ABSTRACT
The very notion of a ‘benets culture’ exemplies the discursive operations of othering, with the power of (mis)representation as so often exercised through popular culture in the form of television documentary and extreme, often hateful paratextual responses. Consider ITV’s Ann Widdecombe versus The Benets Culture – the most starkly hegemonic binary imaginable – and more recently Channel 4’s Benets Street, the focus of this chapter.
