The paradoxical class politics in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

Abstract

This chapter deals with TLC’s Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a reality TV series that was controversially discussed until it was canceled in 2014. Evangelia Kindinger argues that its exploitative depiction of a poor, white family from rural Georgia contributes to the deceptive representation of class and poverty in television. Poverty is primarily staged as "redneck lifestyle" a choice and expression of cultural belonging, not a socio-economic effect. The series’ class politics are paradoxical though as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo revises the established iconography of the racist and classist slur "redneck" and shows the resilience with which the family thwarts every attempt at reforming their assumedly defective lifestyle.