Class - Skeggs

Question 1

When does Skeggs write?

Answer 1

2005

Question 2

How has the perception of working class women changed?

Answer 2

1980s
- Source of societal problems blamed
- Vulgar, excessive
- Justification for political changes (regulation, welfare cuts)
- limit to national morality = reinforces class distinctions

Question 3

How are moral perceptions of class constituted?

Answer 3

1. Moral boundaries ambivalent (good and bad)
2. Culture = personal responsibility under neoliberalism
3. Investing in self = creates value and status (= good)
4. Compulsory individuality = self-presentation = social position

Question 4

What is the impact of visual culture on stereotypes about working class women?

Answer 4

Impacts morality and class

1. Social media/TV/Adverts

Symbolic excess and sensationalism

Visual discourse sustains moral hierarchy

i.e. memes or reality TV

Question 5

Describe moral hierarchy of class media creates

Answer 5

Shows some demographics as a social risk + moral failure

Exclusion and stigmatisation

Policy debates = entrenches class distinctions further

Morality and class conflates subtly

Question 6

On gender

Answer 6

Morality is also gendered

i.e. recent tiktok trends show that successful femininity is linked to modest clothing - ‘old money trend’ - romanticisation of upper classes by working class women done through misogyny

Question 6

Examples Skeggs uses

Answer 6

‘Hen party menace’

Question 7

Examples linkable from other works

Answer 7

The ‘chav’