class a guide through the american status system

Those who deny the existence of class in America are irrefutably projecting their middle-class sensibilities, for the middle class, more so than any other group, is an anxious bunch. No person, however unique or individual they may perceive themselves to be, can escape their class indicators. But no group is outside the gaze and judgment of others. The length of the driveway, Fussell says, is an important class indicator.Įach bracket has their own sense of what class implies in America: for the lower classes, it’s money for the middle classes, it’s education and employment for the upper classes, it’s taste.

For example, when approaching the estate of an upper-out-of-sighter, you’ll no doubt be kept by the gate and, however far you look, their mansion will be nowhere in sight. The homeless, the drug addicts, and the prostitutes are as invisible to us as the 1 percent of the 1 percent. We, the majority, rarely see either group. The lower-out-of-sighters share many qualities with the upper-out-of-sighters. Aside from being a bit tongue-in-cheek, you’ll notice its elliptical quality. Here is Fussell’s class scale: the lower-out-of-sighters, the proles (aka the proletariats), the middle class, the upper-middle, the upper class, and the upper-out-of-sighters. And the American class system has found no better canary, in my opinion, than in this mischievous professor. The sensitive modern reader may admonish Fussell for his obvious omission of race, an essential ingredient of American society, but I’d argue that he instead wrote about what he knew. Keep in mind that this book was published in 1983 and it reflects a perspective of America in keeping with its time, but it certainly hasn’t lost any of its luster or clarity of judgment. Class signs, on the other hand, are visible everywhere. Religion and politics, he argues, are chosen, but rarely visible. While race and gender are visible, they aren’t chosen. He is interested in the choices we make, and what those choices say about us. There is a reason he chose class and not, say, religion or race or gender. When they are brought up, eyes turn downward and lips tremor, the outward appearances we have worked hard to maintain shrivel and fade, we become defensive or angry, and we can no longer keep ourselves straight.įor Paul Fussell in Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, “class” is that dirty topic no one wants to talk about, and in this book he dives headfirst, with a prickly precision, into uncovering its character. There are certain topics of conversation Americans avoid like summer mosquitoes-we find them unpleasant, more than impolite, and they make us uncomfortable.

Class a guide through the american status system