Reassesses the rules of social standing in American popular
culture. Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Roseanne Barr, and Britney
Spears typify class-passers - those who claim different
socioeconomic classes as their own. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster asserts
so in ""Class-Passing: Social Mobility in Film and Popular
Culture"". According to new rules of social standing in American
popular culture, class is no longer defined by wealth, birth, or
education. Instead, today's notion of class reflects a socially
constructed and regulated series of performed acts and gestures
rooted in the cult of celebrity. In examining the quest for class
mobility, Foster deftly traces class-passing through the landscape
of popular films, reality television shows, advertisements, the
Internet, and video games. She deconstructs the politics of
celebrity, fashion, and conspicuous consumerism and analyzes
class-passing as it relates to the American Dream, gender, and
marriage. ""Class-Passing"" draws on dozens of examples from
popular culture, from old movie classics and contemporary films to
print ads and cyberspace, to illustrate how flagrant displays of
wealth that were once unacceptable under the old rules of behavior
are now flaunted by class-passing celebrities. From the
construction worker in ""Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?"" to the
privileged socialities Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie of ""The
Simple Life"", Foster explores the fantasy of contact between the
classes. She also refers to television class-passers from ""The
Apprentice"", ""Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"", and ""Survivor""
and notable class-passing achievers Bill Clinton, George W Bush,
and Martha Stewart. ""Class-Passing"" is a notable examination of
the historical, social, and ideological shifts in expressions of
class. The first serious book of its kind, ""Class-Passing"" is
fresh, innovative, and invaluable for students and scholars of
film, television, and popular culture.
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