Anna Nicole Smith Cultural, Historical and Political Significance

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Anna Nicole Smith: Cultural, Historical and Political Significance

Anna Nicole Smith, formerly known as Vickie Lynn Hogan, was a girl from a poor background in her home, Mexia, Texas. As a little girl, their family faced many hardships. For they could not afford necessities such as toilet paper. She stayed with her aunt when she could not stand abuse from her stepfather and stepsiblings. While growing up, she had low self-worth, as she did not like her body ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”xwdXlpo6″,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Marshall)”,”plainCitation”:”(Marshall)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:605,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/CPI9XCJK”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/CPI9XCJK”],”itemData”:{“id”:605,”type”:”webpage”,”abstract”:”From her first Playboy appearance in 1992 to her death in 2007, Anna Nicole Smith’s story was about a beautiful girl lifted up from the dust, and then about a beautiful woman destroyed.”,”container-title”:”BuzzFeed News”,”language”:”en”,”note”:”source: www.buzzfeednews.com”,”title”:”The American Dream Created Anna Nicole Smith — And Then It Killed Her”,”URL”:”https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmarshall/the-american-dream-created-anna-nicole-smith-and-then-it-kil”,”author”:[{“family”:”Marshall”,”given”:”Sarah”}],”accessed”:{“date-parts”:[[“2020″,4,20]]},”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2017″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Marshall). She started working at an early age to save up for breast implants that had become the new wave of the time, and the beginning of her career. Anna became a single mother at the age of 19 when her husband started abusing her. She had a young son whom she took care of and always considered him the love of her life. Later she rose to fame after marrying a filthy rich billionaire and lawyer, Mr. J Howard Marshall, whose family-owned oil companies in the 19th century ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”Zwnz8dga”,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Marshall)”,”plainCitation”:”(Marshall)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:605,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/CPI9XCJK”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/CPI9XCJK”],”itemData”:{“id”:605,”type”:”webpage”,”abstract”:”From her first Playboy appearance in 1992 to her death in 2007, Anna Nicole Smith’s story was about a beautiful girl lifted up from the dust, and then about a beautiful woman destroyed.”,”container-title”:”BuzzFeed News”,”language”:”en”,”note”:”source: www.buzzfeednews.com”,”title”:”The American Dream Created Anna Nicole Smith — And Then It Killed Her”,”URL”:”https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmarshall/the-american-dream-created-anna-nicole-smith-and-then-it-kil”,”author”:[{“family”:”Marshall”,”given”:”Sarah”}],”accessed”:{“date-parts”:[[“2020″,4,20]]},”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2017″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Marshall).

Hugh Hefner chose her to play a leading role in the Playboy show that brought her to the limelight. She was put on the spotlight by the press as being a gold-digger because of the huge age gap between her and her second husband. Her husband was 89 years while she was 26. The press and public believed she married him for his wealth. The same media which glorified her rise from rags to riches now delighted in showing the world her fall. Anna Nicole Smith fought for her inheritance from her late husband’s family. She lost the case at the US supreme court following accusations from the family because, to them, she was nothing but a materialistic woman. For this reason, her lifestyle became expensive for her to maintain after losing her money and wealth ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”taBAfxXk”,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Laurier)”,”plainCitation”:”(Laurier)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:612,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/4F3WTLIZ”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/4F3WTLIZ”],”itemData”:{“id”:612,”type”:”webpage”,”abstract”:”The untimely death of 39-year-old Anna Nicole Smith has provided another excuse for the US media to do its worst. Smith’s death last week in a Florida hotel room gave television anchors and reporters in particular a green light, summed up by CNN’s Larry King pronouncement on his nightly talk show: “The death of Ann Nicole Smith—it’s the number one story around the world tonight!””,”language”:”en”,”note”:”source: www.wsws.org”,”title”:”The short, sad, sordid life of Anna Nicole Smith”,”URL”:”https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2007/02/anna-f14.html”,”author”:[{“family”:”Laurier”,”given”:”Joanne”}],”accessed”:{“date-parts”:[[“2020″,4,20]]},”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2007″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Laurier).She could not maintain her body, which she had built on implants and surgery. Her body was a fantasy. Because of failure to maintain her silicon body, the public turned against her seeing the changes that made her no longer the person they knew.

Her free lifestyle caused much stress on her. The public and the press demonized her as a woman of low caliber through negative comments and reviews. Her TV reality show became a wreck, and only mocking cartoons of her dancing on a stripper pole worsened the situation ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”sPm8f36X”,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Benson-Allott)”,”plainCitation”:”(Benson-Allott)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:611,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/2PRGWBNN”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/2PRGWBNN”],”itemData”:{“id”:611,”type”:”article-journal”,”archive”:”JSTOR”,”container-title”:”Film Quarterly”,”DOI”:”10.1525/fq.2013.66.4.5″,”ISSN”:”0015-1386″,”issue”:”4″,”note”:”publisher: University of California Press”,”page”:”5-9″,”source”:”JSTOR”,”title”:”Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013): Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013)”,”title-short”:”Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013)”,”volume”:”66″,”author”:[{“family”:”Benson-Allott”,”given”:”Caetlin”}],”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2013″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Benson-Allott). Anna struggled with low self-worth, and she started abusing drugs. Her son Daniel also suffered the same fate. His classmates mocked him because her mother was aired in television shows as a woman who had disgraced herself. Daniel died from drug toxicity after visiting her sister and mother in the hospital. Anna tried to maintain her lifestyle amidst the death of his son and nursing a newborn. She developed infections and abscesses resulting from injections of growth hormones, and vitamins while battling her weight problem. Further, the media filmed her death story to be what would have happened to any woman like her, rising from poverty, glorying in wealth, and failing to sustain her lifestyle after her source of wealth departed from her. Later, she would turn into drugs and die an ugly death.

Nicole died while still remembering her husband as someone who cared for her and never treated her as less of a person. Her husband would pamper her with expensive jewelry and gave her an expensive lifestyle, too ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”jHwPGS6x”,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Laurier)”,”plainCitation”:”(Laurier)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:612,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/4F3WTLIZ”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/4F3WTLIZ”],”itemData”:{“id”:612,”type”:”webpage”,”abstract”:”The untimely death of 39-year-old Anna Nicole Smith has provided another excuse for the US media to do its worst. Smith’s death last week in a Florida hotel room gave television anchors and reporters in particular a green light, summed up by CNN’s Larry King pronouncement on his nightly talk show: “The death of Ann Nicole Smith—it’s the number one story around the world tonight!””,”language”:”en”,”note”:”source: www.wsws.org”,”title”:”The short, sad, sordid life of Anna Nicole Smith”,”URL”:”https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2007/02/anna-f14.html”,”author”:[{“family”:”Laurier”,”given”:”Joanne”}],”accessed”:{“date-parts”:[[“2020″,4,20]]},”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2007″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Laurier). The ultimate message she left behind was money could never be enough, as both left all their wealth behind, and a mocking multitude. She died at 39years of age, without a penny.

Cultural, historical and political significance

The story of Anna Nicole Smith has a cultural implication because the majority of women from the past who led her lifestyle ended with the same fate. Some examples of fallen heroines include Lulus, Violettas. From the story of Anna Nicole Smith, it is evident that women will work hard to become what they desire but still are blamed for that. Having started small working as a stripper, waitress, and living the highs of having a reality show by marrying into wealth, She desired to become famous, therefore signing up for playboy. In many instances, a woman is displayed as perfect when she has a certain body shape by the media. This beauty idea cuts across any cultures and races. A New York Times magazine used the image of Anna with the title “White Trash Nation” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”Sovs00J3″,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Brown)”,”plainCitation”:”(Brown)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:610,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/K8UKJ2HM”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/K8UKJ2HM”],”itemData”:{“id”:610,”type”:”article-journal”,”abstract”:”Cultural concerns about race, class and beauty often intersect with mass-mediated depictions of the female body. Drawing on Foucault’s theories about disciplining the public body, this article examines the changing public perception of Anna Nicole Smith from an ideal beauty to a white trash stereotype. This analysis argues that Smith’s very public weight gains, her outrageous behaviour and her legal battle for her late husband’s fortune is presented in the media as an example of inappropriate conduct for a white beauty ideal and thus is repositioned as white trash culture. Central to this repositioning is the constant tabloid depiction of Smith as an ‘out of control’ grotesque. This article argues that contrary to the optimistic understanding of female grotesques as effective agents of cultural criticism and social change, Smith represents the female grotesque as an agent of cultural control that instructs middle-class women on how to avoid committing classed, racial and gendered transgressions. The article concludes that the case of Anna Nicole Smith functions as a cautionary tale that reinforces cultural standards of normalization.”,”container-title”:”Feminist Review”,”DOI”:”10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400240″,”ISSN”:”0141-7789″,”issue”:”1″,”journalAbbreviation”:”Feminist Review”,”language”:”en”,”note”:”publisher: SAGE Publications”,”page”:”74-94″,”source”:”SAGE Journals”,”title”:”Class and Feminine Excess: The Strange Case of Anna Nicole Smith”,”title-short”:”Class and Feminine Excess”,”volume”:”81″,”author”:[{“family”:”Brown”,”given”:”Jeffrey A”}],”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2005″,11,1]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Brown). Previously, her body that was represented as being a perfect representation of beauty now was a grotesque representation. Anna is significant for the media to avoid misrepresenting what normal beauty standards should look like. The media should avoid misrepresenting normal standards of beauty.Besides, the culture of fame made her became obsessed about her body image, leading her to have silicone breast implants, which later caused her pain and dependency on painkillers after surgery to relieve her pain ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”jmSrwMcY”,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Benson-Allott)”,”plainCitation”:”(Benson-Allott)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:611,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/2PRGWBNN”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/2PRGWBNN”],”itemData”:{“id”:611,”type”:”article-journal”,”archive”:”JSTOR”,”container-title”:”Film Quarterly”,”DOI”:”10.1525/fq.2013.66.4.5″,”ISSN”:”0015-1386″,”issue”:”4″,”note”:”publisher: University of California Press”,”page”:”5-9″,”source”:”JSTOR”,”title”:”Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013): Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013)”,”title-short”:”Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013)”,”volume”:”66″,”author”:[{“family”:”Benson-Allott”,”given”:”Caetlin”}],”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2013″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Benson-Allott). The same reason made her struggle to lose weight and abuse drugs to maintain her image. She publicly led her life, even giving birth to her daughter was filmed on television. History presents Anna smith as taking after the footsteps of Marylyn Monroe as her icon. She lived and died just like her. Reports from psychiatrists show that most celebrities have previously depended on drugs and substance, leading to their premature deaths and disappointing their fans ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”tPSDbVWM”,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Veltman)”,”plainCitation”:”(Veltman)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:614,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/QCR5YYRL”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/QCR5YYRL”],”itemData”:{“id”:614,”type”:”article-journal”,”abstract”:”Can a series of quality documentaries undo the sensationalised image given by Hollywood to the issue of alcohol and drug addiction in the US? Chloe Veltman reports”,”container-title”:”BMJ : British Medical Journal”,”DOI”:”10.1136/bmj.39168.528021.59″,”ISSN”:”0959-8138″,”issue”:”7595″,”journalAbbreviation”:”BMJ”,”note”:”PMID: nullnPMCID: PMC1839239″,”page”:”697″,”source”:”PubMed Central”,”title”:”Addiction in America: in search of a fix”,”title-short”:”Addiction in America”,”volume”:”334″,”author”:[{“family”:”Veltman”,”given”:”Chloe”}],”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2007″,3,31]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Veltman). As seen from Anna’s story, she was declared an addict, only withdrawing after her many attempts to become pregnant.

The political aspect is seen from the story when she presented her case to the US Supreme Court. Anna was bankrupt by the time she was claiming a representation in her husband’s inheritance. Her late husband, a former lawyer and oil tycoon did not leave a will for reclamation of property for his wife Anna, after lavishing her with numerous gifts and benefits while alive ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”1mZTg294″,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(Cole and Zywicki)”,”plainCitation”:”(Cole and Zywicki)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:617,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/BK879J95″],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/BK879J95″],”itemData”:{“id”:617,”type”:”article-journal”,”page”:”511-546″,”title”:”Anna Nicole Smith Goes Shopping: The New Forum-Shopping Problem in Bankruptcy”,”author”:[{“family”:”Cole”,”given”:”G. Marcus”},{“family”:”Zywicki”,”given”:”Todd”}],”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2010″]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (Cole and Zywicki). At the Texas Probate Court, she was judged for sexual harassment causing her to pay thousands of dollars. Afterward, she filed a case against Pierce Marshall, her late husband’s son, for blocking his father’s promises to her, which was giving her a thousand dollars as a Christmas gift. Smith did not win the case as the allegations were held as invalid(White). Anna Nicole smith developed binge eating disorder. Her diet consisted of junk foods, and she developed this behavior after the death of her son, losing a case, and getting negative reviews from the media and public.

Anna Nicole represents women who chose for themselves a lifestyle devoid of challenges of poverty, dropping out of school, a lack of parental guidance, early marriages, and abuse from their spouses. Anna was featured in magazines, billboards, televisions, and other American media. Rather than the media highlighting her story a resulting from hard work and misfortune, it covered her jealously as being a gold-digger. Anna was only human and very capable of doing what any human could do. The aspect seen is destroying a woman rather than making her story an inspiring one. Anna Nicole was also an actress and dancer ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {“citationID”:”WMcy4qs5″,”properties”:{“formattedCitation”:”(White)”,”plainCitation”:”(White)”,”noteIndex”:0},”citationItems”:[{“id”:609,”uris”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/P8IRVE3Y”],”uri”:[“http://zotero.org/users/local/rEYGfGF8/items/P8IRVE3Y”],”itemData”:{“id”:609,”type”:”article-newspaper”,”abstract”:”Larger-than-life figures, ripped from the headlines, are giving new juice to opera.”,”container-title”:”The New York Times”,”ISSN”:”0362-4331″,”language”:”en-US”,”section”:”Arts”,”source”:”NYTimes.com”,”title”:”A Tabloid Star Is Joining the Sisterhood of the Fallen”,”URL”:”https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/arts/music/13anna.html”,”author”:[{“family”:”White”,”given”:”Michael”}],”accessed”:{“date-parts”:[[“2020″,4,20]]},”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“2011″,2,11]]}}}],”schema”:”https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json”} (White). Several men came to claim paternity when she gave birth to her daughter. She married her lawyer, who turned to be the father of her daughter.

It is clear from the revelation of Anna Nicole Smith’s story that the media should not have demonized her as being the cause of her destruction. This story has cultural, historical, and political significance about the role of women in society. There is no standard mark of beauty, as presented by the media. Various women undergo challenges as they look up to what an ideal body should be, ending up developing eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa. These women also go into drug abuse and face mental health problems trying to measure up with the society’s standards of beauty. Further, parental neglect might cause children to fall into drug traps, such as seen in the case of Anna’s son. Spousal abuse should also be a thing of the past. Moreover, a person’s family background and the environment in which they are brought up contribute to the decisions that they will make in life.

Works cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {“uncited”:[],”omitted”:[],”custom”:[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Benson-Allott, Caetlin. “Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013): Behind the Candelabra (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) Anna Nicole (Mary Herron, 2013).” Film Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 4, University of California Press, 2013, pp. 5–9. JSTOR, JSTOR, doi:10.1525/fq.2013.66.4.5.

Brown, Jeffrey A. “Class and Feminine Excess: The Strange Case of Anna Nicole Smith.” Feminist Review, vol. 81, no. 1, SAGE Publications, Nov. 2005, pp. 74–94. SAGE Journals, doi:10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400240.

Cole, G. Marcus, and Todd Zywicki. Anna Nicole Smith Goes Shopping: The New Forum-Shopping Problem in Bankruptcy. 2010, pp. 511–46.

Laurier, Joanne. The Short, Sad, Sordid Life of Anna Nicole Smith. 2007. www.wsws.org, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2007/02/anna-f14.html.

Marshall, Sarah. “The American Dream Created Anna Nicole Smith — And Then It Killed Her.” BuzzFeed News, 2017. www.buzzfeednews.com, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmarshall/the-american-dream-created-anna-nicole-smith-and-then-it-kil.

Veltman, Chloe. “Addiction in America: In Search of a Fix.” BMJ : British Medical Journal, vol. 334, no. 7595, Mar. 2007, p. 697. PubMed Central, doi:10.1136/bmj.39168.528021.59.

White, Michael. “A Tabloid Star Is Joining the Sisterhood of the Fallen.” The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2011. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/arts/music/13anna.html.