Grace

Grace from American Rust is another example of a working-class woman who dreams of something more than what she currently has. Grace, who gave up the opportunity to move up the socioeconomic ladder for her son never gave up her dreams of eventually being able to have that opportunity once again. In the beginning of the novel, readers would often see her seriously considering making major changes to her life in order to move out of the working class. When thinking about potentially going to college we can see her saying to herself, “Why not, she thought. Even if it takes six or seven years, you could just start now” (45). Even after years of saying she will go back to school, saying she will move out of the trailer, saying she will leave Buell and not doing any of those things, Grace maintains that the idea of her going to college is at least a possibility, highlighting this kind of optimism that is associated with working-class life. Even in the most desperate of times, dreams of a better future do not completely leave working-class people. This is especially impressive because of the imposition of fixity. Amber Hollibaugh says “there is no path out of a closed system” (36) in reference to working class people not being able to leave the working class because they do not know about opportunities outside of what they have been exposed to and yet people like Grace who continue to dream about more remain.

Precious

In the film Precious, we often see scenes that weave in and out of reality. Precious, the main character, is an impoverished 16 year old Black girl who is living in a violent household where she has been subject to years of sexual abuse at the hands of her biological father, leaving her with one child and another one on the way. In order to escape the violence and cruelty of her home she is often fantasizing about wealth, love, and fame. She understands the reality of her current situation, but she finds peace in dissociating with it. When her mother is verbally harassing her or kids on the street are bullying her, Precious escapes to an imagined scenario where she is glamorously dressed and widely adored. Her circumstances are too intensely awful to face reality every second of every day. To be a pregnant single mother at the age of 16 who cannot read or write well and faces abuse from the two people who were supposed to protect her from the horrors of the world is a way of life that is unimaginable for a lot of people and yet real for many others. In order to cope with it being real for her, the film often showed Precious escaping into her fictional alternate universe where all the pain she was feeling would just slip away and she would be left to bask in her curated joy.

The fact that these departures from the poverty class are displayed in a way that labels them as impossible just by the mere fact that they are fantasies seems to be a commentary on the way class status is seen as a fixed identity. Beverly Skeggs in her piece “Making class: Inscription, exchange, value and perspective” discusses the way ideas of fixity are imposed onto working-class bodies by those with power (4). People of higher classes maintain their placement in the economic hierarchy by perpetuating the subordination of those below them and to do this they legitimize their own superiority by making it seem as though it is something that cannot be altered. Precious, as someone from the poverty class, internalized these ideas that there was no way out of her situation which is why her dreams took the form of extravagant fantasies. It was not seen as remotely possible for her to be the person she was in these dreams.

Liminality and "Dimestore Cowgirl"

Liminality is a theme we see as present in country music performed by women. Kacey Musgraves in her live performance of “Dimestore Cowgirl” is on a stage, wearing a sparkly pink outfit, hair and makeup done professionally, singing about how she is “just a dimestore cowgirl”, an identity of hers that will not change regardless of the fame she may acquire or the places she might live. She recognizes her elevated class status, how she “made it all the way past Austin city limits,”(Musgraves) but she also wants her audience to understand that regardless of how far she “makes it”, she will remain in touch with her authentic self, which is a humble country girl. Fox explains this as the hero v. anti-hero mode. Musgraves, just by having the platform to perform this song, is demonstrating that she has climbed the socioeconomic ladder (hero mode). But by constantly reminding listeners that she is just a dimestore cowgirl, she is also sending the message that she remains tied to her roots, existing in both classes as a hero and anti-hero.