Karen Bettez Halnon, Ph.D.

Contact Karen Halnon, author of this research and the book Poor Chic: Poverty Fads, Fashions, and Media in Popular Consumer Culture(forthcoming).

Web site developed by web master, Daryl Fenstad, Senior at Penn State Abington, Spring 2008
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E-mail your “Poor Chic” photos to Dr. Halnon and she may use them on this web site or in her upcoming book!

Updated last: June 25th, 2008

All images and photos displayed on this web site are in the public domain, are royalty free, or were donated by students
Blue-Collar Vogue

“Red, White, & Blue-Collar” Vogue

Red(neck), White (guy), and Blue-collar Vogue redeems the working man, rejects “political correctness,” and re-centers “White guys” in the American stratification system.

In recent years, popular consumer culture has upgraded the American blue-collar man in many fads, fashions, and media and have assigned stylized meaning to blue-collar symbols, such as:
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Red, white, and blue-neck beer
  • Work boots (e.g. Timberland)
  • Work clothes (e.g. Von Dutch trucker hats and Dickies)
  • Work vehicles (e.g. glitzy pick up trucks and Hummers)
  • Recreational activities (X-treme bowling, drinking Papst Blue Ribbon beer, and slumming in faux dive bars)

There has been a trend of “political incorrectness” in the media since the late 1990s, with shows such as:

The “redneck” mask employed in blue-collar comedy exploitatively scapegoats southern poor Whites. Prime examples of redneck/blue-collar comedy are:
[Poor Chic] [The Poor] ["White Trash"] ["Black Ghetto"] [Blue-Collar Vogue] [Photo Gallery]