Class: Above and Below

Hello everyone reading,

And by everyone, probably just Professor Wexler! I am a Junior transfer student from Saddleback CC in Mission Viejo, Orange County and my major is Urban Studies and Planning. I am interested in ENG 313 specifically because of the title, Pop Culture. I don't consider myself very trendy or a follower so this instruction may serve me well in opening my eyes to themes like Romance and current pop culture. I have enjoyed reading Sula, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and beginning Twilight and Romantic Comedy (although it seems those won't be required readings like the school website claimed). Until this week I have never lived in a community that wasn't southern, coastal Orange County but I'm excited to be here.

Today's class discussion briefed the idea of the perception of the class system viewed by both high and low class society's members. Interestingly, one's assumption would be that a University class demographic would consist of mostly mid- to upper-middle class members who are not either in the "above" or "below" class. Most opinions were given from the perspective of "other" and how they view the above and below from this perspective. The example used was music and how low-class rappers, N.W.A., rise from the dumps of society to the upper tier of the American class. They rose so much so in the public's eye that one of the group's members, Eazy-E, Eric Wright, was invited to a fund-raising dinner of the Republican Party. Rivkin and Ryan may argue that N.W.A. never actually rose to upper class, instead just became lower class society members with talent and money. Is that possible? Is there a separation of class and money, or does one determine the other?

Eric Wright (aka Eazy E)

"Those who are born into upper-class echelons will acquire dispositions that will allow them to appreciate certain forms of culture...and such abilities will help them secure elevated positions in class heirarchy" (Revkin and Ryan). In other words, certain qualities like interpretation of classy art, recognition of proper dining protocol, and political awareness are necessities one must possess in order to be considered upper-class and if one is not raised with these qualities they cannot be considered high society members. The summation of the remainder of the article maintains that members of the lower class are fed "ephemeral gratification" at chosen times by the upper class in order to quell the "permanent possibility of eruption, (and) dissonance" by the lower-class citizens.

These ideas may have held true in Victorian times, but today's class members are adhered to their place in society by money. I have personally encountered more people of manners and gentlemanly/ladylike behavior outside "high" class than in it. Over the last 18 months I worked in different departments of a world-renowned 5-star 5-diamond resort, The St. Regis Monarch Beach. I met some of the world's richest, most famous people but nothing about meeting and spending time with them shouts "I am classy! I know more about being refined than you do!" What it came down to was always the money to allow you access to places that otherwise would have turned them away. In our capitalist society, cash is class and class is cash.

E