Gender and Generation in the Social Positioning of Taste
The authors examine the intersection of gender and generation for the field of cultural consumption in the United States, considering their interplay in the social positioning of taste. The authors’ prior work found that while cultural capital in the United States largely parallels the field structure observed in 1960s France, the form of cultural capital in the United States discriminates between nurturance and community, on one side, and aggressiveness and individualism, on the other. To investigate this seemingly gendered and ideological positioning of taste, the authors locate individuals as “occupants” of this social field, distinguishing them by gender and age, and find that gender no longer structures a preference for a particular form of cultural capital among younger citizens. This blending of gendered identities in younger Americans suggests a realignment of the notions of gentility and community as defining femininity and coarseness and individualism as defining masculinity. The gendered patterns of cultural consumption that defined older generations do not define younger ones.