Graduate Program

Communication Studies

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2009

Thesis Director

Suzanne Enck-Wanzer

Thesis Committee Member

Melanie Mills

Thesis Committee Member

Sherry Holladay

Abstract

Over the past decade, class has become a lightning rod issue in the United States as the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen. One of the main reasons for growing class segregation is the mere fact that U.S. culture carries enormous social anxieties about poverty and, in turn, blame the poor for being poor. As a result of hegemonic beliefs about class, crude discourses are formed and fostered through the mainstream media creating both inaccurate and damaging portrayals. Such damaging portrayals are immediately evident in a variety of mainstream Hollywood films produced in the past decade that follow an anecdotal portrayal of white trash. By rhetorically analyzing eleven of these movies, this thesis argues that the genre of movies mocking white trash provides what Kenneth Burke would call a damaging "Equipment for Living" (EFL) for a culture rife with class struggles. Ultimately, this thesis provides a critical rhetorical investigation revealing how movies depicting white trash provide an ineffectual medicine for those most affected by the negative stereotypes promoted in and through mainstream mediated discourses.

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