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Trailer Trash” Stigma and Belonging in Florida Mobile Home Parks

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Trailer Trash” Stigma and Belonging in Florida Mobile Home Parks Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages 66–75 DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i1.2391 Article “Trailer Trash” Stigma and Belonging in Florida Mobile Home Parks Margarethe Kusenbach Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 1 August 2019 | Accepted: 4 October 2019 | Published: 27 February 2020 Abstract In the United States, residents of mobile homes and mobile home communities are faced with cultural stigmatization regarding their places of living. While common, the “trailer trash” stigma, an example of both housing and neighbor- hood/territorial stigma, has been understudied in contemporary research. Through a range of discursive strategies, many subgroups within this larger population manage to successfully distance themselves from the stigma and thereby render it inconsequential (Kusenbach, 2009). But what about those residents—typically white, poor, and occasionally lacking in stability—who do not have the necessary resources to accomplish this? This article examines three typical responses by low-income mobile home residents—here called resisting, downplaying, and perpetuating—leading to different outcomes regarding residents’ sense of community belonging. The article is based on the analysis of over 150 qualitative interviews with mobile home park residents conducted in West Central Florida between 2005 and 2010. Keywords belonging; Florida; housing; identity; mobile homes; stigmatization; territorial stigma Issue This article is part of the issue “New Research on Housing and Territorial Stigma” edited by Margarethe Kusenbach (University of South Florida, USA) and Peer Smets (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands). © 2020 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction both resulting in a tainted category of persons (“trailer trash”). The workings of this particular stigma are cur- In 2006, a full-page advertisement by the National Center rently understudied in the relevant scholarly literature, for Family Literacy in the New York Times showed a grainy and the most vulnerable target—low-income whites liv- black-and-white picture of an extremely crowded and ing in non-urban areas—is a population that is frequently dirty mobile home park with one home missing. The text misunderstood (Hochschild, 2016). The primary goal of at the bottom said: “The best way out is by coming in,” this article is to examine three typical responses to the suggesting that this is the kind of environment one is stigma among those who are most affected. able to leave behind by taking advantage of the Center’s Even though stigmatization is a powerful form of oth- services to improve one’s literacy skills. While not all ering (Link & Phelan, 2001), it would be wrong to as- depictions of mobile home living in American culture sume that place-based prejudice and discrimination af- are equally extreme, the general, negative message they fect everyone who is generally targeted in similar ways deliver has remained virtually unchanged for several and degrees. Certain subgroups and individuals within decades. In the United States, where displays of material the larger category of mobile home dwellers manage wealth indicate respectability and success, living in a mo- to successfully distance themselves from the stereotype bile home and mobile home park is a sign of failure, insta- while drawing on positively valued social memberships bility, and moral inferiority. This article investigates some (Kusenbach, 2009). However, others are more vulner- of the views and experiences of lower income Americans able and must come to terms with the housing and who are living in mobile home parks. The ubiquitous neighborhood-based stigma they experience as a serious “trailer” stigma in American culture is an example of so- challenge, often among many other obstacles. In this arti- cial marginalization that is based on a type of home (the cle, I focus on the latter, especially disadvantaged group “trailer”) and a type of neighborhood (the “trailer park”), of mobile home residents. More precisely, I seek to an- Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages 66–75 66 swer the question of how the “trailer trash” stigma af- Images of trailer living as transient, deprived, and fects those who cannot isolate themselves from it by morally deficient persist in American mass media and drawing on advantageous spatial or social boundaries popular culture. Popular movies offer detailed depictions (Lamont & Molnár, 2002). The following analysis reveals of the myriad inadequacies of mobile home residents that issues of agency and identity play large roles in de- and communities. Newspaper articles and TV stories fre- termining how stigma is experienced and managed, and quently report on crimes, accidents, and disasters in how it affects someone’s sense of belonging in the larger these places. Advertisements (such as the opening ex- community, including perceptions of, and interactions ample), books, cartoons, games, and even recipes fea- with, neighbors. turing trailer-themed problems or jokes are abundant. The article proceeds as follows. First, in the next sec- The majority of media images propels the message that tion, I offer some general information on mobile home people living in these places are indecent and objection- living and the “trailer trash” stigma, followed by a brief re- able due to a range of personal and cultural deficiencies. view of the relevant literature on housing and neighbor- Understandably, many mobile home residents take issue hood stigma and belonging. I then describe the article’s with such negative views. research methods and data. Next, in a first analytic sec- tion, I discuss the particular directions and targets of the 2.2. Housing Stigma, Neighborhood Stigma trailer stigma. In the following parts, I examine three dif- and Belonging ferent responses by those who are targeted the most— here called resisting, downplaying, and perpetuating— According to Erving Goffman (1963, p. 3), a stigma is and their effects on residents’ interactions and senses a “deeply discrediting” attribute that renders its car- of belonging at the neighborhood level. I end the article riers less socially desirable and respectable than so- with a short conclusion. called regular people. Stigma is formed when certain characteristics come to be viewed by others as flawed 2. Literature Review within the context of historically and culturally specific beliefs. Mobile home residents are prone to experienc- 2.1. Mobile Home Living and the “Trailer Trash” Stigma ing two (of three total) kinds of stigma described by Goffman: “blemishes of individual character” and “tribal In the United States, mobile homes are a very com- stigma” (Goffman, 1963, p. 4). These two kinds of stigma mon form of private housing for people with lower vary in the perceived origin of the discrediting attribute incomes, and mobile home parks are a widespread (personal character versus group membership) and, ac- neighborhood type. According to the latest estimates cordingly, in the emotions stigmatized individuals might (American Community Survey, n.d.), approximately 17.7 experience—such as guilt and shame for blemishes of in- million people live in 8.5 million mobile homes in the dividual character, or humiliation and anger in the case United States. While mobile homes exist in every state of tribal stigma. Unlike some bodily, tribal, and associa- and region, they are most concentrated in the Sunbelt tional (courtesy) stigmas (e.g., Green, Davis, Karshmer, across the Southern border. Florida has the highest num- Marsh, & Straight, 2005; Kusow, 2004), the discrediting ber of mobile homes of all states, nearly 840,000 in to- attribute—in this case, living in a “trailer” and “trailer tal. Within Florida, the highest concentration of mobile park”—is neither always immediately apparent, thus al- homes—nearly 250,000—can be found in the Central lowing for some degree of “passing” (Goffman, 1963, Gulf region, the area in which the research for this article pp. 73–91), nor can it be hidden permanently from ev- was conducted. eryone, resulting in a rather complex example of housing Miller and Evko (1985) report that the negative image and neighborhood stigma. of trailers dates back to before World War II, a time when Overall, Goffman’s classic conception is an important makeshift accommodations on wheels originally meant source of inspiration for studying and theorizing hous- for vacationing became popular permanent homes for ing and neighborhood (or territorial) stigma today (e.g., low-income retirees and migrant workers. The use of Vassenden & Lie, 2013). Even though Goffman did not trailer homes expanded during World War II by provid- explicitly develop a spatial understanding of this form of ing housing for defense industry workers near manufac- social injustice, one could argue that “tribal” stigma, as turing plants. Due to the serious housing shortage after a collective category, might conceptually contain hous- the war, the use of many such homes and communities, ing and neighborhood stigma as subtypes. However, the originally meant to be temporary, continued. Thousands fact remains that Goffman did not examine housing or of soldiers and military service workers were stationed in territory as potentially stigmatizing attributes. This par- Florida during World War II and many stayed or returned ticular
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