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

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

Poor Chic:

Poverty Fads, Fashions, and Media in Popular Consumer Culture

In her research about Poor Chic, Karen Bettez Halnon explores the popular phenomenon of making stylish or recreational and often expensive ‘fun’ of symbols of lower class statuses. She looks closely at how and why mainstream culture makes it cool to adopt the look and language of the “Black ghetto” and makes mockery of “White trash.” She also examines Redneck, White Guy, and Blue-collar Vogue.

Halnon’s research pays particularly close attention to symbols such as:

50 Cent, with LP/Movie, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” 50 Cent is a prototype of the “gangsta’” in Black Ghetto Chic.

Cheap Beer

Pink Flamingos

The book Poor Chic: Poverty Fads, Fashions, and Media in Popular Consumer Culture (forthcoming), aims to reveal the historically situated, ideological, and strategic nature of popular consumer culture’s contemporary characterizations of the “Black ghetto,” “White trash,” and blue-collar/redneck men.