higher status or rank against those of lower status.
From Movie Lot to Beachhead by Look Magazine (1945) Written at the end of WWII, the publishers wanted to show how Hollywood was not shallow but could rally for a cause and be on the right side of history. A big contrast to today, when it comes to the war on the poor, entertainment is very much on the wrong side of history.
Upside Down by Eduardo Galeano âa crushing satirical expose of the glaring inequalities and injustices of a world turned upside down that many has come to be desensitized as ânormal.ââ (Goodreads review)
The War on Normal People by Andrew Yang (free audiobook on youtube).
The Rebel Sell - Why the culture canât be jammed by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. âBut these gains [civil rights, social safety net] have not been achieved by âunpluggingâ people from the web of illusions that governs their lives. They have been achieved through the laborious process of democratic political action.â (All forms of counterculture end up being just another marketing opportunity).
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman âAs Huxley marked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny âfailed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.â Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.âÂ
Websites Classism in Childrenâs Movies (a study) - Classism.org A Guide to Basic Income FAQs - scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq
Podcasts
 Why Pop-Culture Hates Poor People - Cracked.com 2015-03-02 âMovies donât seem to understand what itâs like to make less than 200K a yearâŚ. If you look and live like a poor person, you might be a serial killer.â Â
5 ways Hollywood tricked you into hating poor people - Cracked.com 2015-02-23Â
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The author was raised on books & nature and almost no TV and movies but became a telly addict & movie fan late in life.
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