When it comes to class and the many different fields that society has created in regards to class we have come to the understanding that it is very difficult and almost impossible for anyone born of a specific status in society to see any type of social mobility outside of that field. We see it all too often, people trying to fit in where they do not belong. They stand out because they do not know the proper etiquette because they were not born with the knowledge for living outside their field because society never intended for them to leave it. With the help of a clip from the documentary, “People Like Us”, we will see how it is in fact possible for someone to experience social mobility with the help of someone knowledgeable in the field they are trying to reach. In the clip, “How to Marry the Rich”, we see how a self-help consultant by the name of Ginie Sayles arms her client, Vessa Rinehat, with the habitus needed to surpass her class status, a hurdle Ginie herself once accomplished by relearning the five habitus that Bourdieu uses to describe the skills needed to fit into a field to help find a man to marry of elite status.
We start by restructuring the system of durable transposable disposition. Growing up we tend to pick up habits from our parents and those who we spend most of our time around. These habits become the way we learn to understanding our own way of being. Through these shared and passed habits we become a person who is made up of characteristics from our surrounding. It becomes who we are and our way of knowing how things work. Ginie reteaches Vessa how to communicate with people, how to dress in a way that shows you are a woman of taste, and how to continually motivate yourself for having a taste for the finer things in life that those of elite status do without thinking twice about it. By following Ginie’s instruction Vessa will learn the new rules to her hoping to be field.
Next Vessa’s structured structure needs to be corrected; in this case we look at the context of her dating life. She was socialized to go on dates with men who represent the class system she is trying to escape. Throughout her life Vessa is taught to think that in order to find the person she is to spend the rest of her life with she has to look among the pool of men who fall into the same class status as her. This means that the men available to Vessa are those who are of working class, who can’t afford to take her on a proper date and need gas money to get her home. She is taught to think this is all she has available to her within her field and she needs to act her class and accept it. This idea connects us to the third lesson, de-structuring structures. In structuring structures we use what we have learned growing up, what is required of us to be a part of our field and continually reproduce habitus. This is a vicious cycle that both traps us in our social status and keeps out others trying to wear the mask of a field out of their league. To correct Vissa’s structured structure and structuring structures Ginie shows Vessa that she can be worth more than what society limits her, not only by dressing the part but by embodying the social role of elite. By taking social facts that she has been taught to accept as her truth and by choosing to react to the social facts of her old field by knowing they are not the only truth and choosing not to act as she has been taught to she has surpassed structured structure. By breaking away from the cycle of an unwanted unfulfilling field and by seeking the assistance of a self-help consultant she has moved away from societies structuring structures.
In rejecting societies view of what is good enough for her, Vessa has also rejected societies structured practices. Ginie has had Vessa relearn old habits/ routines in place of new ones. Vessa can now communicate with someone using elite status protocol in a way that tells them she no longer finds them intimidating and that they are among a likeminded person. For Vessa to be a part of the elite class she has to break working class actions and perform as if elite field is all she has ever known. Once sign of her old habits and she will be discovered and seen as never truly being able to belong.
The 5th and final step to reinventing Vess for a new field is putting everything Ginie has taught her to use through strategy generating. By putting Vessa in a situation where everyone around her is of high social status and requiring her to take what she has learned and begin open dialogue with men out of her field she has entered the world of elite and for now she can walk in the heels of a class she hopes will accept her as their own. From what we see it seems that the men in the art gallery have warmed up to her and find her equal enough to discuss art work but this final step can, which ties in all that Vessa has relearned, cannot be conquered in one day. Vessa will forever be refining and developing her place in the elite world because the skill of masking what you once were is not something that can be completely pushed away. One false move outside her new found habitus reveals her to the elite as an imposter and strips away any chance at marrying rich to secure a spot in elite status.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvibi2Cph-E
We start by restructuring the system of durable transposable disposition. Growing up we tend to pick up habits from our parents and those who we spend most of our time around. These habits become the way we learn to understanding our own way of being. Through these shared and passed habits we become a person who is made up of characteristics from our surrounding. It becomes who we are and our way of knowing how things work. Ginie reteaches Vessa how to communicate with people, how to dress in a way that shows you are a woman of taste, and how to continually motivate yourself for having a taste for the finer things in life that those of elite status do without thinking twice about it. By following Ginie’s instruction Vessa will learn the new rules to her hoping to be field.
Next Vessa’s structured structure needs to be corrected; in this case we look at the context of her dating life. She was socialized to go on dates with men who represent the class system she is trying to escape. Throughout her life Vessa is taught to think that in order to find the person she is to spend the rest of her life with she has to look among the pool of men who fall into the same class status as her. This means that the men available to Vessa are those who are of working class, who can’t afford to take her on a proper date and need gas money to get her home. She is taught to think this is all she has available to her within her field and she needs to act her class and accept it. This idea connects us to the third lesson, de-structuring structures. In structuring structures we use what we have learned growing up, what is required of us to be a part of our field and continually reproduce habitus. This is a vicious cycle that both traps us in our social status and keeps out others trying to wear the mask of a field out of their league. To correct Vissa’s structured structure and structuring structures Ginie shows Vessa that she can be worth more than what society limits her, not only by dressing the part but by embodying the social role of elite. By taking social facts that she has been taught to accept as her truth and by choosing to react to the social facts of her old field by knowing they are not the only truth and choosing not to act as she has been taught to she has surpassed structured structure. By breaking away from the cycle of an unwanted unfulfilling field and by seeking the assistance of a self-help consultant she has moved away from societies structuring structures.
In rejecting societies view of what is good enough for her, Vessa has also rejected societies structured practices. Ginie has had Vessa relearn old habits/ routines in place of new ones. Vessa can now communicate with someone using elite status protocol in a way that tells them she no longer finds them intimidating and that they are among a likeminded person. For Vessa to be a part of the elite class she has to break working class actions and perform as if elite field is all she has ever known. Once sign of her old habits and she will be discovered and seen as never truly being able to belong.
The 5th and final step to reinventing Vess for a new field is putting everything Ginie has taught her to use through strategy generating. By putting Vessa in a situation where everyone around her is of high social status and requiring her to take what she has learned and begin open dialogue with men out of her field she has entered the world of elite and for now she can walk in the heels of a class she hopes will accept her as their own. From what we see it seems that the men in the art gallery have warmed up to her and find her equal enough to discuss art work but this final step can, which ties in all that Vessa has relearned, cannot be conquered in one day. Vessa will forever be refining and developing her place in the elite world because the skill of masking what you once were is not something that can be completely pushed away. One false move outside her new found habitus reveals her to the elite as an imposter and strips away any chance at marrying rich to secure a spot in elite status.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvibi2Cph-E