Disgust and celebration. Working-class celebrity in Spain.

Merc Oliva
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract
In Spain, there has been in the last decade a heated public debate on the emergence
of celebrities that cannot be linked to traditional definitions of talent and work. These
celebrities are encompassed by the category of famosillos (literally meaning little
celebrities, in a derogatory sense) and they are often talked about with contempt, used
as a synonym of 'trash TV' and seen as evidence of the loss of meritocratic values in
Spain. Interestingly, most of these celebrities have symbolic markers of working-
classness.
The main aim of this paper is to analyse working-class celebrity in Spain, paying
specific attention to how these celebrities embody current debates about the place, role
and worthiness of working-classes in Spanish society and how gender affects these
debates. In order to fulfil this aim, this paper analyses the image of the two best-known
Spanish working-class celebrities: Beln Esteban and Rafa Mora. I analyse two stages
upon which their images are constructed. First, there are the discourses of disgust
about them published in the Spanish media. In Spain, celebrity can also be understood
as "a disciplinary sphere of social life" (Tyler & Bennett, 2008) and there are significant
similarities between the comments of contempt provoked by Beln Esteban and Rafa
Mora and those identified in the UK against working-class celebrities. Secondly, some
Spanish celebrity gossip media challenge these discourses of loath and condemnation
and celebrate (and exploit) Esteban and Moras images through a carnivalesque
strategy that ascribes value to the very traits regularly used to despise them.

Bio
Dr. Merc Oliva is a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Communication at
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). She is a member of the UPFs research
group UNICA (Unitat dInvestigaci en Comunicaci Audiovisual, Audiovisual
Communication Research Unit). She is the author of the book Telerrealidad, Disciplina
e Identidad. Los makeover shows en Espaa (Reality TV, Discipline and Identity.
Makeover shows in Spain) (Ed. UOC, 2013). She has also published articles in
journals such as Communication & Society, Comunicar and Celebrity Studies. Her key
research interests are celebrity culture, reality TV, popular culture and semiotics.