I’ve recently been watching a program about class taste…and it’s been so interesting.

I’m profoundly middle-class ! and my (middle-class) taste is what I omit, rather than what I include.

…so I have a very ‘Zen’ taste.

…minimal, no dark colours, no nick-knacks, and lots of white…less is more.

I dress down, (working class) mostly, but it’s deliberate, not unconscious. The working class clothes are an attempt be less conspicuous in public.

My taste in music is very exclusive, rather than inclusive….once again, omitting popular music.

My taste in art is very Jeffrey Smart/Edward Hopper/Mark Rothko etc.

My taste in films is horror/foreign/art-house/odd/R-ated/Si-Fi etc.

One of the hallmarks of the middle-class is very much a self conscious ness, which includes a lot of anxiety about sending out the ‘right’ messages. The anxieties of getting it ‘right’ are very pronounced.

Years ago I knew a woman (very middle-class), who was obsessed with all things ‘organic’. Everything had to be organic, even her clothes. She would look down on me if I didn’t buy organic, which made me laugh.

She used to think she was working class, because she had tattoos. LOL. but everything about her taste was completely middle-class, right down to the organic chicken she fed her dog!

I once lived with a woman (for two years) who was upper class, and she hated my working class partner and friends. Ouch! 

And her friends also hated my working-class partner and friends. Which was very difficult to deal with and cope with.

It’s funny that Australian soaps is always middle-class, and American soaps is always upper class. 

Says volumes about our different countries.

I’m primarily attracted to my own class…even though often feel I’m not worthy of my own class.
I grew up in a mostly working class (rural) town and stood out like a sore thumb!

If I had lots of money, I would still (and always) be middle-class, as my education has been rather poor.

I once did a rehab for alcoholism and there was only one other person there who was middle-class, so we really stood out from the group.

I’ve heard it’s possible to change class through education, but I used to have a friend who came from a working-class background. He got a university education but is now obese and rather antisocial. So, for him nothing has changed, and everything has changed. Before he got his education, he was warm and friendly. Now he is educated and very bitter. What I’m saying is he didn’t escape his class by getting and education.

sedge808.