“It’s Not Serving Snookie and Her Escort Friends Cheeseburgers”: Race,Class and Labor in Below Deck

Abstract

“It’s Not Serving Snookie and Her Escort Friends Cheeseburgers: Race, Class, and Labor in Below Deck” discusses the representational risk aversion of 51 Minds Entertainment, the production company that has rarely cast people of color in their popular occu-soap franchise Below Deck. The series features predominantly white yacht stewards who profit from this work via both monetary and cultural capital, perpetuating the myth of the American Dream, easily achieving upward class mobility through hard work. The essay considers the implications of these casting choices which essentially erase the financially precarious nature of domestic labor, a field that primarily employs people of color.