Finished

Caught on the TV this evening a crap/ ‘simply ghastly’ program called ‘ladette to lady,’ in which various women – from the East End and elsewhere – were to have all signs of their origins ironed out and replaced by ‘ladylike behaviour’ at a 'finishing school'. Or, in other words, in which one class specific taste culture is allowed to sit in judgment over another, and present its own values as synonymous with Value as such. Yes the program is supposed to be a ‘bit of a laugh’ (in which we are perhaps meant to position ourselves equidistant between 'working class vulgarity' and an impossible 'poshness') but it’s nonetheless irritating to see people for whom the tired conventions of a moribund aristocracy are still self-evidently a benchmark of absolute distinction, and for whom working class habits, turns of phrase, etc, are simply deficient or lacking and in need of 'correction'. These people should be made to read Pierre Bourdieu - and watch IF (esp. the ending).