I don't like $.inArray(..), it's the kind of ugly, jQuery-ish solution that most sane people wouldn't tolerate. Here's a snippet which adds a simple contains(str) method to your arsenal:
$.fn.contains = function (target) {
var result = null;
$(this).each(function (index, item) {
if (item === target) {
result = item;
}
});
return result ? result : false;
}
Similarly, you could wrap $.inArray in an extension:
$.fn.contains = function (target) {
return ($.inArray(target, this) > -1);
}