Celebrity, class and gender in Spain: an analysis of Belén Esteban’s image

Abstract

Belén Esteban is the most significant example in Spain of a new kind of celebrity that cannot be linked to traditional definitions of talent and work. She is often talked about with contempt, used as a synonym of ‘trash TV’ and seen as evidence of the loss of meritocratic values in Spain. This article analyses how her celebrity image provides a stage for political struggle that embodies current Spanish tensions regarding class and gender. Belén Esteban’s image offers a symbolic battleground upon which the debates about the place and roles of working-class women in Spanish society are acted out. In order to fulfil this aim, this paper analyses two stages upon which these debates are enacted. Firstly, there are the discourses of disgust surrounding her in the Spanish media. Secondly, there are her television appearances in Sálvame Diario (Save Me Daily) and Sálvame Deluxe (Save Me Deluxe), two celebrity gossip programmes in which she works and in which her celebrity image is mainly constructed.