"When the cultural bourgeoisie therefore set out to "shock (epater) the bourgeois", they are often..."

"When the cultural bourgeoisie therefore set out to "shock (epater) the bourgeois", they are often implicitly attacking those sections of the bourgeoisie by which they feel dominated. At times, these shocks, attacks and criticisms are directed at those sections that have most power economically, but more often than not the enemy is identified as the lower middle class or petite bourgeois, i.e., those sections who are low in cultural capital but also subordinate economically. This group is therefore doubly damned and hence highly vulnerable to attack."

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Mark Jancovich: 'Naked Ambitions: Pornography, Taste and the Problem of the Middlebrow'

(via thesexmyth)