Disability In Freaks

The two films, Titanic and The Great Gatsby help understand the medium of socioeconomic class with the concept of inequality. A film as a media focuses on one subject at a time; conveying the message presented in the story. Also a film is easy to understand. Both the films are about class division and inequality. A class is an economic center in both the films. Through these two films, we get to see the conflict perspective.

In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios (Myths and Realities 2000) shows us how what class a person is in affects his or hers life more than they think. This article is written sufficiently well however, it does have some weak spots. I will prove my thesis by examining his use of examples and showing factual data and statistics, but also show how this article could have been better.

Last class we watched an informative documentary named “People like Us, Social Class in America”. America is known to be a country defined by class. Throughout the movie it showed different opinions on what class was based on by different people and the answers varied from looks, house size, career choice, race, manners, upbringing, and education. As we move through life, most times we remove ourselves from different people not in our class to then live amongst those who share similar backgrounds and who we are most comfortable with. As stated, “if there is class, there is an inequality one cannot explain and it perpetuates itself”. Revealing class can expose hope, fears, prejudice and a myriad of different emotions that we may not all be comfortable speaking about. I feel as if part two and part three were most applicable to myself because they are something that I have experienced both directly and indirectly.

Classism is a second issue that is shown throughout the novel. Classism is the attack on a person or people, based on their social ranking. On the other end, classism could also be the favor of a person or people based on their social ranking as well. Examples of classism show up many

No matter where you go in the world people are divided. They can be divided by their wealth or state of living these are social classes. In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton social classes a very apparent the rich and the poor. In The Outsiders, social classes create a divide in the community. The isolation of these two groups lead to the tension and violence that is seen in the book.

As far as she describes, she just enjoyed living with grandparents and she says that the lure of life was everywhere and in everything, but no one in the crowded house had a regular job or social security number, and no one talked about class even if they were open about money. Hooks' personal memories tell me that poor people are afraid to talk about class because to be poor in the U.S. was to be an object of shame and ridicule, and because they were afraid to face the reality that makes them feel miserable, unpleasant, and unsecured. And the most importantly, most of them are not really conscious about how classism affects and exploits them. On the other hand, according to Hooks privileged (mostly white) people do not want to talk about class because they do not really want to change. Hooks says "Citizens in the middle who live comfortable lives, luxurious lives in relation to the rest of the world, often fear that challenging classism will be their downfall, that simply by expressing concern for the poor they will end up like them, lacking the necessities of life". We can see the widening gap between rich and poor and more and more class-segregated society in the U.S. today, but this appears rather favorable circumstance for the privileged people with class power. I came to realize that whites of all class backgrounds seek to keep underprivileged non-white people in subordination to maintain their own class status. Hooks interprets it "the victims

No matter where you go in the world, people are divided. They can be divided by their wealth or state of living these are social class. In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton social classes a very apparent the rich and the poor. In The Outsiders, social classes create a divide in the community. The isolation of these two groups leads to the tension and violence that is seen in the book.

Social class describes the different "layers" that exist in society. These "layers," or classes in society, are a division that civilization has been running on ever since the beginning of mankind. In most modern societies, our system of social class division is one of opportunity. We experience a good deal of social mobility, where people through generations or in their own lifetime can move up or down the social scale. By examining the many different perceptions of social class along with S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, it is illustrated that social class has an impact on people while they are growing up, and will usually deny them from rising above adversity.

Class is an apparent feature of any society, especially in the United States. Americans tend to overlook at times that there

The author, John Meacham, cites many pieces of evidence to show the current state of classes in American society. Meacham’s purpose for portraying the current state of classes is

The issue of class is a predominant topic in the world’s social discourse because in every society, there must be the rich and the poor. It is estimated that in this country, there are 38 million people living in absolute poverty. This has created a very huge disparity in the manner in which people live in the society; their lifestyles and general well being. To compound the situation further, the general norm regarding class is that the rich often get richer as days go by while the poor consistently become poorer (Mathews 13). Bell Hooks in her book “Where we stand: Class Matters,” sought to give an insight on the general concept of class as it is today. In this book, the author propagates three main ideas. To start with, Bell argues that the question of class cuts across all other dimensions of life including gender, race, religion and sexuality. Secondly, she posits that religion is has been a very instrumental tool in bridging the gap between classes. Finally, Bell observes that the proclamation that we live in a classless society is flawed in every sense of the world. This paper seeks to make an incisive elucidation of the three observations that Bell makes in her book.

Classism is a prejudice where stereotypes, intolerance, and judgments are placed upon people due to their rank in a class system. When you think about it, classism is much like racism. However, instead of race being the issue, the socioeconomic class is the primary target of abhorrence and bias. Lauren, being our protagonist and heroine, is very much capable of exemplifying the ideology of classism. In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Lauren as a teenager who is growing up in a gated, or walled, community outside of Los Angeles. Her community is literally

As research is begun which has classism as a foundation, William Ming Lui’s (2006), well recognized class and classism researcher, precautions must be taken into consideration. In a stringent article critique of Laura Smith’s "Psychotherapy, classism, and the poor: Conspicuous by their absence," Liu points out that the study of classism and those areas that it impacts is much more complex than most researchers realize or expect. He calls for the need for a theory based and operationlized use of terms such as social class, class, social status, the poor/low-income, and poverty rather than use of these concepts simply as constructs. He also caution against the tendency to category low-income subjects by a dispositional attribute (i.e., "poor people"). In conceptualizing classism, he stresses that

Class is the relative location of a person or group within a larger society based on wealth power, prestige, or other valued resources. In other words, class can be defined as a socioeconomic status in which one’s capital defines their class position thus giving us a ranking of financial status. This categorization of class position is based on economic status that can be determined through income, profession, or inherited wealth. Blue collar (working class), white collar, and upper class (professional services) are the three class categories based on economic status. This class structure is society’s way of determining between the haves and have-nots. One’s ability to be aware of the class system and one’s place within it is known as class consciousness or class standing.

Another example that highlights the conflict between the classes in the story is the scene where Tyler splices pornography into the films he airs. He uses his position as a projectionist in the movie theater to include split seconds of pornography into movies watched by the upper and middle class people. He enjoyed doing it because he had nothing to loose, he was the “the pawn of the world, everybody’s trash” (Palahniuk 106). He included pornography in the movies the upper class people watched just to get back at them by exposing them to pornography without their knowledge and consent. Exposing them to pornography without their knowledge was a way Tyler used to reverse the conventional roles of the society. The working class was proving to the upper class that they could oppress them if they want to and this was done through Tyler’s actions. Tyler used his position to do as he wished and the upper class people could do nothing about it rather, they watched the pornography in the movies.