from classy to trashy; taste as a social weapon.

discussing the origins of having 'good taste' and its social implications

If you walk through the narrow lanes of Carnaby Street, Covent Garden and the like, consider yourself lucky if you manage to evade the taloned claws of the TikTok interviewers, circling around like vultures. It’s a Londoner’s worst nightmare, having your commute slowed down by not only the tourists but by someone asking questions. Unless, you’re a member of the burgeoning Generation Z, willing and ready to disperse your opinions into the media void. Beware, your personal taste may start weeks of Tiktok discourse, or more.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the tasteful and the gaudy, kitschy if you will. If you’re looking for a way to trigger a frustration, argument or even just a lengthy conversation I suggest you start there. The concept of what is in style and what is out of it seems to consume most of the discourse on social media and no one seems to be able to agree, at least for a substantial period of time. It leads to me to wonder how we got here and where the concept of something being tasteful or fashionable comes from.

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Taste As A Metaphor

As with anything I write I like to take it back to the beginning, the origins of a word. To truly understand this metaphor we have to talk about the concept of taste as it pertains to food. I think it’s important to note that, as far as we know, we are one of the few animals that have developed taste. We don’t just eat to survive, we dine.¹ Anthropologists say we are the only animals that have cuisines. We care not only about the function of the food, but of how it’s prepared and who it is eaten with. Before the English language had a word for it there was gustos, gusto or gout. The interesting thing about taste is that it does not wield to objective laws, hence the Latin phrase “de guistibus non est dispatandum”. (In matters of taste, there can be no dispute). ² We each have are own ideas on what is satisfying, acceptable and what isn’t enjoyable. Some of us like cilantro, some of us think it tastes like soap. There aren’t always words to describe why you like the taste of something. Equally as true for when you find something abhorrent. We chalk it up to that feeling of “je ne sais quois”. It is for this very reason taste makes the perfect metaphor. Can you remember the exact reason those House of Sunny dresses became so fashionable, or why the ‘coastal grandmother’ trend suddenly became the signal of luxury ? For some it may seem as though those trends came out of nowhere, yet the majority can still agree there was something appealing about them.In fact in the mid seventeenth century Remy G Saisselin claimed that the phrase ‘je ne sais quois’ meant the inexplicability of aesthetic experience in the field of art.³

The History of ‘Taste’

Although taste is personal, it can also be shaped by a myriad of factors. Class, culture, profession, education, community and even race. We’ve heard it time and time again, we’re ‘social beings’. A lot of societal living is based on the notion of shared experiences and feelings. Hobbes considered society to be a coming together of individual appetites. He believed that every we action we took was because of our appetite (liking for something) or as a means to avoid it.

It is mostly agreed that the cultural impact of taste first came to helm around the 17th to 18th Century, partly as a result of the Consumer⁴ and Industrial Revolution. Francis Haskell described those periods as being ‘deeply - almost obsessively - concerned with the problem of Taste’. For my short exploration I took a look at ‘The Social Practice of Taste in Late 18th Century-Germany: A Case Study’. To put it briefly, Terry Eagleton (a literary critic) attributes the birth of taste to the ‘rise of the bourgeois’

bourgeois:

the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes.

the capitalist class who own most of society's wealth and means of production (according to Marx)

With this rise came the introduction of even more implicit social rules used to dictate social behaviour and ensure the collective adherence to social beliefs. The bourgeois came with a new authority and it was based on their own ‘naturalness, goodness and morality’. In a way, they were attempting to subvert the aristocrats and their ‘autocratic authority’ (absolute power). They accepted some of their beliefs like privilege, moral authority, and reject others. In part we may owe this whole ‘old money vs new money’ debate to them. They made it a point to reject the extravagant displays of wealth thus framing excessiveness as gaudy.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Whilst taste is in part a personal preference, it is clear that its wider cultural role is one born of an agenda. Unfortunately, as with most things it’s a very clever means of social control and the justification of prejudice. For example, in his book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu (a sociologist) talks about how ‘good taste’ was simply away for the privileged to separate themselves from the disadvantaged. When what is considered fashionable becomes accessible to the lower classes, it won’t be long before it is deemed kitsch. We see semblances of this all the way throughout modern society, most notably in fashion. Major fashion houses produce luxury items and those are used as the markers of wealth and prosperity. However, if you dare to find a cheaper alternative or heaven forbid be outed for having a dupe, kiss your days of social favour goodbye. The distinction is not merely in the possession of said items, it is in having the funds and the means to acquire them. Take a Birkin for example, you may have the funds but without the reputation, relationship with the brand or simply the right connections you may never have one. According to some, this is what seprates those with money from those with something even more valuable. The privilege and innate authority that some may only have through birthright. (Fun fact, a group of people are suing Hermes for this very reason)

Fashion may be a good avenue to explain this but ‘good taste’ affects more than just your wardrobe. It manifests in ways that may seem frivilous at first but should be analysed further. I’ll point out a few ‘tasteless’ things I’ve noticed that I personally think are just another means of control.

1. Protective hair coverings e.g. bonnets and durags

2. Not enjoying foods that are considered luxury e.g. oysters and caviar

3. Tattoos in the workplace being unprofessional.

I would be a million times richer if I had even 10p for all the times I’ve thought about how I would be perceived if I left my house in my bonnet, regardless of my comfort. To confirm my suspicions I’ve seen countless Tiktok and Twitter debates on whether it is ‘acceptable’ to do so. To no ones surprise the majority of people this debate affects are black and brown people. Making bonnets / durags synonymous with being unkept or messy, further ostracises people of colour, especially black women, from their natural hair and enforces the idea that they must be presentable at all times. For people of colour the standard we must reach to be presentable is much much higher, but the stronger the adherence to white beauty standards the better.

Personally, the thought of actually ingesting an oyster makes me gag a bit but that’s because I have a thing with raw fish. Your class background shouldn’t be identifiable by your taste in food but unfortunately it is. When someone states their dislike for niche foods like caviar or pate, they are most times immediately met with something condescending. Perhaps that their palate is just not mature enough ? Others may ridicule someone for being ‘closed minded’ whilst not taking into account that their hors d'oeuvre of choice are priced ridiculously and that not everyone may have the disposable income to give it any thought. The invention of an ‘immature palate’ is just one of the examples in which fictitious distinctions are created to imply a class divide without explicitly stating it.

Now the tattoo one is just a hunch and I haven’t found much academic to back me up but stick with me.(Do not crucify me if this is not an original thought) When I visualise the types of tattoos most workplaces look down on, I picture sprawling sleeves and intricate neck tattoos covering prime real estate. Typically, or at least in the early 2000s and before, there were only a few groups of people who you would associate these specific tattoos with; people deemed menacing or scary. I’m sure deep down the thinking was ‘what better way to assure that we won’t hire someone who is likely to have those traits by stop them from applying or discredit them at the interview process’. Obviously, you can’t say that outright because you know the whole discrimination thing but, you can say that tattoos are just ‘not the right look’. Never mind that society is more likely to demonise certain groups of people. I do think that as a society we are letting go of the whole tattoo thing as more and more people get tattoos and they are no longer associated with niche groups.

So Why Do We Get So Heated ?

It’s safe to say that there have never been so many open ended arguments online than right now. Whether it’s the millennials claiming their rights to skinny jeans and the side part or deciding if you should wear outside clothes on your bed, everyone has skin in the game. Whereas in the 18th Century when the code of being tasteful was contained within communities and boarders, we are are exposed to all types of differing cultural norms and tastes. Information is more accessible nowadays, pair this with the exponential growth of people making content about their daily lives and we’ve produced a live anthropological study on the merging of communities. To many, the existence of an alternative preference may seem like an attack on their own, especially within a society that inspires competition and a need to be superior. Let’s not get started on the history of demonising or eroticising other cultures to further embolden the West.

Discussion is natural, differing opinions is natural. I just think before we jump to condone other peoples preferences we should consider the context and societal factors at play.

Hope you guys enjoyed this weekend’s post. It may be my favourite piece yet. This post was meant to have a podcast episode, this had to be delayed for personal reasons but I do still plan on releasing it.

(ps, the first couple podcasts will be free as a preview for paid subscription)

1. From An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

2. Aesthetics and Appetite

3. Aesthetics and Appetite

4. marked a departure from the traditional mode of life that was dominated by frugality and scarcity to one of increasingly mass consumption in society.