Do-It-Yourself Subversion
Aug. 16th, 2008 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akirluStop me if I've blogged this before, but I was just reminded again of how much this tickles me.
I love HGTV, and all this DIY television in general. I mean, I enjoy a lot of the shows, and pick up actually useful ideas and tips on DIY construction, renovation, and gardening and all that, and that's why I like it. But the reason I love it is because it is so fucking subversive.
Check it: I have to figure that HGTV's prime demographic is going to be so-called Heartlanders. The home-owning suburban soccer moms and NASCAR dads who want Man Caves in the basement, convertible poker tables in the pool cabana, and kid rooms with a grid-iron carpeting made of Astroturf.* And into the safely defended suburban homes of middle America, what is HGTV broadcasting? A wonderful, clean-scrubbed, perky, good-looking panoply of Yes We Can rah-rah multi-racial hosts, gay hosts, power-tool using contractor female hosts, multi-racial and gay couples, blended families, women heads of household, disabled kids and heads of household, and virtually every imaginable permutation of happy, cheerful, enviably telegenic American diversity. And nobody really remarks on the fact. It's just normal folks doing telegenic pun-peppered DIY. Today, speeding through the DVR memory, I spotted a gay Jewish couple with three kids of differing races, a more 'traditional' family wherein the wife was doing all the heavy repairs and renovation, and a mixed race pair of newlyweds. Today isn't an atypical day. Subvert the dominant paradigm, baby.
*All actual examples from actual shows.
I love HGTV, and all this DIY television in general. I mean, I enjoy a lot of the shows, and pick up actually useful ideas and tips on DIY construction, renovation, and gardening and all that, and that's why I like it. But the reason I love it is because it is so fucking subversive.
Check it: I have to figure that HGTV's prime demographic is going to be so-called Heartlanders. The home-owning suburban soccer moms and NASCAR dads who want Man Caves in the basement, convertible poker tables in the pool cabana, and kid rooms with a grid-iron carpeting made of Astroturf.* And into the safely defended suburban homes of middle America, what is HGTV broadcasting? A wonderful, clean-scrubbed, perky, good-looking panoply of Yes We Can rah-rah multi-racial hosts, gay hosts, power-tool using contractor female hosts, multi-racial and gay couples, blended families, women heads of household, disabled kids and heads of household, and virtually every imaginable permutation of happy, cheerful, enviably telegenic American diversity. And nobody really remarks on the fact. It's just normal folks doing telegenic pun-peppered DIY. Today, speeding through the DVR memory, I spotted a gay Jewish couple with three kids of differing races, a more 'traditional' family wherein the wife was doing all the heavy repairs and renovation, and a mixed race pair of newlyweds. Today isn't an atypical day. Subvert the dominant paradigm, baby.
*All actual examples from actual shows.
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Date: 2008-08-17 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-17 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-17 06:42 pm (UTC)