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Class Priviliege Meme
Dec. 31st, 2007 08:15 am(from a bunch of folks, including ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lumiere and gramina)
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I think this is a good exercise in terms of getting a handle on some of the things that one has been given, whatever else one has earned for oneself. It's not, however, a very nuanced tool in terms of talking about class. Which is fine, but I'd really like to see more people talking about class, especially in the US, which is terribly classist, and yet partakes of a cultural myth that class mostly doesn't matter (at least not if you're white and were born here).
A lot of the overt class markers can be subverted. We mostly didn't have nice cars when I was growing up -- and at least as the family became more affluent, this was more about politics than money. To this day it's hard for me to sort out what things were affectation and what things were lack of money. I was raised to be proud of not spending money on inessentials like... well, anything in excess. You should have some nice clothes, but not a lot. Getting matching silverware was kind of a big deal. Spending money on books or anything educational was not. Conspicuous consumption was regarded with contempt.
Class doesn't have just once axis, and even to the extent you can simplify it to such, that axis is about a lot more than money. Oh, yeah, money is really, really important -- but if you have the right sort of cultural background, you're going to have a lot more access to money and training in what to do with it when you have it even if you don't get money from your family per se. And there are a lot of things that aren't about money at all.
lumiere and gramina)( Read more... )
I think this is a good exercise in terms of getting a handle on some of the things that one has been given, whatever else one has earned for oneself. It's not, however, a very nuanced tool in terms of talking about class. Which is fine, but I'd really like to see more people talking about class, especially in the US, which is terribly classist, and yet partakes of a cultural myth that class mostly doesn't matter (at least not if you're white and were born here).
A lot of the overt class markers can be subverted. We mostly didn't have nice cars when I was growing up -- and at least as the family became more affluent, this was more about politics than money. To this day it's hard for me to sort out what things were affectation and what things were lack of money. I was raised to be proud of not spending money on inessentials like... well, anything in excess. You should have some nice clothes, but not a lot. Getting matching silverware was kind of a big deal. Spending money on books or anything educational was not. Conspicuous consumption was regarded with contempt.
Class doesn't have just once axis, and even to the extent you can simplify it to such, that axis is about a lot more than money. Oh, yeah, money is really, really important -- but if you have the right sort of cultural background, you're going to have a lot more access to money and training in what to do with it when you have it even if you don't get money from your family per se. And there are a lot of things that aren't about money at all.
