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The politics of Downton Abbey: Down with the patriarchy! *SPOILERS*
From the Washington Post:
Fox & Friends might want to rethink their delighted confidence that the popularity of ‘Downton Abbey,’ the PBS hit about dressing for dinner, shows our high esteem for job creators and our aspirational awe of the rich.
In a refreshing departure from recent stereotyping of the wealthy as evil fat cats, Fox’s Stuart Varney has argued, Downton’s aristocrats are “very nice people.” In fact, “the entire town loves the rich guy who lives in the abbey,” agreed Steve Doocy. Because according to Varney, his lordship and his family “create jobs, for heaven’s sake. They’re classy; they’ve got style. And we love them. That show is wildly popular; it poses a threat to the left, doesn’t it?”
Well, no, and not only because by that logic, I guess we also revere the Baltimore drug dealers, New Jersey mobsters and Albuquerque meth cooks who have been big hits, too, with the American public. Some conservatives determinedly ignored the recent inaugural festivities in favor of Downton marathons. But aren’t they increasingly suspicious that the show’s creator and writer, Julian Fellowes, is not exactly arguing against the ‘death tax’?
This last week’s episode certainly erased any doubt that the show’s paterfamilias, Lord Grantham, has even a lick of sense: Already, we knew he’d mismanaged the place, sunk his wealthy wife’s entire fortune into a railroad to nowhere, and proven himself a terrible judge of character, trusting even the most transparently venal of his servants.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/01/29/the-politics-of-downton-abbey-down-with-the-patriarchy/
In a refreshing departure from recent stereotyping of the wealthy as evil fat cats, Fox’s Stuart Varney has argued, Downton’s aristocrats are “very nice people.” In fact, “the entire town loves the rich guy who lives in the abbey,” agreed Steve Doocy. Because according to Varney, his lordship and his family “create jobs, for heaven’s sake. They’re classy; they’ve got style. And we love them. That show is wildly popular; it poses a threat to the left, doesn’t it?”
Well, no, and not only because by that logic, I guess we also revere the Baltimore drug dealers, New Jersey mobsters and Albuquerque meth cooks who have been big hits, too, with the American public. Some conservatives determinedly ignored the recent inaugural festivities in favor of Downton marathons. But aren’t they increasingly suspicious that the show’s creator and writer, Julian Fellowes, is not exactly arguing against the ‘death tax’?
This last week’s episode certainly erased any doubt that the show’s paterfamilias, Lord Grantham, has even a lick of sense: Already, we knew he’d mismanaged the place, sunk his wealthy wife’s entire fortune into a railroad to nowhere, and proven himself a terrible judge of character, trusting even the most transparently venal of his servants.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/01/29/the-politics-of-downton-abbey-down-with-the-patriarchy/
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