Mediale Inszenierung prekärer Lebenswelten : am Beispiel von „In der Schuldenfalle“

Abstract

Starting from the “concept of disarticulation” (McRobbie), in this article I want to have a detailed look at social interactions between women with different class backgrounds in Lifestyle-TV. The “concept of disarticulation” refers to the undermining of feminist achievements of the last years. Postfeminism as a form of Antifeminism is regarded as a base of this concept. Focussing on the ATV-programme “In der Schuldenfalle” I want to show, from a feminist perspective, how precarious lifestyles are represented in mass media and how they (re)produce gendered class differences in these representations. In popular Lifestyle-TV programmes female experts with a middle and upper class background transmit knowledge about everyday life (education, beauty, body, debt, etc.) from their perspective to women from lower strata. This kind of knowledge is not being taught in school; it implies and promises social mobility. Looking at “In der Schuldenfalle”, I particularly concentrate on the interaction between the financial expert and the so called “victim” involved in a “debt trap” in the context of class and gender. Finally, I raise the question of possible social gender identifications implied in watching Lifestyle- TV and the circulation of its practice of degrading speech in social space.