  WHAT SIZE TRAILER DO YOU LIVE IN? I am rarely offended. But tonight, I watched Trading Spouses again and I could not believe the cross-class exchange this time. I am not sure what I think about FOX and its brilliant programming, about their manipulation of difference, about their “otherizing” the poor.
Twice, I’ve watched the show, and they’ve put these pseudo-rich people and working class folks into these ridiculous living situations. I think that all they demonstrate in the end is that the nouveau riche are relentlessly shallow, despite their entreaties otherwise: “We’re down to earth, regardless of how we beautiful we are...” I am not going to pretend that the poorer woman was virtuous; she is insecure about her modest income and her “small” house. And she tries to mask it with sarcasm. Seeing her yard, I know that all those houses could probably fit on her property, but does she think that saying this is going to deflect the crude remarks from women with sprayed on tans and newly built pink stucco houses?
It certainly did not prevent the rude comment from her neighbor: “Well, what size trailer do you live in?” Mean bastard. Let me just say that I hardly think that a bunch of bottle tanned Californians have the room to pass judgment and be all elitist because she makes a living cleaning teeth. And since when was yacht skipper something to brag about? It’s like being a butler, right? Pays really well, but you’re still a manservant. In the past two swaps that I have written about, the two “wealthier” mothers were both particularly preachy about diet.
As a public health person, I guess I can understand their concern (the families they move into are overweight) but condescension – and downright pushiness – often accompany their advice. It kind of reminded me of something I once wrote about immigrants to the US and how most of our ideas about social work are a result of women’s movements of the late 1800 – early 1900s. Under the guise of helping immigrants from southern and eastern Europe assimilate into “native” American society, wealthy women reached out to immigrants from the “weaker stock” and showed them how to run “hygienic” homes. Forget that they made very little money and had one sink for several people; they needed to learn how to be CLEAN. Very little has changed. Today, middle- and upper-class women perform these same duties in poorer communities; I think this is salient in the show, though I would hardly call their low-carb entreaties social work. I thought of some other pop culture favorites where rich women help poor: Weezy and Helen at the cornily named “Help Center” on The Jeffersons, for example. One episode that sticks out is the one where a sex worker comes in to the Help Center with bruises. Louise and Helen want to help her (her pimp was beating her) but are intimidated by the pimp. I don’t remember exactly what the hooker said – lost those transcripts – but it was in the vein of “Look, you rich ladies try to come in here and do good.
And then you go home to your comfy little houses and feel all content with yourselves because you helped some poor hooker…” All I can say is I am tired of this McMansion worship, big cookie cutter house with a small garden, miles from anything other than a strip mall.
I live in Atlanta, and I think I’ve seen enough of this sparklesparkleiwantalotofshit stuff to last me a lifetime. “This house is so cramped. I can’t believe that three people have to share this shower…” Or my favorite:“I bought my house for three hundred thou and now it’s worth one point one mil.” Please, take a number and line up behind the other people who think anyone gives a shit. Our class structure and our ideas about class in America inform how we think about money and the people who make a lot of it.
We think that people who have “made it” are going to be down-to-earth, going to be us, hardworking people whose efforts are rewarded with increased income. This is something we can achieve. This show, on the other hand, makes us hate these fuckers. Though I doubt Rupert Murdoch would ever try to stir revolution, maybe this show is supposed to rouse people, get them to think about issues of social justice, the effects of globalized capitalism, and economic depression in rural areas? 
