The readings this week tackled Elvis as the predominant American icon, whose image appears on more merchandise than his pre-modern parallel, Jesus Christ. The deification of Elvis into a Christ-like figure is as fascinating as it is disturbing. So much of the dialogue about Elvis Presley has come with Christian connotations, from the Priest that Doss mentions, who dedicated tirades against the rock star and his devilish corruption of the body, to Presley fans claiming him as a second-coming figure in American culture. Doss brushes upon this, that it has to do with the geo-cultural landscapes that Elvis captivated most: places that were deeply religious, and in the 1950s, sexually repressed by their strict religious values. It’s as if Elvis, coming into music with his polite “Yes ma’ams” and contradictory hips, had arrived to displace Jesus, to “occupy a big space in the daily lives” of 50s teenagers usually reserved for Christ. The ‘good girl’ in Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” loves Jesus—but she’s really crazy about Elvis.
I had before thought of Elvis in terms of his flashy associations with Las Vegas (he’s all over the Strip), and his sexual connotations as one of the first musicians that really moved. But I hadn’t ever considered him as a symbol of the White Trash subculture, as Gael Sweeney does in his fascinating piece. As he discussed White Trash as “excess without control,” as the contradiction of being of the dominant race and yet marginalized, I felt very sad. Doss talked about how Elvis came to die alone, overweight, the butt of jokes—could it be that Elvis was just as exploited as a cultural figure, as the larger poor white class has been continually exploited as a political body? In a grotesque way, the “Northern intelligentsia” has enjoyed Elvis’ image from a pedestal of superiority, looking down on the tackiness and flashy wealth that he embodied—enjoying his enduring star status as a sort of inside joke about the ‘baser’ aspects of American culture and the Southern masses. Meanwhile, there are many, many people, as Doss reiterates, who revere and believe in Elvis as the embodiment of real American working class values: rags to riches, remaining polite, respectful, devoted to family. The embodiment of values that White Trash believes to be under threat. My thoughts on this are intermingled with my thoughts about John Wayne in an earlier post: stars with deep political and ideological connotations for a particular class of poor, vulnerable white Americans, who broke into the mainstream - hell, Wayne and Elvis defined the mainstream - and because of that, reinforced the often-simplified, often-mistaken notions that the White Trash caste has of its place in American society.
Sweeney puts it perfectly: “The White Trash Aesthetic constantly disavows its own marginalization, often to its own detriment: White Trash naively believes itself to be the norm and acts accordingly.” He goes on to explain that this is a major reason that this marginalized group continues to reject, even counteract, the social agendas of racial and other minorities that share its economic conditions. They continue to vote red, continue to be exploited by a political machine that has never cared about them, that uses their religious values to manipulate them, that panders to their fear that they - the chosen peoples of this country, with long family histories and Anglo-Saxon surnames - will not inherit America, and will instead be replaced by people who do not even share their skin color. They don’t understand that what is better for all Americans is better for them, too; they don’t understand the world of wealth and difference between them and Donald Trump. How could they, when they’ve been indoctrinated by cultural figures like Elvis, for whom hard work paid off, the American Dream’s unfettered possibility proven? This is the mindset of my grandpa, with a 7th grade education and the pride of having worked every day of his life, earning the privilege of drinking coca-cola instead of water (not kidding): for him, Elvis epitomizes a great American, refusing hand-outs and staying true to country and self. For him, too, the Republican agenda is the one of John Wayne and Elvis Presley, and it’s the one that cares about real white Americans, pining for the ‘great America’ that once was, when their great-grandparents came to this country to be indentured servants, just a step above slaves, and remained so marginalized, yet always believing that upward mobility was within reach. My grandpa cut trees, hosed forest fires, and flipped houses into a small fortune of storage units full of junk and apartments he leases out to Hispanic families he doesn’t trust—he considers himself an accomplisher of the American Dream, and in some ways he is, but it can in no way be attributed to the policies of the Republican party that he remains ideologically indentured to.
In this horrible way, I keep thinking of Honey Boo Boo and her family, and the way my mom and I laughed when we first saw that show. The joke is that they do not realize they are a joke. Everything about how the show is shot and edited is with the design of mocking them for being White Trash. If laughing at these people, treating them like a side-show attraction for our higher sensibilities, is this entrenched in our culture, then how can we be surprised when the Angry White vote comes around to put a bigot into the Oval Office? Let me just share this video, which has nothing to do with celebrities, but a lot to do with the demographic of people that these pieces on Elvis (and me, with this politics fixation, I'm a history/poli-sci major too, apologies) are talking about: Why Do Average Joe Republicans Think the GOP Cares About Them?
My last note is this: how cool is it that lesbians seized Elvis as a gender androgynous icon? That’d never occurred to me before, but I gotta say, that is by far my favorite aspect of the King’s enduring image.
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