Nepotism Babies and Mills

 

    I am using these photos as a representation of part of Mills' discussion on the (lack of) moral superiority of the Power Elite. The photo to the right is the cover page of a New York magazine article from December 2022. The title says "She Has Her Mother's Eyes. And Agent. - Extremely Overanalyzing Hollywood's Nepo-Baby Boom." The article discusses the rise of the term "nepo-baby," in which celebrities in Hollywood are being labeled as receiving benefits from their parents' connections. The article also spoke about the controversy that this rampant labeling has caused, specifically within the reactions from those being labeled. The photo on the left is a meme version of these reactions, in which Ben Platt, an actor named in the article and shown on the cover who's father directed the movie that made him most famous, is shown sobbing because he was labeled a nepo baby.

    I see this article and the meme-d reaction to it as a reflection of Mills' idea about the Power Elite's reactions to not being seen as inherently superior. He states that "people with advantages are loath to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves as 'naturally' elite; and in fact, to imagine their own possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves" (Mills 1956:14). Just as nepotism babies seem to freak out when they are told they earned their status through the work of their parents, Mills is claiming that the Power Elite hate when it is suggested that they are not worthy of their advantages and what they have does not actually have to do with them. Being called a nepotism baby basically insinuates exactly that, and in the exact same fashion, those accused loath that thought.