Holy bonsai wolves: Chihuahuas and the Paris Hilton syndrome
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464539
2013
ICS17110.1177/1367877912464539International Journal of Cultural StudiesRedmalm
International Journal of Cultural Studies
2014, Vol 17(1) 93–109 © The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1367877912464539
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Article
Holy bonsai wolves: Chihuahuas
and the Paris Hilton syndrome
David Redmalm
Örebro University, Sweden
Abstract
This article examines the reasons for the Chihuahua breed’s popularity in contemporary western
society by looking at two sets of data: Chihuahua handbooks and The Simple Life show, starring
Paris Hilton and her Chihuahua Tinkerbell. The article argues that the Chihuahua is a holy anomaly:
a creature which can be used in myths and rituals to temporarily alleviate the tension-filled binary
oppositions and stereotypes inherent in a particular culture, in order to celebrate and reinforce
that culture’s categories and social order. The Chihuahua – or the bonsai wolf – transcends
two binary oppositions fundamental to contemporary westerners: subject/object and nature/
culture. Although the Chihuahua challenges a number of related binary oppositions, it is generally
dismissed as a matter for humor, low-brow entertainment or expressions of sentimentality,
rendering ritual encounters with Chihuahuas harmless. The article concludes by asking: what
would happen if humans actually started listening to what the Chihuahua is telling them?
Keywords
animal–human relations, anomalies, binary oppositions, Chihuahuas, dichotomies, dogs, Donna
Haraway, Paris Hilton, hudographies, humor, popular culture
Paris Hilton, heiress of the Hilton hotel chain, has frequently been depicted in popular
media carrying a Chihuahua – most often, her favorite dog, Tinkerbell Hilton.
Tinkerbell’s fame, many argue, creates an increased demand for Chihuahuas, which in
turn has resulted in a large number of abandoned Chihuahuas in the United States
described by American journalists as ‘the Paris Hilton syndrome’ (see e.g. Hyde, 2010;
La Ganga, 2009). Chihuahuas clearly suffer from their popularity: several breed-
specific Chihuahua shelters and a national Chihuahua rescue group (Chihuahua Rescue
Corresponding author:
David Redmalm, Department of Sociology, Örebro University, Örebro, 701 82, Sweden.
Email: david.redmalm@oru.se
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94 International Journal of Cultural Studies 17(1)
& Transport, Inc.) have been created to respond to abandoned, neglected and abused
Chihuahuas, and Chihuahua handbooks dissuade readers from buying Chihuahuas as a
response to the Chihuahua trend (see e.g. Hustace Walker, 2006: 11). But Hilton was
not the first person to create a stir around the breed – several 20th-century public
figures have owned Chihuahuas, and Chihuahua booms have accompanied these pub-
lic figures’ success. At least in the United States, interest in the Chihuahua breed seems
to be less a momentary trend than a fixation that has persisted since the late 19th
century (Terry, 1990: 213ff.).
This article examines the reasons for the Chihuahua’s popularity and the attention
given to the breed. It argues that the Chihuahua is popular because it allows contempo-
rary westerners to play with binary oppositions fundamental to their society. Drawing on
Mary Douglas’s (1984: 169ff.) argument that anomalies to a society’s dichotomous con-
ceptual framework are sometimes considered holy, the Chihuahua is analyzed as a holy
anomaly. Holy anomalies can be used in rituals to temporarily alleviate the tension-filled
binary oppositions inherent in a particular culture, in order to celebrate and reinforce that
culture’s categories and social order. The Chihuahua’s ambiguity is in some respects
reminiscent of the bonsai tree: it can be regarded as a piece of nature brought into the
social sphere as a portable proof of humanity’s omnipotence (Tuan, 1984: 61ff.). Yet,
Chihuahuas cannot be mere symbols of power; many people live and actively interact
with them on a day-to-day basis (Serpell, 1996: 52). Accordingly, the article argues that
the Chihuahua transcends a number of binary oppositions, of which two are particularly
central to modern western society. First, the Chihuahua undermines the opposition
between subject and object, since the Chihuahua is both regarded as a dear companion
and as a commodity. Second, the Chihuahua transgresses the boundary between nature
and culture, since it is both a descendant of the wolf and a social being included in the
sphere of human society. Chihuahuas allow modern people to play with these binary
oppositions, as well as a number of related oppositions, stereotypes and moral boundaries
– a ritual which ultimately reinforces the validity of these categories and boundaries. In
short: the Chihuahua is a holy bonsai wolf.
In the next section, I further present the concept of the holy anomaly and discuss the
Chihuahua’s place in contemporary western society. After a section accounting for meth-
odological considerations, the analysis is carried out in two steps. I first analyze the
ambiguities in Chihuahua handbooks’ portrayal of the breed, and I then explore the
anomalies and transgressions produced in the relationship between Hilton and Tinkerbell.
By looking at these two sets of data, the article detects relevant binary oppositions inher-
ent in contemporary western culture. The focus on a particular dog breed is consistent
with a larger hudographical project, that is, the study of human–dog relations. As Emma
Mason (2008: 291) puts it, hudographers ‘might shed light on the way humans relate to
themselves and each other’ in a new way. In the present article, this means investigating
the various discourses permeating the Chihuahua and its existence to uncover the
cultural categories that regulate both human–Chihuahua relations and humans’ self-
understanding. The Chihuahua is the holy anomaly of the moderns; their holy bonsai
wolf. Yet this does not mean that the Chihuahua is a passive surface for humans’ cultural
inscriptions. Chihuahuas matter, as we shall see, through their constant attempts at com-
municating with us humans. The question is: are we ready to listen?
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Redmalm 95
Monsters and holy anomalies
According to Bruno Latour (1993), knowledge is most effectively produced when a soci-
ety’s thought systems and meticulously defined categories fail to fulfill their duties. He
argues that while the distinction between nature and culture has been integral to humans’
self-understanding during the modern era, this constructed division incessantly creates
anomalies, since no phenomenon is strictly natural or cultural. Latour labels anomalies
that cannot be translated into the language of natural science or cultural understanding as
monsters – they challenge a coherent understanding of the world, and they dissolve
binary oppositions fundamental to common sense. Monsters therefore also pose a threat
against enlightened, rational thought, and must be ignored or destroyed (Latour, 1993:
11f.; Douglas, 1984: 39f.).
The Chihuahua’s place in society is highly ambiguous – it is at once an exploitable
commodity and a life companion, an animal with a wolfish inner nature who plays an
active role in human society. These two binary oppositions are played out repeatedly in
presentations of the Chihuahua in contemporary western culture. The Chihuahua’s chal-
lenge to the binary opposition between commodity and companion is prominent in the
many toys modeled after the breed. For example, Hasbro’s collectible Littlest Pet Shop
series includes three different Chihuahuas – ‘ready to make a fashion statement in their
stylin’ outfits!’ (hasbro.com). The Chihuahua is also one of four breeds represented in
the puppy-rearing TV-game Nintendogs. And the Fancy Pals Pet Carriers (property of
Aurora World, Inc.) – a plush purse and toy dog combination – comes in three different
Chihuahua designs. These toys play on the commodification of the Chihuahua, but their
marketing campaigns emphasize friendship and care, implying that the dog also repre-
sents spiritual values.
The Chihuahua’s transgression of the boundary between nature and culture is also a
common theme in western culture, and it is highlighted in historical accounts of the
breed. While the Chihuahua is sometimes framed as something unnatural, simply a result
of human manipulation, the Chihuahua has a much more intricate past. An ancestor of
the Chihuahua – the Techichi – was bred in South America for ritual purposes and food
as far back as the 9th century in Toltec society, and later by Aztecs. When the Spanish
colonized the Mexican region, the Chihuahuas were set free and went to live in the
Mexican mountains. The Chihuahua was then re-domesticated and given the name of the
Mexican region about 200–300 years ago (Gagne, 2005: 7ff.; Waldorf Gewirtz, 2006:
18f.). The image of the Chihuahua as a hard-boiled survivor, offering dogged resistance
in the face of the whims of nature and the constant flux of human societies, thus stands
in sharp contrast to the perception of the Chihuahua as a petite fashion accessory. Several
contemporary artists have explored the way the Chihuahua challenges the nature/culture
and the animal/human binaries. Bjarne Melgaard (1991) performed with live Chihuahuas
which he trained to sit still in various poses, highlighting issues of power, socialization
and domestication. Scott Musgrove explored the tension between wild wolf and subju-
gated dog in his depiction of a Chihuahua in wolf’s clothing, Canis Strategema, from
2003. In 2007, Daniel Edwards sculpted a diseased Hilton with a grieving Tinkerbell by
her side, challenging the traditional sexist association of women with animals, as well as
the hierarchical relation between the human owner and the owned animal.
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While monstrous anomalies are often dealt with by means of expulsion, the Chihuahua
is instead elevated in a peculiar fashion, both in high and popular culture. This treat-
ment can be recognized in Mary Douglas’s (1984: 169ff.) discussion of what I call holy
anomalies – phenomena which are given special attention in a cultural setting, not in
spite of, but because they challenge binary oppositions central to the society in which
they exist. By confronting a holy anomaly under controlled circumstances – and in so-
called pre-modern societies this would mean creating myths and rituals around the
anomaly – a society is able to play with otherwise strict boundaries between categories
central to that society. In these playful confrontations, knowledge about the categories
and their boundaries are distributed to the members of the society, and the categories are
reinforced. As I will argue, the confrontations with the holy bonsai wolf are dismissed as
humor, sentimentality or low-brow entertainment so that the Chihuahua’s monstrosity
never fundamentally threatens the social order it transgresses and the binary oppositions
it challenges. The ritual cementation of fundamental binary oppositions can hence con-
tinue undisturbed. Thus, in the analysis of Chihuahua handbooks and the relationship
between Hilton and Tinkerbell, the analysis will focus on the Chihuahua’s challenges to
binary oppositions and cultural categories as well as highlighting how these transgres-
sions are framed.
The Chihuahua as text
The method of analysis used in the present study is inspired by Donna Haraway’s (1989:
35, 58) ‘literal reading’ of 19th- and 20th-century documents concerning African
Figure 1. ‘Embroidery’s secret snouts’.
Source: Melgaard (1991: 20f.).
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Figure 2. Canis Strategema by Scott Musgrove, 2003.
expeditions, museology and primatology. Haraway’s project aimed to unsettle the original
authors’ claims of objectivity by pointing out the interplay of sexist, racist and anthropo-
centric elements in the texts. Her study is ‘literal’ since she emphasizes the tensions
already explicit in the texts, instead of imposing a hermeneutic apparatus on the material.
The present study is an analogous literal reading of contemporary texts about the
Chihuahua that focuses on the Chihuahua’s ambiguous character. By playing texts about
Chihuahuas against each other, the texts’ inherent tensions are accentuated and, as a result,
the myth around the Chihuahua is laid bare. The reader may perceive the focus on text as
excluding the Chihuahua itself from the analysis – it may seem that logocentrism must
entail anthropocentrism (Barad, 2008: 136). Still, the texts that are analyzed are produced,
reproduced, circulated and assimilated in a system which also includes real, living
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Chihuahuas and their interaction with humans. Chihuahuas thus ‘intervene in their own
representations’ (Hayward, 2010: 584). To use Haraway’s (e.g. 1989: 172, 2008: 26)
expression, the Chihuahua is ‘material-semiotic’ – at once a social construction and a
biological organism. An analysis of Chihuahuas’ significance is therefore pertinent to
their material existence and may have consequences for Chihuahuas themselves.
To capture the Chihuahua’s material-semiotic and omnipresent character, this two-
fold study uses friction between different genres to map out the Chihuahua’s multi-
faceted dynamics. The first part focuses on Chihuahua handbooks. Ten internationally
available books, comprising approximately 1700 pages in all, were selected with the
goal of creating variation in the data in terms of length (100–300 pages), publication
date (1990 to present), tone (both humorous and sober), target audience (both first-
time and experienced dog owners) and the frequency of illustrations (from almost no
images at all to images on every page). The material was analyzed with a special atten-
tion to tension-filled descriptions of the breed. Such descriptions were found in all of
the books, and they appeared in the books’ various sections, regardless of subject. The
descriptions were gathered under two main binary oppositions that encapsulate the
Chihuahua’s bonsai wolf character: individual/commodity and nature/nurture. To
expand the characterization of the Chihuahua, the second part of the study contrasts
these findings to those of a similar analysis of the relation between Hilton and
Tinkerbell as depicted in three seasons’ episodes of The Simple Life reality show
(The Simple Life, 2004, 2005, 2006).
The supplementary sources added to the analysis – both academic and popular – pro-
vide additional context and a richer overview of the Chihuahua’s status in contemporary
western society. However, this article is written from within that society. Both the analysis
and the contextual frame are therefore recognized as the author’s rhetorical constructions,
and the line between contextualization and empirical material is intentionally blurred
(cf. Rose, 1999: 13). As a whole, the article makes up a critical Chihuahua hudography.
Chihuahua handbooks: ‘Are you up to the Chihuahua
challenge?’
To investigate the Chihuahua’s contradictory character, I first look at a forum that turns the
Chihuahua into an object of desire. Chihuahua handbooks address potential Chihuahua
owners and current owners interested in enriching their relationship with their dogs through
shared activities, new diets, or perhaps another puppy. I discuss two binary oppositions
evoked repeatedly in the books: individual/commodity and nature/nurture.
Individual and commodity
A pet is certainly a commodity: it is bought and sold; there are fashion trends in breeds
and species; different pets are connected to different characteristics, values, ideas and
ideals; and many species used as pets are mass-produced. But a pet also transcends the
status of commodity; Chihuahua handbook authors continuously emphasize that every
Chihuahua is an individual with unique needs playing an important role in the life of the
owner, and so cannot be used as a mere fashion accessory. The commodification of
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Chihuahuas, as well as many other pets, accords with the logic laid out by Baudrillard
(1996: 141f., 1998: 60ff.): while modern economies are based on the mass production of
objects, every single object must be perceived as unique and authentic to become a desir-
able commodity. Yet, commodities themselves have no intrinsic value and are exchanged
incessantly without ever satisfying the consumers. Pets are the ideal merchandise because
they are considered to be unique individuals and true companions in spite of the fact that
they are commercially exchanged. Zygmunt Bauman (2000: 81) also points out that con-
sumption is an inherently open-ended process. He argues that consumerism is an identity
project which westerners in late modernity engage in to try to fill the void left when
urbanization and individualization erased the pre-modern Gemeinschaft. But the project
is endless since shopping is an insufficient substitute for actual social bonds, and con-
sumers are never able to give substance to their identity projects. Yet the purchase of a
Chihuahua-individual opens up the possibility of a continuous identification with another
individual – exactly what Bauman says the contemporary consumer is looking for.
Consequently, Chihuahuas dissolve the tension of the individual/commodity binary.
The Chihuahua handbooks’ authors explicitly condemn the very notion of trends in
dog breeding (see e.g. Gagne, 2005: 11; Hustace Walker, 2006: 6f.), but the books’ pic-
tures present Chihuahuas as small and cute, surrounded by a sentimental shimmer.
Chihuahuas are depicted in flower arrangements; in teacups; in non-functional clothes;
and in knitted baskets, the last being one of the most common depictions (see e.g. Coile,
2003: 4; Pisano, 2001: 107; Terry, 1990: 18). In addition, many of the pictures simply
depict Chihuahuas posing in a studio – ‘Chihuahuas make wonderful models because
they are easily trained and respond well to direction’ (Terry, 1990: 22). In other words,
handbooks simultaneously disapprove of and encourage the objectification and com-
modification of the Chihuahua.
Several authors use economic jargon to discuss the advantages of the pet relationship,
and some even allude to prostitution. The Chihuahua is described as ‘the smallest, most
economical and compact bundle of love in dogdom’ (Pisano, 2001: 9). And it is a remu-
nerative investment: ‘For every affectionate pat they receive, you will get double pay-
back in love and loyalty’ (Dunbar, 1999: 2). One author pinpoints the tension between
the Chihuahua’s status as both individual and commodity by saying that ‘the Chihuahua
is a living proof that you can buy love’ (Coile, 2000: 9). In spite of these cynical observa-
tions, all authors emphasize that it is a constant struggle to maintain a healthy human–
dog relationship. Having a Chihuahua is not a guarantee of unconditional love (see also
Haraway, 2008: 228). To earn your Chihuahua’s friendship, you have to love it and care
for it – ‘An unloved pet is an unhappy pet’ (Terry, 1990: 87); you have to be sensitive to
the Chihuahua’s needs and wishes; you have to endure ‘the midnight walks in the rain,
the soiled floors, the lack of freedom, the expenses, such as food, equipment, boarding
and veterinary, and ultimately, the grief of parting after a long life’ (Coile, 2003: 11). And
it must not be forgotten, Chihuahuas need to urinate at short intervals: ‘Small dogs have
small bladders!’ (Gagne, 2005: 23). With all these obstacles in mind – both existential
questions and problems of a more mundane kind – readers are urged to ask themselves:
‘Are you up to the Chihuahua challenge?’ (Coile, 2003: 10).
The individual/commodity binary even frames authors’ discussions of death. Most
Chihuahua handbooks emphasize that it is natural to grieve one’s lost canine friend, and
recommend a funeral ceremony of some sort as a last celebration of the mutual devotion
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between dog and owner. Thus, handbooks make the Chihuahua’s demise meaningful by
connecting it to the dog’s purposeful life and its genuine personality – in contrast to the
prevalent philosophical idea that the death of a non-human animal is devoid of all mean-
ing (Smith, 2005). According to the handbooks, the departure of an individual dog is a
tragedy, but the reader is also reminded that there are always new dogs available at the
market. The human–dog relation, therefore, is cyclical. One chapter on euthanasia ends
with the dreadful words: ‘Enjoy your new Chihuahua!’ (Terry, 1990: 94).
Nature, nurture or neuter?
While the image of the Chihuahua as a brittle decoration item is present in handbooks,
authors also emphasize that the Chihuahua in fact has a pristine, animal essence. They
describe the breed as a ‘natural breed’, which means that, according to its race specifics,
it is not necessary to manipulate the dog’s physical appearance. The Chihuahua may be
a toy dog, but nevertheless, ‘[t]oy dogs are real dogs’ (O’Neil, 2008: 16), and it is as good
a dog as any larger breed (Terry, 1990: 173). The Chihuahua’s long history adds to the
perception of the Chihuahua as a real dog with a well-preserved essence: ‘As much as
they have shaken off their wild vestiges, Chihuahuas still speak the ancestral language of
wolves’ (Coile, 2000: 41).
Again: the Chihuahua is a bonsai wolf. Even though the Chihuahua is described as a
sturdy dog, its bonsai body creates a number of problems that handbooks repeatedly
mention: the dog is easily hurt by falling objects, careless people and bigger dogs; it has
a sensitive metabolism; it is sensitive to rain and cold weather; it is particularly hard to
housebreak; because of its small body volume, it is especially vulnerable to household
chemicals and insect stings; its teeth may accidentally be pulled out when playing too
roughly; and it is vulnerable to several diseases common to small breeds (Mondshine,
1999: 37; O’Neil, 2008: 225ff.; Waldorf Gewirtz, 2006: 148). Furthermore, particularly
tiny Chihuahuas run a larger risk of suffering from organic diseases: ‘perhaps some inter-
nal organs simply have met their lower limits of normal size and function’ (Coile, 2003:
11). The Chihuahua is described as ‘[t]he tiny dog with the giant heart’ (Coile, 2000: vi),
but, in light of these medical facts, the figurative expression becomes a cruel irony.
Whether the Chihuahua is a wolf-like creature or a fragile, somewhat deficient cre-
ation of breeders, it must be nurtured by a caring human; otherwise it may face ‘lifetime
personality problems’ (Coile, 2003: 14; see also Pisano, 2001: 90). Chihuahua-keeping
implies development for both dog and owner: ‘[T]raining your dog leads to understand-
ing your dog, and understanding your dog will make you a better trainer’ (Terry, 1990:
175). To facilitate this mutual understanding, you have to learn to speak its language:
‘Wuzzzer-wuzzer-wuzzer, hoooser good wuffer den?’ (Dunbar, 1999: 76). Chihuahuas
may not be verbal, but they are definitely not mute, according to the handbooks. By their
sounds and body language, Chihuahuas are said to signal for example playfulness, antici-
pation and bodily integrity (see e.g. Gagne, 2005: 43, 88; O’Neil, 2008: 123). Even
misbehavior such as whining and excessive digging may be a way for the Chihuahua to
communicate boredom or separation anxiety (Hustace Walker, 2006: 155ff.).
The handbooks also encourage readers to endeavor to ‘think like a dog’ (Coile, 2003:
29) in order to educate it properly. Taking on the role of the ‘pack leader’, a position
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intelligible to both dog and human, is crucial – as a dog owner, you must take control,
keep it and act consistently (Mondshine, 1999: 21). When, in contrast, Chihuahuas are
spoiled, they turn into ‘pests’ (Terry, 1990: 31), ‘tiny tyrants and nervous wimps’ (O’Neil,
2008: 16), ‘little napoleon[s]’ (Coile, 2000: 9), or, perhaps worst of all: ‘If your dog
doesn’t receive the proper training and guidance, he [sic] very well may replace you as
Alpha’ (Mondshine, 1999: 151). By properly nurturing your Chihuahua, you make sure
it does not cross the thin line between pet and pest.
Owners can adjust their Chihuahua’s behavior not only through training, but also by
means of neutering and spaying. Handbook authors recommend sterilization to prevent
unwanted pregnancies (Dunbar, 1999: 22), to eradicate dominant behavior in male dogs
(Coile, 2000: 39) and to stop dogs from masturbating (Gagne, 2005: 20). The discourse
of neutering reveals a common-sense biological determinism: dominant behavior is nat-
ural to males and can be warded off with a simple cut. Thus, handbooks on the one hand
recognize the Chihuahua as a biological organism with a nature of its own, but on the
other hand suggest that owners must manipulate the Chihuahua’s nature – its behavior
and reproductive organs – to turn it into a real (family) dog. Nurturing, therefore, requires
neutering.
Finally, handbooks consistently invoke the nature/nurture binary by describing them
as eternal children, or ‘perpetual babies’ (Coile, 2000: 152; see also Gagne, 2005: 110;
Pisano, 2001: 2). In a chapter on Chihuahua puppy-rearing, the caption of a picture of a
Chihuahua in a mini-crib says, ‘Congratulations! You’re expecting!’ (Coile, 2003: 21).
Haraway (2003: 37) has argued that the sentimental notion of dogs as ‘furry children’ is
demeaning both to children and pet animals since it does not take into account the differ-
ences between the two kinds of beings. Although handbooks repeatedly describe
Chihuahuas as children, especially in the puppy section that each book contains, they
also criticize this notion. For example, one author states that: ‘[a]lthough many Chihuahua
owners are inclined to think of their companions as “little people”, it must be understood
that the Chihuahua is first and foremost a dog’ (Coile, 2003: 21). Handbooks encourage
readers to treat the dog like a dog, in respect to the dog’s true nature. Yet the Chihuahua
is acknowledged as an eternal child by nature. The books undermine the nature/nurture
dichotomy when they simultaneously present the Chihuahua as a child in need of nurture
and a dog whose wild nature needs taming. In the handbooks, the Chihuahua is at once a
baby and a beast.
Even though handbooks intermittently refer to the Chihuahua as a child, they also
recognize that there have been occurrences of ‘Chi[huahua]s being tortured, abused and
killed – sometimes in a ritualistic or sacrificial manner’ (Hustace Walker, 2006: 12).
Some also mention that Chihuahuas are sometimes caged and used as ‘puppy-producing
machines’, in spite of the large number of Chihuahuas killed because of the breeding
surplus (Coile, 2000: 8). Because it is a common, not to say fundamental, idea in most
contemporary societies that every parent is obliged to recognize and to care for their
children unconditionally (Honneth, 1997: 32), the cruel treatment of Chihuahuas is
incompatible with descriptions of it as a child. Of course, human children, like
Chihuahuas, are in no way guaranteed the benefits of this universally prevailing impera-
tive, but while there is legislation preventing adults abusing their power over children,
Chihuahuas have no individual rights and may, without any legal consequences, be
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destroyed when regarded as superfluous. While Chihuahuas are treated as objects of
nurture in handbooks, they are also, as we have seen, described as a part of nature, and
are consequently not granted the same level of protection as humans. The Chihuahua’s
transgression of the nature/nurture binary thus allows an ambivalent treatment of the
breed both in theory and practice.
To sum up, the two main binaries of the Chihuahua literature, individual/commodity
and nature/nurture, imply that the Chihuahua is both a subject and an object of desire;
both a commercially manufactured toy dog and a true companion; both a fragile artifact
and a natural breed with a wolf-like essence; both a perpetual baby and a dog that may
grow up to outsmart you with its dominant behavior; both a social being and a biologi-
cally determined organism. To further investigate the dynamics of the Chihuahua, I now
turn from the Chihuahua as a breed to a particular Chihuahua, Tinkerbell.
The Simple Life: ‘stilettos in cow shit’
In broadcast public appearances by Tinkerbell and Hilton, Tinkerbell may seem passive
in her mistress’s arms. Upon closer examination, the intense dynamic between them
becomes tangible. Hilton’s and Tinkerbell’s identities are coproduced – a process which
includes the actions of mistress and dog as well as their discursive context (cf. Sanders,
1990). This mutual identity construction is most evident in The Simple Life, a so-called
reality TV show commonly referred to as the original source of the Paris Hilton syn-
drome. The choice of medium is itself telling: the reality show genre’s paradoxical mix
of soap opera and surveillance film aesthetic is the perfect way to display Hilton’s play
with superficiality and authentic individual expression as well as the collapse between her
career and her private life (Andrejevic, 2002; Hillyer, 2010). Tinkerbell’s performance
Figure 3. A Chihuahua in a pet store window in Madrid, 7 March 2011.
Source: Photo by Clara Iversen.
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accumulates an analogously paradoxical identity. Her artificial character is emphasized
in the show by the clothes she wears: pink dresses, fake fur and glittery shoes. Yet
Tinkerbell is a living, breathing, individual being, a fact stressed by Hilton’s concern for
the dog. Hilton asserts that she would ‘die’ if anything happened to Tinkerbell (season 3,
episode 1), a claim that contrasts with her reputation as a negligent dog owner. In the
series, the couple enacts and transgresses numerous stereotypical categories. Like the
Chihuahua, Hilton has an ambiguous character – ‘[h]eiresses don’t need to be consistent’
as she puts it (Hilton P and Ginsberg, 2004: 60). Because Tinkerbell and Hilton accentu-
ate each other’s ambiguity, the duo becomes an especially effectual holy anomaly – they
both are given special attention in the popular media. Four themes characterize The
Simple Life’s interrelated depictions of dog and mistress: gender, class, the binary oppo-
sition between human and animal, and the relation between child and parent.
The Simple Life is premised upon Hilton and her friend Nicole Richie interacting with
‘common people’ who have ‘common jobs’. The two women are consistently displayed
as being unable to manage the easiest of chores, and they seem to react out of proportion
to everything that happens, laughing frantically or screaming out loud with high-pitched
voices. ‘They’re TOTALLY OUT-OF-CONTROL’ as it says on the cover of the DVD
edition of the first season. Hilton and Richie are presented as the Freudian pleasure prin-
ciple personified; they are depicted as impulsive, childish, lazy and disloyal, and as hav-
ing a burning need to impose their sexuality on everyone they meet (see e.g. Freud 1961:
1–4). The depiction accords with modern, androcentric conceptions of gender that define
women as closer to nature and more governed by their drives than men. Women, in this
view, are less than human (Horkheimer and Adorno, 2002: 180).
Although Hilton and Richie are gendered in this conventional way, the series empha-
sizes that the two women do not know how to take care of a home or raise children
(see e.g. season 1, episode 3). To address this ‘problem’, the series repeatedly attempts
to re-domesticate this ill-bred couple by placing them in host families with strong father
figures. ‘[T]hey are learning about a little thing called consequences,’ in the words of the
voice-over (season 1, episode 5). Or, as one of the substitute fathers says: ‘I’m gonna pop
the whip on them’ (season 2, episode 4). Hence, the presentation of the women as less
than human also plays on the adult/child binary, a theme emphasized by the small, child-
ish, cheerfully colored dresses they regularly wear.
As a part of their education, Hilton and Richie are put into demanding work situations.
Hilton explains the situation by saying, ‘They are treating us like animals’ (season 1, epi-
sode 2). Two themes recur throughout the women’s various jobs – meat and filth. Hilton
and Richie clean out barns, clean fish, clean an outside lavatory, pluck chickens, castrate
dogs, fry hamburgers and make sausages. According to one of the show’s producers, the
concept of the series is ‘stilettos in cow shit’ (Ryan, 2003: np) and, accordingly, the filthy
imagery adds an overly explicit element of realism to the women’s usual lifestyle, which
is presented as divorced from such dirty realities. The meat scenes also pull Hilton and
Richie down to earth. As Carol J. Adams (2000: 41) argues, the cultural meaning of meat
eating is interwoven with the notion of enlightened civilization: when eating other ani-
mals, humans confirm their exceptionality. Following this logic, scenes in which Hilton
and Richie are talked into eating meat after hesitating and expressing repugnance are best
understood as invitations to the couple to re-establish human status.
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Even though Hilton seems to be disgusted by most animal encounters, she kisses
Tinkerbell on the mouth (season 1, episode 6; season 2, episode 2). This repeated display
of affection confirms Tinkerbell’s status as a perpetual baby, and intertwines with Hilton’s
performance of the airy-fairy, childless, sentimental, upper-class woman who is more
devoted to her pet dog than to the people around her (McHugh, 2004: 85ff.). To keep an
animal for non-utilitarian purposes is something of a cross-cultural symbol of wealth; small
dog breeds have been used this way in Europe and in Asian Buddhist cultures for centuries
(McHugh, 2004: 80ff.; Serpell, 1996: 43). This publicly broadcasted exchange of saliva is
a challenge to Hilton’s hosts’ and employers’ eager attempts to uphold the hierarchy of the
human and sub-human. The kiss confirms a certain stereotype, but it also shows Hilton’s
and Tinkerbell’s mutual recognition and cross-species bond (cf. Turner, 2010).
The image of the couple’s intimate and equal relationship is questioned in Tinkerbell’s
autobiography, The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries: My Life Tailing Paris Hilton (Hilton T
and Resin, 2004), which is written in first person singular. Of course, Tinkerbell did not
actually write her autobiography all by herself, but neither did Hilton (Hilton P and
Ginsberg, 2004). As if to emphasize that the book should by no means be taken seri-
ously, the cover is decorated with the words ‘FICTION/HUMOR’ in capital letters.
Tinkerbell is portrayed as raising her voice, rejecting the notion of the accessory
Chihuahua, and thus challenging the stereotype of the mute, weak and passive victim.
According to Tinkerbell’s written statement, she suffers from being dressed in stupid-
looking clothes, listening to her mistress’s gibberish and going on her endless shopping
sprees. In the book’s diary-like narrative, these luxury problems soon lead Tinkerbell
into suicidal thoughts (‘I spent the rest of the morning trying to lick a power socket’;
Hilton T and Resin, 2004: 75).
Nevertheless, she persistently protests against Hilton by relieving herself on Hilton’s
possessions and even on one of Hilton’s friends. Again, the fecal matter is supposed to
pull Hilton down to earth. The protests are also framed as a cry for help – the fictional
Tinkerbell lives under constant fear of being abandoned or euthanized. In her own words:
‘That’s a lot of pressure to be adorable’ (Hilton T and Resin, 2004: 7). In Tinkerbell’s
confessiones, the perpetual, furry child thus becomes yet another of Hilton’s many mas-
ters, reprimanding her for her irrational behavior.
Since Hilton never risks losing her fortune, no matter how badly she behaves, and
since even Tinkerbell wears jewelry and designer clothes and lives in a mini-mansion
which most of Hilton’s employers and host families probably could not afford (Hilton P,
2009), The Simple Life cannot be seen as a cautionary tale about the excesses of the upper
class. Moreover, because Hilton takes on low-wage occupations even though she was
born with a silver spoon in her mouth, her socio-economic status is also highly ambigu-
ous. The other characters in the series describe Hilton as uneducated, uncultivated,
incompetent and incapable of dressing properly. These characterizations, together with
the fact that Hilton is forced to live in a trailer together with Richie and Tinkerbell during
the show’s second season, associate her with the ‘white trash’ stereotype (Newitz and
Wray, 1997). Hilton thus inverts the logic of the stereotypical nouveau riche American
– ‘trash with money’ (Brown, 2005) – and is depicted instead as ‘money with trash’.
Hilton and Tinkerbell enact a child–woman–animal trinity in a topsy-turvy way that
challenges the binary oppositions adult/child, man/woman and human/animal. In this
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imagery, a furry child suddenly becomes her mistress’s mistress, a stereotypically gen-
dered blonde runs amok while dozens of nuclear families are mobilized to put things
straight, and an animal turns out to be much better off than a human with an honest job.
Hilton’s ambiguity is emphasized by the series’ simultaneous infantilization and sexual-
ization of her, which gives her appearance a tabooic twist; the merging of the categories
‘child’ and ‘sexual object’ slips by without comment, although it would normally evoke
repugnance. This is because holy anomalies deal with both logical and moral paradoxes.
The characters in The Simple Life act against all reason and smear any sense of moral
virtue; yet, their behavior is completely innocuous. After all, it is just FICTION/HUMOR.
The Chihuahua has never been modern
This excursion into the meaning of the Chihuahua reveals that the Chihuahua has never
been modern, as Bruno Latour (1993) would have it. This means that the Chihuahua is
still holy – it is still at the center of rituals and myths. Like Toltecs and Aztecs, westerners
in late modernity both embrace and exploit the Chihuahua. The breed is neither com-
pletely natural nor cultural; it is both an asset and a companion; and cultural expressions
emphasize its ambiguous character, just as in Toltec and Aztec societies. This observa-
tion stands in contrast to studies arguing that the pet relationship in late modernity has
become less anthropocentric and more personal and intimate, as in Adrian Franklin’s
(1999: 57) study of animals in late modernity. Furthering Franklin’s (1999: 61) argument
that relations between humans and other animals can be both culturally contingent and
intimate, I argue that there is no way to isolate the socially constructed aspects of human–
animal relations. ‘Chihuahua’ designates today both a group of organisms with a
Figure 4. Tinkerbell and Hilton kissing in The Simple Life, season 2, episode 2.
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common gene pool as well as a network of values, meanings and practices of breeding
and consumption, and there is no way to definitely differentiate between the material and
the semiotic aspects of the creature.
The point of departure for this analysis was the fact that the Chihuahua is character-
ized by two paradoxes – it is at once a natural and a cultural creature and simultaneously
embraced as a unique individual being and exchanged and exploited as a commodity.
The analysis of Chihuahua handbooks and Tinkerbell’s life has identified a number of
additional, more or less intertwined binary oppositions to the dog’s ambiguous character:
human/animal, synthetic/authentic, tame dog/wild wolf, rational male/irrational female,
subject/object, social being/biological organism, adult/child, rich/poor and verbal/mute.
In addition, I have argued that the Chihuahua’s and Hilton’s ambiguous characters mutu-
ally reinforce one another, resulting in a complex, yet comical play with stereotypes and
binary oppositions. Hilton, Tinkerbell and Chihuahuas in general thus lend themselves to
a restorative staging of binary oppositions in popular media, books and art. Popular
media and comedy shows are the myths, chants and rituals of contemporary westerners,
and because they are neatly and comfortably separated from everyday life, they reinforce
the same oppositions that they challenge.
FICTION/HUMOR is the cue that the ritual has begun, and that the participants can
lay their orderly thought systems and their meticulously defined categories aside for a
moment. This is obvious in relation to Hilton and Tinkerbell, because of the tongue-in-
cheek way they are framed in The Simple Life and in popular media in general. But it is
also apparent in the wit of the Chihuahua handbook genre – in most books, jokes are
frequent, and the breed is both embraced and ridiculed by the authors. Sentimentality is
another way to circumscribe the ritual confrontations of the Chihuahua; the dog is often
surrounded by an over-romantic shimmer, as when depicted in baby’s clothes and pink
accessories in Chihuahua handbooks or when tenderly embraced by Hilton on the TV
screen. The comfortable distance between The Simple Life and ordinary life, and the
disarming, objectifying cutification of the Chihuahua in breed-specific handbooks and
popular media, allows westerners to neglect the fact that symbolically, there is a bit of a
Chihuahua, and perhaps also a bit of Paris Hilton, in each and every one of them. Again,
Chihuahuas have never been modern – and neither have westerners, even if they like to
think so (Latour, 1993: 7). The holy status of Hilton and the Chihuahua breed is also
evident in the controlled forms of profanity (the ‘stilettos in cow shit’ and the peculiar
focus on housebreaking techniques in the Chihuahua handbooks) and the tabooic twists
(the allusions to prostitution in the handbooks, the simultaneous sexualization and
childification of Hilton, and the treatment of Chihuahuas as disposable children) that
characterize their portrayal. Such treatment gives anomalies the power to cement not
only categorical boundaries, but also moral boundaries. Because these holy anomalies
alleviate fundamental tensions in a general western conceptual framework, the Chihuahua
and Hilton must never be allowed to grow up – to change. Just as J.M. Barrie’s fictional
character Peter Pan, accompanied by the mute fairy Tinker Bell, never grows up, Hilton
is presented as an eternal child who needs to be told off in each new TV episode, season
after season. In the same way, Chihuahuas are viewed as ‘perpetual babies.’
Research mapping out the intersection between exploitative structures such as hetero-
sexism, racism and anthropocentrism should also include the study of holy anomalies. In
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a society’s celebration of holy anomalies, categories otherwise taken for granted are
brought to the fore and made more palpable than ever. But it is also in these celebrations
that stereotypes seem the least harmful, since the rituals are disconnected from everyday
life, which in turn is the reason that the ritual cementation of these categories can continue
undisturbed. By critically examining contemporary holy anomalies and scrutinizing all
things FICTION/HUMOR, we can rob such anomalies of some of their magic. In other
words, critical research of holy anomalies should be prepared to claim the role of the
‘killjoy’ (Ahmed, 2010). By doing so, researchers can shrink the distance between cere-
mony and everyday life, and the people who used to celebrate the anomalies can actually
start learning from the anomalies’ transgressions. When we stop laughing at Chihuahuas,
the comfort of our old dichotomous conceptual framework is suddenly challenged: if a
Chihuahua can challenge the human–animal divide, how human are we humans?
Furthermore, a critical examination of holy anomalies must recognize that the anoma-
lies themselves matter. After more than a century in the limelight, Chihuahuas have
attracted unwanted attention from inept owners and corrupt entrepreneurs. The popular
media condemn the objectification and mistreatment of Chihuahuas while westerners
simultaneously continue to reproduce an order in which dogs and other animals lack any
juridical rights and are regarded as property. Thus, the Chihuahua has a lot to win from
its Entzauberung – a demystification of the Chihuahua would make it lose some of its
appeal. As we have seen, Chihuahuas are not mute and passive. The handbooks highlight
the way Chihuahuas express themselves through body language and sounds, and
Tinkerbell the Chihuahua is starring as herself in the show about her and her mistress’s
life. Chihuahuas take an active – but neglected – part in their own discursive production.
Nevertheless, the Cartesian notion of the speechless animal-machine (Descartes, 1988)
is curiously persistent. It is present, for example, in Baudrillard’s (1994) writing, who
argues that non-human animals threaten a universal human identity because they remain
silent, no matter how humans treat them. This study argues quite the opposite – non-
human animals threaten anthropocentrism in their constant attempts to communicate
with humans (be it by digging holes in the garden or barking out loud) but we humans
persist in refusing to take their accounts seriously.
What if the Chihuahua were one day no longer available as a holy anomaly? What if
one day, all Chihuahuas decided to return to the Mexican mountains, where they lived in
peace for centuries? In the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Gosnell, 2008), the spoiled
Chihuahua Chloe from Beverly Hills gets lost in the desert of the Chihuahua region, but
is saved by a group of hundreds of Chihuahuas, living in an Aztec temple. Montezuma,
the leader of the group, teaches Chloe about her noble ancestry and why the Chihuahua
guerrillas have turned their backs on human society. In his speech, each line is followed
by a ‘No más!’ from the other Chihuahuas:
We Chihuahuas are not toys or fashion accessories.
We were not bred to wear silly hats and ride in purses.
We will no longer be spoken to with baby talk. We have been called ‘teacup’ and ‘tiny toy’ for
too long.
Names like Fifi, Foo-Foo, Pookie, Pumpkin or Squirt.[…]
Yes, we are tiny, but we are mighty!
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Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or
not-for-profit sectors.
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Author biography
David Redmalm is a PhD Student in Sociology at Örebro University, Sweden, where he
also teaches. He is the author of several publications concerning the theory of social
psychology, and his dissertation focuses on non-human animals’ place in sociology.
Redmalm is a member of the interdisciplinary HumAnimal Group based at the Centre for
Gender Research at Uppsala University.
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