Among Pierre Bourdieu’s many observations was that the higher classes seek to distinguish themselves through taste and aesthetics. In a previous article, we described how taste and aesthetics can reinforce systems of caste, class, and racial oppression. Bourdierre’s work further extends the idea that when the markers elites use to separate themselves become widely accessible, they cast their net wider for more status symbols. As such, the rich will at times revert to the tastes and aesthetics of the working class; in essence, this loop reverses, albeit with a premium price tag attached.
Status Symbols and Niches
As stated earlier, Bourdierre’s work dissecting soft-power dynamics within a society highlights how the rich seek to distinguish themselves through taste. Additionally, this is furthered by gatekeeping, where the rich and upper classes actively deny access to the rest of society, as their distinction hinges on excluding others from whatever marker they have chosen to separate themselves by.
This, however, is not limited to the upper classes; it is no secret that these tendencies are more prevalent in middle- to upper-class urban spaces. For instance, you will hear many young people describe their need to gatekeep their newly discovered favourite indie musical act, or to signal their intellect through niche books rather than the mainstream, as markers of sophistication. Effectively using the same architecture of distinction.
The Rich Cosplaying Poverty
In the modern day, the elite, as well as the aforementioned urban upper-middle class, have sought certain markers to, at the very least, distinguish themselves from the rest of society or, at most, prove their sophistication. Whether it be fashion or taste in art. These will obviously be things that are not easily accessible to those deemed not sophisticated enough (usually people in the working-class economic bracket).
Ironically, though, the elites have been dubbed out of touch over time, primarily due to the democratisation of many people’s voices across many walks of life. A democratisation that was accelerated by social media. The modern elites have sought the moral identity of the working/ordinary class. This comes in the form of overpriced, rugged, faded, torn jeans that were weather-beaten as a by-product of protecting blue-collar workers from the elements.
This is in part because the window of taste consistently shifts, and in our current phase, it is ruggedness, minimalism, and a seemingly masculine quality. As such, the elites borrow the conditions of the working class and reduce them to mere aesthetics as a way to show that they are, in fact, not out of touch.
Pricing What Was Free
The laws of capitalism demand that the true price of a product is determined not by a small margin added to production costs, competition, or demand, but by what people are willing to pay for it. Because of this, as the rich have co-opted parts of the working class’s lifestyle, they have effectively begun to price them out. In a sense, it is not just a location that becomes gentrified, but rather elements of livelihood that are reduced to aesthetics. Street culture is given a luxury price tag that alienates the people who defined it in the first place. Manual crafts become rebranded as boutiques, and the list inadvertently grows.
Conclusion
One issue with the rich cosplaying romanticism is the romanticisation of hardship by people who do not experience it. Calling a deficiency “minimalism” reduces its severity. Similarly, when elites present themselves as no more than ordinary people, class discrepancies and the policies that perpetuate them become harder to discuss, even though they exist, because they are not immediately evident. Consequently, the effects are not only in the cultural dispossession of the working and lower classes, but they also manifest in the material world, as the elite class, more often than not, has material, social, and political capital.
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