Active Citizenship, Liberalism, and Labor-Normativity

Aho, Tanja N.

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2017.25

Queercrip Resistance, Sanist Anxiety, and Racialized Ableism in Viewer Responses to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

Aho, Tanja N.

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (2017), 11, (3), 321–338.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2017.25
Language: English
Pages: 18

Abstract

In liberal, capitalist societies, human worth typically is measured by one’s capacity to contribute to society productively. In other words, it is defined through labor-normativity. From the ADA to feminist calls to remunerate care work, labor-normativity informs the way people and their claims to societal participation are perceived. Building on Erevelles’s theorization of active citizenship and Simplican’s insights into the political anxiety of the capacity contract, the article argues for the centrality of labor-normativity in the reception of family-centered reality television that portrays poor people. Because online commentaries are still neglected sites of meaning-making in cultural studies, the article provides close readings of Facebook comments and blog posts that crip labor-normativity through their reparative readings of the television show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Juxtaposing these with a discussion of other web 2.0 critiques of the show, the article outlines how viewer responses offer insights into the co-constitution of racist, sexist, and disablist labor-normative demands in liberal capitalism. The article advances an analytical praxis that can hold the crip potential of low theory in tension with the importance of understanding the continuing production of sanist anxiety and racialized ableism in popular culture and its subjugated sites of knowledge production.

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