Julie Burchill on class

[ArabellaScott]

A couple of mentions of feminist related issues, including KJK's Party of Women.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/lets-hear-it-for-the-oiks/

Some good points.
It’s not just journalism, of course. There appears to be a growing absence of the working class in public life all round. Our captured institutions reflect this; no more money for people who do useful jobs, but endless funds for diversity officers and nightlife czars who probably went to uni with someone well connected. Being working class itself seems an anomaly in a society which encourages malingering and ‘working from home’ – the latter often just a middle class version of the former. It’s so uncool to sweep the streets and stack the supermarket shelves, why can’t they just get themselves a side-hustle rather than waste their lives working for The System? (Good job they don’t, or society would be a starving swamp within a couple of months.)

Sums up what I've said for years. I hate the way anything working class on Mumsnet is seen as a "race to the bottom" when in fact it's mostly just a different way of doing things

I have one friend who is working class from working class parents. She has her own property, her first flat bought from working hard and not doing Uni/ gap years/ holidays in her 20's. She has kids with unfashionable working class names and they do unfashionable working class sports like motorcross and judo rather than tennis or rugby. She earns really well and that's important to her as it is to my other friends in trendy status jobs. I feel she is very much unrepresented.

Here's Doug Lucie's, rather scant, Wikipedia entry

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Lucie

I did notice the quote about 'rising out of' the working classes.

That hierarchy is still very much enforced, isn't it. There are echoes of the idea that 'rising' out of the working class involves moral betterment as well as gaining economic/cultural power.

The arts/culture have always been elitist, but it seems to me that there was for a time at least the possibility of working class people making their way in, if they had the skills. Now that we're in pomo deskilled territory and so much culture is about conforming to the current orthodoxy, that route seems to have closed down even further as most working class people are just not able/willing to indulge in luxury beliefs.

I went to see John Cooper Clarke the other night - support acts Toria Garbutt and Mike Garry.

Was struck by how antiquated they all sounded, all Northern, working class poets between 40 odd and rising 80.

Culture has become so samey, slang is no longer about place or class but arises on the internet and crashes across the English speaking world one teen at a time, like a wave. Universities everywhere teach the same texts, written by nonsensical salad tossers like Judith Butler.

It made me feel really weird, like we’ve given up something precious but no one’s really noticed yet.

I suppose we're yet to even see the edges of the impact of the internet on society, individuals, and culture.

Journalism - it's a dying profession that pays peanuts. Local newspapers, which were the traditional way in, have all but disappeared. Not something you would touch with a bargepole unless you had family money.

Pop music - the traditional working class route was a couple of years spent at (free) art college setting up a band, and in the 80s (ab)using the Enterprise Allowance Scheme - often while double-dipping the dole and living in a squat. All these routes are closed now which is why so many pop musicians are music college-educated and middle class. It also (like classical music) pays absolutely peanuts for the vast majority of artists so hardly an attractive career, especially as now to have even a chance you will likely need 3 years of expensive music college.

Arts/theatre - free colleges and heavily funded community schemes and theatres. All gone.

As an aside, Joe Orton took elocution lessons before applying to RADA.

And what are the consequences of handing over all media, culture, arts, literature, theatre to those who are comfortable and socially mobile? What will we lose? What perspectives will be missing from our collective world view?

No-one knows. However working class people seem very well represented in media with much lower barriers to entry: just look at TikTok and Instagram influencers and creators. The fact that they are not well represented in niche cultural activities such as journalism and theatre may not actually matter.

And while traditional pop music seems to now be the preserve of the well-spoken, underground music, which arguably is more culturally relevant and influential than commercial pop, has an extremely low barrier to entry - an old laptop and a hooky copy of Ableton Live gives you access to stuff that would have required seriously expensive studio time 20 years ago. It's no surprise that electronic music remains firmly working class.

This is what bothered me.

So many of Britain’s best artists (all forms) were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

Both Toria and Mike Garry mentioned working in prisons, I believe the arts can do a lot of good within institutions (not just prisons but hospitals, schools, mental health facilities etc) but you do need the visiting artist to be able to connect with the prisoners/patients/students.

My daughter’s mostly non-white inner city girls high school recently had a visit from a white, middle class YouTube rapper. The girls did not take him seriously at all!

Ive also noticed this in Comedy where those who don't have the same political beliefs or education are black listed from TV such as Lee Hurst

On one hand I agree, there is a lot of similarly in comedy re: politics, social commentary etc partly because those voices are loudest and partly because those who disagree just keep quiet. But on the other hand isny Lee Hurst a bit odd? I can't remember what he's done/said but I seem to recall he had some extreme views.

However there is also Geoff Norcott who differs from most comedians in that he votes Conservative and uses that very well as part of his act.

I agree in my lifetime (54) I feel I've seen culture become more homogeneous while simultaneously becoming more 'diverse' which is quite bizarre.

I think his convictions for assault and his sexual harassment of an 18 year old on Twitter might have more to do with it.

I wasn't aware of his convictions, probably not the best example then!

Yes, implying that he could cure Greta Thunberg of her silly notions with his magic 60 year old cock was a bit too much, even for ITV. Maybe GB News will snap him up.

Ah yes, that was it. I knew I'd read something unpleasant about him 😳🤢

I don’t know that I approve of state sponsored art, to be honest. Art and music used to thrive in mining villages as an escape from the drudgery of daily life.

Once art is paid for, is it even art?

Professional art… might be a contradiction. Should be driven by love and talent, not money. Then inevitably those who don’t need to spend time earning money will get to do more art. But it will be soft art with little to say, though universal human experience will always be reflected I suppose.

Disclaimer- never studied art or politics so this has probably all be thrashed out already 🤣

Once art is paid for, is it even art?

As someone who works in art and design I can assure you we definitely need to be paid 😂

Such a good article, she really nails something I've been wondering for a long time.

I imagine the Irish referendum results were a big shock to the political class and their client NGOs who simply hadn't noticed how many people didn't agree with them.

@pickledandpuzzled when you say paid-for art -do you mean art that is supported by government subsidy, or art that is paid for commercially?

If the former - there are good arguments for and against government subsidy of the arts. I do baulk at the amount of government money that goes into things like opera when grassroots music venues get nothing.

But the idea that artists should not earn a living from their art is bizarre to say the least!

What helped working class people get into arts and entertainment in the 70s and early 80s was ironically high unemployment. Youth unemployment was so high that it was easy to sign on. So many working class people interested in developing arts or music did so for a few years while they developed their skills. It acted as an informal space for people to develop and then move onto paid work in the arts or entertainment industry. It is much harder to do if you have to work full time in a tiring job and then come home and do some art.

JB touches on this in the article but one issue is that a lot of these things- acting, singing, even professional sport were looked down upon in virtually all societies throughout history. Fifty years before the 1950s, the popular entertainment of the time was Music Hall, and virtually all of its stars were working class. In the 1950s football still had a maximum wage and the idea of playing sport for money was seen as infra dig. Now these things are fashionable they have naturally been colonized by the moneyed (except football perhaps), all through history the already wealthy have seized the best opportunities.
Another thing is that access to training is harder- my brother and I went to Grammar School and they were modelled after public schools, with a variety of arts and sports offered. How many children at state schools now get a chance to try cricket or act in regular school plays? When you were an adult, every large factory in town had a sports and social club with sports teams, amateur dramatics, bands, music etc. how many employers offer that now?