class

Un-Marxian...

"Social Class as Culture"

...there are implications that will feel like an affirmation to those of us who argue for distributive justice ("trickle down... is bull"); but i do worry about how the tendency to think of class //in terms of// culture can haunt us, for example, by reaffirming the beliefs of those who would rather emphasize the claim from the Sun article, that "being poor isn't without its rewards."

Social Class as Culture : The Convergence of Resources and Rank in the Social Realm Michael W. Kraus, Paul K. Piff and Dacher Keltner Current Directions in Psychological Science 2011 20: 246. http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/20/4/246

Nancy Fraser addresses this with her "four-celled matrix"...

Austin Grossman "we may be missing the true subversive appeal of Spider-Man’s story, which is that he’s working-class." (mentioned at queer theory [and utopia? ... Bloch...])

Grossman goes on: "This is in direct contrast to the fantasy-billionaire lifestyle of many superheroes. ... [T]he myth here isn’t just that people can shoot rays from their eyes, but that the super-rich live their problems in the same way the rest of us do. Peter Parker’s parents are dead just like Bruce Wayne’s, but that’s a problem that shares space with keeping a job and paying rent [etc.]".

The crucial difference between colportage and kitsch, according to Bloch, is ... "a... brighter elsewhere..." related to class / "revolution"

"In Spider-Man’s adventures the larger-than-life bumps up against actual life in a way that puts the lie to the superpowered adventures of the upper-upper-class heroes who solve problems with gadgets borrowed from the R&D divisions, and show up to battles in their expensive product-placement sports cars (which they’ll probably throw at their nemesis anyway, then replace with a laugh and a wink). It makes them look weightless and smug by comparison, and slightly contemptuous of the problems most Americans deal with."