Branded Women in U.S. Television by Bjelskou Peter

Author:Bjelskou, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Jill Zarin and the Economy of the City

Jill and her husband Bobby are driving to a Hamptons wedding. While exiting the car, Jill explains to Bobby that she needs to get spanx made. She is unhappy with the one she’s wearing and complains that every time she sits, people can see it. Jill promptly tells her husband that she is going to make spanx.[2]

In this scene, Jill is sowing the seed for what in subsequent episodes becomes Skweez Couture. Whereas the first few seasons portrayed Jill and Alex somewhat authentically (or as authentically as reality television allows), the last two seasons represented them as inextricably linked to their brands. Jill’s independent business initially grew out of her affiliation with her husband’s store, Zarin Fabrics and Home Furnishings. According to her website, Jill Zarin Home is an affordable reproduction of the high-end bedding sold by Zarin Fabrics. This suggests a certain level of post-class inclusion that enables the viewer to recreate Jill’s physical surroundings by purchasing her bedding line, to recreate her physical shape by wearing Skweez Couture, and to recreate her emotional milieu by reading her book. This performance of respectability is available to consumers, because Jill offers her acquired taste level as a guide. However, as Pierre Bourdieu suggests, this project is problematic. The “tragic consumer” may purchase the reproduction but will not acquire the desired cultural capital, because, in this case, the bedding could be of a lesser quality, and the purchase is based on advice and emulation, not personal taste. This tension even extends to Jill’s own difficulties creating a believable persona as a Manhattan socialite, as I will illustrate. However, despite such setbacks, Jill utilizes the artificiality of the reality genre to promote her real product, that is, her branded self, based on her ability to maneuver and diversify in the urban economy.

Jill allows the audience to witness her perpetual construction of self, including her liquid facelift, social mobility, and socialite aspirations. She relies heavily on approval from Countess LuAnn and style advice from her “gay husband” (her employee and friend) stylist Brad Boles. Jill’s style has gone through a noticeable transformation, from somewhat frumpy dresses to more fashionable styles, and Brad, the Countess, and Jill herself police it continuously. For example, when Jill attends the Hamptons Classic tournament to see the Countess’ daughter participate, Jill asks the Countess if she looked alright, implying that any event attended by the Countess requires her approval.[3] Jill’s style is not only ridiculed by the other housewives but notably also by RHONY’s editors, who make sure to emphasize the contrast between Jill and the other women at the tournament.[4]

Jill has trouble representing “good taste,” in part because she aligns herself with Brad for her look and home interior design. Her “gay husband” is objectified as “every woman’s accessory,” and through accumulated intertextual pop-cultural knowledge, the trained viewer knows that televised urban gay men have impeccable taste.[5] However, Brad’s personal taste is quite colorful and far from the understated elegance the Countess projects.

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