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March 1994

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Subject:
From:
Alison McKee <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 1 Mar 1994 16:49:00 PST
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A footnote to the class issue in the media's depiction of Kerrigan and Harding:
my understanding is that Kerrigan herself comes from (or at least her parents
currently live in) a "working class" neighborhood.  However, given that the
media have been bandying the term "trailer trash" to describe Harding, Kerrigan
-- by contrast -- is imputed stereotypical attributes of the upper middle
class.
 
------------------------------TEXT-OF-YOUR-MAIL--------------------------------
 
> Department of English, University of Louisville
> Phone: (502)852-6770 or (502)852-6801. Fax: (502)852-4182.
> On the Olympics and class: I agree w/ Potter Palmer, but I have two
> supplements: 1) the class lines were also drawn along body type and skating
> style, w/ Harding as the "athletic" but "ungraceful" one and Kerrigan as the
> more ideally "feminine." It was convenient for this narrative that Kerrigan
> was thinner. But then 2) here in KY, at least, there was a backlash--the
> public began to favor Harding as someone who "worked for what she got" and who
> was, in effect, a "self-made woman," rather than a child of privilege. Just at
> the moment that it seemed the Kerrigan image was backfiring, I began to hear
> about her playing hockey with her brothers, and I heard at least one report
> mentioning that she was the daughter of a welder. Interesting how fast images
> can be reshaped, or at least revised, in a postmodern context. I guess this
> has to do w/ the fact that both women are, in media, simulacra anyway.
>
> bitnet tbbyer01@ulkyvm; internet [log in to unmask]
> Thomas B. Byers
> Department of English/University of Louisville
> Louisville KY 40292

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