What Shapes Our Taste: Social Class or Family - Essay Example

What Shapes Our Taste: Social Class or Family? Taste differs from person to person. To explore the factors affect the formation of taste, sociologists have developed different theories that emphasize on the issue of ‘what shapes our taste?’ However, they have disregarded the importance of family in shaping the taste of people. Many authors have come up with different theories, such as, Georg Simmel in ‘Fashion’ (1904/1957), Thorstein Veblen in ‘The theory of the leisure class’ (1899/1912), and Pierre Bourdieu in ‘Taste of luxury, taste of necessity’ (2005), but in all of those theories, the factor of family-influenced people’s taste is missing. The authors have explained the way social class shapes people’s taste but they did not discuss that family is more important than social class in shaping people’s taste. Since family is of huge importance here in Qatar, my question is ‘who shapes our taste, is it social class or family?’ Thus, in my opinion, the family you have been raised among plays the biggest role in shaping your taste. Therefore, my main claim is that family is the fundamental unit in shaping people’s taste. In this paper, I will discuss the claims that I believe to be the answer of the question ‘who shapes our taste?’ My first claim is that ‘mother is the most important factor in the procedure of creating taste?’ My second claim is that ‘each family has different values, thus each family will have a distinct taste’. My third claim is that ‘women show their taste on special occasions’. My last claim is that ‘family’s taste and their social class are not related in terms of the aesthetic of their taste’. Under each of these claims, there will be sub-claims to make my argument stronger. In addition, there will be counter arguments that will refute my argument. What makes my claim unique and important is the disagreement between my belief and that of a major theorist, named as Bourdieu. Bourdieu believes that what shape our taste are our habits and what structures our habits is social class. However, I refute his claim. In my opinion, what shapes people’s taste here in Qatar is family. I am sure that if Bourdieu lived in Qatar he would have a different claim. What makes my argument and paper so important is that I am doing the same work that Bourdieu had been doing in sociology. Before I go further in this paper, I would like to explain what taste is. Taste is about aesthetics i.e. one’s sense of beauty and appreciation of the beauty. So, it is about self-image. However, when taste is related to one’s culture and religion, it related more to appropriateness. Let me now discuss each of claims one by one. Claim 1: In the Qatari Society, the mother is the main factor in the process of shaping her children’s taste: The mother starts to shape her children’s taste In most of the Qatari families, the mother shapes the taste of the kids because when a person is born the closest relationship he/she develops is with his/her mother. Next, when a child’s life journey begins, his/her mother chooses for him/her what to wear and eat and takes care of every small detail that would make the child look pretty, such as, shoes and accessories. Mostly, in the first fourteen years of a child’s life, his/her taste is shaped by his/her family until the child grows up and becomes able to do everything on his/her own. Some people say that taste is influenced by other factors, such as, friends, school, and media. This is totally true; however, no one can touch the main base and the formation of the taste that the family creates. Thus, even if any externals affect any person’s taste, it will not be able to change the entire taste that his/her family has already shaped. It will just touch the externals but not the deep taste that the family planted inside the child. Likewise, your mother shapes your taste in food Your mother shapes your taste in food. To prove my point, I will give an example from a TV cooking show .i.e. ‘Master Chef Australia: the professionals’. In an episode from its first season, the competitors had to cook something that reminds them of their families. There was a woman called Akoc who cooked a lentils soup. She said that this soup is what her mother used to cook for her and her siblings when they were kids, hence she grew up loving it and cooking it for her children now. This example shows how our mothers shape even our taste in food because what the mother likes, the kids also like. Akoc proved to me that even if she can afford other types of food, her taste toward lentils soup will never change. Thus, if the mother does not have a refine taste, the kids will be like their mother. Basically, what the mother pay attention to, the kids will pay attention to that as well. Taste is passed from generation to generation Taste is passed down from generation to generation. For instance, your mother shapes your taste and your mother’s taste was shaped by your grandmother. You will notice that your mother’s taste is the same as of your grandmother but with a lot of variations. People usually think that their mother’s and grandmother’s taste was so ugly, but they do not notice that their own taste has been developed by them and is almost same with some modernization. This is why all the family members have the same taste with some unique characteristics. For example, these days, most of the girls I know wear their mothers’ old clothes. A lot people say that we wear it because it is a trend to wear what is vintage. However, what I want to reach by mentioning this point is that people will not wear their mothers’ vintage clothes if they did not like because no one wears what they do not like, which proves that the daughter’s taste is like her mother’s. According to Bourdieu, the most important thing that shapes our taste is our previous experience. He is focusing on what happened in the past. So, Bourdieu agrees with my assumption that taste is something that shapes in a person’s past. This means that you have some of your grandmother’s taste with some modern additions from your mother and yourself. The time we live in adds unique characteristics to our taste. This is what differs from generation to generation; otherwise, your taste will not be so different from your grandmother’s taste. More women in a family means that the family has a stronger aesthetic taste: Professor Hyman gave me a hypothesis to prove, which is, ‘if there are more women in the family, will the taste be stronger?’ In my opinion, this is right because as I have two other sisters and my mother, I choose based on their opinions which dress I want to wear for a party or a wedding. Choosing what to wear gives rise to a discussion between where each one of us give some opinion on the dress, such as, whether it is beautiful or not or if it needs any additions to make it look prettier. Summing it up, these types of discussions in my family make the family’s taste stronger and give sisters more sense of beauty. However, I have interviewed a lot of girls who agreed to the hypothesis, but a girl that said, “I do not have any sisters, that does not mean my taste is not strong.” I replied to that girl that your taste may not be as strong as a girl who has two other sisters but you are working to make it stronger with the help of your mother and cousins. This hypothesis might work for men as well. A boy said, “I usually take my sister’s opinion before matching any t-shirt with a trouser.” Thus, it is obvious that his sister made his taste stronger because she is teaching him how to match his clothes. Moreover, he also said that not only the women in his family have a good taste but also men, which proves the hypothesis true. Claim 2: Each family is raised upon different values, thus each family will have a distinct taste: It is a fact that parents pay close attention to the religion and cultural values. Parents also take these values into consideration before they choose clothes, food, or schooling for their children. So, religion and cultural values are passed down from generation to generation. When your parents raise you upon certain religion and cultural restrictions, this is because they want you to be safe when you grow up and to make sure that your religion and cultural bases are good and no one can affect it. Thus, your parents want you to have impervious taste in both religion and culture. Taste in religion: Taste in religion is about what is allowed from God and what is not. For instance, Islam does not allow girls to wear short skirts (above the knees) - or shorts in front of anyone except their husbands. So, most of the mothers do not allow their daughters to wear it in front of other people so that when the girl grows up she knows that it is not allowed in Islam. However, some Muslim families will wear it even if it is not allowed in Islam. In this way, a girl’s taste will be shaped on what her parents had been advising her in her childhood. The parents taste is very important in raising their kids. Thus, in Islam, values reflect one’s taste. People evaluate other people’s taste upon what values they are raised upon. For example, let us consider two girls in a party; one wearing a long dress and the other wearing a short dress. The girl with the long dress will say that the other girl does not have a fine taste even if the short dress was stunning. This will happen because in the view of the girl with long dress, the dress of the other girl is short and does not fit the Islamic values. In this context, we can say that taste is not about aesthetics, it is about manners and values. It means that the girl with the short skirt had not been raised upon good values. This judgment will come from the girl wearing the long dress. On the other hand, the girl with the short dress will think that she has a better taste because she thinks that she looks more elegant and her mother allowed her to wear this short dress. Thus, this girl would be thinking about aesthetics instead of her Islamic values. So, each girl will judge the other girl’s taste upon the values what she has been raised upon by her family members. Taste in culture: Taste in the Qatari culture depends on how people have been raised by their families. For example, the Qatari culture holds the norm that the old and adult should eat first and after them the young people should start eating. This is an ethical conduct that most Qatari families teach their children. However, several families do not take it into consideration and does not care about it. For instance, let us consider two families in a feast where the first family is raised upon the value of ‘elders first’ and the second family has nothing to do with it. In this case, young people from the second family will start eating before the elders, whereas elders from the first family would start eating first. Taste here is about appropriateness, good values, and manners. This is how the taste in religion and culture works. I also noticed this value in Master Chef Australia: the professionals’ in which judges start eating and then the competitors would eat. So, this value is common between so many cultures. Bourdieu argues in the same angle that taste is not about what you owe; rather it is deeper than that. He believes that it is about your ‘cultural capital’ (2005, p. 73). Cultural capital is about people who are well educated and have good values and manners. Bourdieu argues that people who belong to the elite class are well educated and have good manners. However, in my opinion, his argument is partially true. It is true because well educated people are from the elite class. However, people in the lower class can have good manners and values because this does not depend on money but on the family’s taste and the way parents raise their children. So, any person in the world can have good manners no matter to which social class he/she belongs. Claim 3: Women show their taste on special occasions: This claim is important because in our culture women can show their aesthetics and appropriateness of taste only on special occasions, such as, on weddings and private parties. Here, I would talk only about aesthetic taste. In the Qatari culture, weddings are important for women’s taste because special occasions are the moments in which women can really define their taste by dressing up, putting make up, and wearing jewelry. On wedding occasions, so much effort is made for just one night and money is out-spent for just several hours. Most of the women bring a hair repairer to do for them a hairdo and skilled make up women to put for them some attractive make up. Weddings are important to taste and a lot of effort is put for a single night because it is the occasion on which women meet and see each other without Abaya. Simply, weddings are special moments that define our taste, as well as show the differences in women’s aesthetic taste. Women can see the taste of beauty of each other that largely depends on the way their mothers shape that. In addition to that, weddings and parties also show that there exist some minor differences in the taste of the members of the same family. Bourdieu will absolutely refuse my argument because he argues that social class defines our taste. In the next claim, I will prove that Bourdieu’s argument does not fit to the Qatari culture. Claim 4: Family’s taste and their social class are not related in terms of the aesthetics of taste: Social class does not affect taste as family affects it: Each person is born within a certain family and each family already exists in a social class; yet, their taste can differ. For example, when you hear ‘AlThani’, you will connect it with the high social class but this does not mean that all Althani people have the same taste. In my opinion, our social class does not affect our taste the way our families affect it. A precise example would be weddings. Most of the people in Qatar usually marry a person who is equivalent to their social class. So, if you get an opportunity to attend an upper class wedding, you will see that the family of the bridegroom will have different taste in dresses, jewelry, make-up, and hairdo that will be different from those of the family of the bride despite the fact that they all come from the same social class. This difference in taste occurs because both families have been raised upon different aesthetic tastes. Bourdieu argues that all people in the same social class have the same taste. Mohammed AlHorsays that the family name of a person influences his/her aesthetic taste. However, in my opinion, these arguments do not fit the Qatari culture. I believe that each family already exists in a social class; however, their taste differs. For example, you will not see all rich people wearing the same clothes. To prove my point, I can give an example of shopping behaviors of two high class families. That is, if both of those families go into the same shop in Paris for shopping, you will see that they will choose different clothes or accessories. Thus, the issue of family name and their social standing might influence the price of the items they would like to buy, as well as the place they shop from but not their aesthetic taste. Therefore, I would say that in Qatari culture, family has the biggest role in shaping your taste. Expensive products and upper social class does not mean better taste: Expensive products and upper social class does not mean better taste. My argument is that a family with a little amount of money may have a better taste than a family that buys luxury products. It is because people from comparatively poor families do not Have high expectations and like even cheaper products because they do not have enough money to buy expensive products. Therefore, their taste range is comparatively wide. Simmel will refute my claim because he argues that taste for the upper and the lower social classes differ because people from the high class have more money to buy expensive products. Their taste recommends them to buy expensive products. But, my argument is stronger than his because it resembles to the Qatari culture more than his. Summing it up, family shapes our taste as Qatari people. Four of the most important claims that proved my argument are that the mother is the most important factor in shaping our taste, values differ from family to family, Qatari women can show their taste on private occasions, and taste and social class cannot be related. These claims are important to my argument because of these claims proved my argument from a different side and showed how my argument is so true in Qatar. I think if Bourdieu lived here, he would have also liked to prove how family shapes our taste in Qatar. Moreover, he would have been interested in analyzing the role of the family in Qatar, as well as the topic of weddings. Works Cited AlMuftah, M, I. (2014). If there are more women in the family will the taste be stronger? Bourdieu, P. (2005). Taste of luxury, taste of necessity. In C. Korsmeyer (Ed.), The taste culture reader (pp. 72-78). Oxford: BERG. McKenzie, N. MasterChef Australia: The Professionals [Television series]. Australia: Shine Australia Simmel, G. (1904/1957). Fashion. American Journal of Sociology 62(6), 541-558. Veblen, T. (1899/2007). Dress as an expression of the pecuniary culture. In M. Barnard (Ed.), Fashion theory: A reader (pp. 339-346). London: Routledge. I also used Mohammed AlHor’s opposing idea. Word count (Excluding works cited): 3004. Read More