How Do I Feel?

I feel that we need to label others in order to recognise someone who is similar, or different, from ourselves. Labelling others, not just their class status, but their sexuality, race, gender and religion allows us to recognise ourselves in others and how we are seen within our society. 

Mean Girls (Waters, 2004) is a brilliant example of this and how we fit within social groups. 

Mean Girls - Cliques (Click on link to view)

But, giving people labels, with or without knowing that person beforehand, can be upsetting and are often incorrect. Also, certain stereotypes of certain classes are most often wrong and we may treat someone differently due to these stereotypes. 

We often treat someone differently based on their employment, for example we may respect someone more who is a doctor than if they were a bin man, however, the bin man may not necessarily be any less of a decent person because of their job role. 

In the film Pretty Woman (Marshall, 1990) Julia Robert's character is treated differently due to the way she is dressed and the shop workers define her for being a prostitute. 

Pretty Woman- Shopping scene (Click on link to view)

I think that attitudes to class have changed within our society, not in a positive or negative way, but different from how they used to be. The difference between under and upper class is not as extreme as it used to be, we are more equal in status than ever, which is known as polarisation. However, we still associate certain traits with certain classes. 

Les Miserable (Hooper, 2012) is an example of how the underclasses, and upper classes,  lived and were treated in 19th Century France, which is considerably different to how underclasses live today. 

Les Miserable Trailer (Click on link to view)

The King's Speech (Hooper, 2010) shows how royals defined and judged a women because she was American and not from a royal family. 

In the present day, I think that immigrants are grouped together as being of a low social status as we hold false judgements against them and are often unfairly represented within the media.  The British society, although it has a melting pot of cultures within it, believe that immigrants are different from themselves and label them as such. Often immigrants are alienated within society as they are forced to adapt to alternative cultures. Many immigrants have come from their home country due to conflict and come to this country to be considered the lowest of the low. 

In an ideal world we would not feel the need to categorise people, however, it is human nature to do this, so, I feel we should try and do this based on someone's personality rather than their financial situation or their job.