SOCY1002 Lecture 7: Difference and Inequality
[Lecture Seven]
Difference and Inequality
“Late capitalist society is in many ways a pluralist society. At a political level, we hear talk of
diversity and multiculturalism, while marketers and advertisers appeal to the idea that each of
us is a unique individual, free to shape our identities and destinies as we see fit. But clearly
some differences are more valued than others and many of today’s ‘unique individuals’ find
themselves being, at best, tolerated and, at worst, shunned from the social body. This lecture
considers the relationship between difference and inequality in contemporary Western
societies. To what extent do the liberal democratic ideals of such societies embrace difference
and/or reproduce inequalities? Three classically sociological axes of difference – race,
ethnicity and gender – offer a lens through which to consider these questions” – From Wattle
•
• Within our culture we have the idea that we separate our body from our mind – we live in an
intellectual era where we value the mind over the body
• Durkheim suggests that the more civilized the society is, the freer the body is – that
essentially to be a civilized society there must be a distance from the body and its needs
Feminism and the Body
• Feminists have been particularly critical of that above point:
- “The most superior minds suffer least from the intrusions of the body” (Gatens,
1996:50)
• Some human beings aren’t given the ‘privileged’ body – which are essentially white
heterosexual males – and are classified as different from the norm
What is the status in contemporary bodies as those whose bodies mark them as different
or whose practices make them culturally different?
• We live in a ‘late capitalist’ society – of consumption – where our consumer practices are
crucial
• Western enlightenment – there is an enlightenment belief that we can free ourselves from
superstition and ignorance
• “The order of active differentiation that gets called ‘race’ may be modernity’s most
pernicious signature’ (Gilroy 1998:843)
• There was a natural superiority of the white man - E.g. Terra Nulius – (no man’s land)
• There was an idea that some races were inferior to others
• Everyday Multicultrualism:
- ‘My interest here is with the formation of attitudes and understandings that are so embedded
in the everyday life of a racialised culture, in this case Australian culture, that the members of
that culture, those that, loosely, we might call Australians, don’t even recognise themselves as
making decisions based in a racialised history’ (Stratton 2006: 662
• Everyday Racism
- With its shaping in nineteenth-century racial ideologies, the culture that we call ‘Australian’
leads members of that culture to have a range of taken-for-granted assumptions and
expectations to differentiate between groupings of people. It is these shared assumptions and
expectations that produce the practice of everyday racism’ (Stratton 2006: 662).
- E.g. looks, comments in casual conversation
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Late capitalist society is in many ways a pluralist society. At a political level, we hear talk of diversity and multiculturalism, while marketers and advertisers appeal to the idea that each of us is a unique individual, free to shape our identities and destinies as we see fit. But clearly some differences are more valued than others and many of today"s unique individuals" find themselves being, at best, tolerated and, at worst, shunned from the social body. This lecture considers the relationship between difference and inequality in contemporary western societies. Feminism and the body: feminists have been particularly critical of that above point: The most superior minds suffer least from the intrusions of the body (gatens, 1996:50: some human beings aren"t given the privileged" body which are essentially white heterosexual males and are classified as different from the norm.
