In a Galaxy Far, Far Away?: The Beckhams as a Globalized Couple, 2007 – the Present. (original) (raw)

""By the time David Beckham signed a playing contract with LA Galaxy in 2007 and announced that he, Victoria, and their children would be relocating to America’s west coast, the Posh n’ Becks phenomenon had been a staple of British popular discourse for nearly a decade. It was also, however, in danger of disappearing into obscurity. In moving to America, they risked that the British might forget and the Americans wouldn’t care. Having enjoyed a distinguished career playing at the highest level while becoming a cultural phenomenon – like no other player before him exploiting English soccer’s burgeoning neoliberal economy, challenging notions of traditional masculinity, and becoming the focus of sustained media and academic attention as an icon – David was now assumed to be easing his way into retirement by heading to a far-off competition of dubious standing, after being dropped by the England national team. While Victoria had been one-fifth of a girl-band that had enjoyed huge success in the late 1990s, her solo career had since ground to a halt, and by the mid-naughties she was best known as the ‘Queen of the WAGS’ (a collective, derogatory tabloid term for the wives and girlfriends of rich sportsmen, who like to be seen spending their partner’s cash, and who are often blamed by the media for their partner’s shortcomings on the field of play). This paper examines the Beckhams’ evolution and rejuvenation as a couple since their move to Los Angeles and argues that their continued status since has been rooted in the careful construction of their coupledom (and family) that has seen the Beckham brand become a phenomenon that is more than the sum of its parts. It examines their choreographed arrival in LA comprising a 'W' magazine spread, Victoria’s reality TV show ‘Coming to America’, and a ‘welcome party’ with other celebrity couples (including ‘TomKat’ and the Smiths), through various joint ventures (such as the release of their fragrances ‘Intimately Beckham’, and other advertising campaigns), to their roles in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It argues that their move to LA has seen them project a globalized identity based on a trans-national, neoliberal, liquid modernity, free of the constraints of their former (lower) class-inflected identities in the British context.""