Chapter 7
The Rules of the Game:
Cultural Consumption and Social Class in America
Chapter 7: Overview
 Class Cultures in America
 High and low culture

In-class exercise: Categorizing Culture
 The invention of class

Video clip: “Class Dismissed”
 Class and Conspicuous Consumption
 Class consciousness


Video clip: “Class Dismissed”
Video clip: “Class “People Like Us”
 Cultural Capital

Video clips: “People Like Us”
 Cultural Omnivores
 Blurring boundaries
Social Class and Cultural Consumption
in America
 Social stratification
 Ranking system
 Socioeconomic status (SES)
 Position in hierarchy
 Creates social inequality
 “Titanic”
 Portrays class distinctions
 Passenger survival rates from disaster



60% of 1st class
43% of 2nd class
25% of 3rd class
Class Cultures in America
 Categorizing Culture

In-class exercise:
Highbrow/Lowbrow
 High Culture
• Fine art for the elites

Examples
 Popular culture or mass
culture
• Lacking value or virtue?

Examples
• Video:

“Class Dismissed: Class Clowns”
 Stereotypes of working class
 The invention of class
culture
 History of arts consumed by
all

Popularity of Shakespeare
 Industrial revolution and
creation of upper-class
 Nouveau riche or New
bourgeoisie

Making class boundaries
 Moral panics about “low
culture”
 Jazz 1920s  Heavy metal 1980s
Class Cultures in America
 Class Consciousness
• “Class Dismissed: Class
Matters”

How the media frames the working
class

Influence in society
• Questioning the class system
Class Cultures in America
 Conspicuous
consumption
• Status displays

Show off wealth, luxury
items
• Conspicuous leisure

Free time pursuits
 Video clips
• “People Like Us”




“Joe Queenan’s Tour”
“All You Need is Cash”
“WASP Lessons”
“Marrying the Rich”
 Cultural capital
 Pierre Bourdieu

Knowledge, proficiency

Taste, style, etiquette
 Passed down generations

Cultivate, appreciation, exposure

Travel, language
 Gives social advantages

Source of discrimination
 Reproduces class structure
Blurring Class Boundaries in America
 Cultural snobs (David Halle)
 Manhattan elites
 Cultural omnivores (Richard Peterson)
 Far ranging tastes
 Code switching (Elijah Anderson)
 Multiple varied worlds

Example:

Jay-Z
 Blurring boundaries
 Blending high and low

Example:



Heavy metal and classical
Modern dance with musical theater
Aretha Franklin and popular musicians
at Inauguration