Tag Archives: working class women

Working Class Denial

Inspiration, My Project, , , ,

In a conversation with someone who is considered an expert in the context of my project, I was told that there is no class problem in universities in general, let alone in arts universities. I found this interesting because this person comes from the same town as me and is very working class. Whereas another expert I spoke to who is middle class, admitted to noticing less obviously working class students.

On further reflection, I think this actually makes sense. People who have risen from the working classes to a more eminent position are often quick to distance themselves from their background. For example, Hyacinth Bucket in the tv show Keeping Up Appearances who was desperate to avoid her working class sister and brother in law, going so far as to ignore them in public and clamber over brick garden walls to hide from them.

Quotes From Keeping Up Appearances. QuotesGram

And why wouldn’t you want to distance yourself from your working class roots when “Despite the occasional ‘rags to riches’ storyline, most media representations of working-class communities tend to focus on what these communities lack—not just financially, but also in knowledge, taste and morality. They are constantly depicted as uneducated, poorly dressed and more likely to become criminals.”

Stephanie Lawler, a British sociologist, said in 2005 that “at the heart of middle-class identity, is a feeling of disgust towards working class existence,” and I think that if one has been socially mobile and is now middle class rather than working class, there is an element of disgust towards your roots rather than pride about how far you’ve come.

Whilst there are a lot of tv shows that satirise the working classes eg Little Britain and Shameless, there are shows such as the long running Jeremy Kyle Show or Benefits Street that aim to humiliate or demonise the working classes. Instead of being actually entertaining, the public are expected to laugh at the so called misfortune of the millions of people who are working class. Jeremy Kyle in particular was a vicious show – a live studio audience laughing at families imploding and the guests being incited to violence against each other.

This is a far cry from the hardworking, working class men and women who work multiple jobs so they can feed their families and who do all the jobs that other people turn their noses up at.

But which portrayal of working class society is more memorable?

https://www.media-diversity.org/as-the-media-has-a-reckoning-on-race-and-gender-its-time-to-also-talk-aboutclass/#:~:text=Despite%20the%20occasional%20’rags%20to,more%20likely%20to%20become%20criminals.

A Conversation

My Project, , , , , , , , ,

Today I met with *Jess, a student at UAl. She very kindly agreed to talk with me, on the understanding that I would change her name and not use any identifying details about her in my project.

I started off by telling Jess about my background and my life, in the hopes of establishing common ground between us. And I think it worked! After I spoke about myself, we started discussing how hard it is to be a working class student at such an elite university. Jess told me that no one knows how badly she struggles to pay rent and that when she runs out of hot water, she uses the shower at her gym. A gym that she was gifted the membership to and has no way to renew when it runs out. Jess told me that she has often googled how to sell photos of her feet to make money but has never gone through with it because it felt dirty. More than once she has downloaded dating apps in the hopes of someone buying her dinner that night.

And then we spoke about UAL.

Jess told me that her course expects her to buy a lot of materials and books, without understanding that not every student on every course has a lot of disposable income. She spoke in depth about how this has made her feel less worthy to be on her course and that she feels alone amongst her classmates. The lack of understanding from her course leaders has made her feel embarrassed about being working class and as though she is inferior to the students around her. Jess spoke about UAL as an organisation that is unfeeling and doesn’t care about the students that are underrepresented amongst the student body. When asked if she was aware of any support for students who are from lower income backgrounds, Jess just laughed. She went on to explain that she feels invisible when she is at uni and she feels ashamed of not being able to wear designer clothes every day or go to Michelin starred restaurants at the weekends.

We finished our conversation by Jess telling me that she wishes things were different, and that UAL could be inclusive to everyone. Not just to the people with big bank accounts.

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Before publishing this blog post, I sent it to Jess to make sure I hadn’t misrepresented her comments or opinions in any way and that she was happy for me to post it, which she was.

Empty Gestures or Meaningful Change?

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“…it is also vital to ensure working-class students as well as ethnic and racial minority (BAME) students are adequately supported once they are at university. Widening access and participation, and the underlying meritocratic sentiments that underpin it, will never amount to more than empty rhetoric and token gestures until students from all class backgrounds feel at home in all higher education institutions”

This is a quote from the study that I was referencing in my previous post and one that has been resonating with me as I’ve been reading diversion and inclusion reports from multiple universities. This is something that I want to make sure is a pillar of my research – I want my interventions to be meaningful and not seen as token gestures.

In the abstract of a study by Genia M. Bettencourt, she says “Belonging was viewed as something that students themselves created rather than was facilitated by institutions. Moreover, while participants expressed varying degrees of support, connectedness, and belonging, they rarely felt valued by institutions that exploited their labor or tokenized their presence under the guise of supporting diversity.”

I find this to be concerning because students should be focusing on studying and having active social lives whilst at university, not relying on each other to set up support networks or being seen as the token working class students. I have to admit, this is something I have been worried about with my research – However unrealistic it may be, I am concerned that UAL could hijack my research and twist it to come across as diverse and inclusive. I think that this could be a possible challenge that I have to overcome and I need to be prepared for this. (Even though I might be overthinking it and it might not happen.). I also think that it is important that every student feels valued by the institution that they are paying thousands of pounds to attend. If you don’t feel valued, then what is the point of paying money to study there?

References:

Bettencourt, G.M. (2021). ‘I Belong Because It Wasn’t Made for Me’: Understanding Working-Class Students’ Sense of Belonging on Campus. The Journal of Higher Education, pp.1–24. doi:10.1080/00221546.2021.1872288.

Reay, D. (2021). The working classes and higher education: Meritocratic fallacies of upward mobility in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Education, 56(1). doi:10.1111/ejed.12438.

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A Good Reason

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Zuleika asked why my current research question focuses on female students particularly. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I didn’t have a great answer. I mean, apart from being a female student from a lower income background, I didn’t have any research or statistics to back this up. It was suggested to me that in order to focus solely on female students, I need a good reason eg. some data or research to back this up.

So I found some.

A 2019 article in The Guardian draws attention to the lack of diversity in universities. Once one looks past the slightly alarmist headline about over half the universities in England having less than 5% of poor white students, the article is actually very interesting. They break the country down into LPNs (low participation neighbourhoods) and talk about how white young people who receive free school meals are less likely to attend university than those who come from Traveller backgrounds. The article goes on to mention that of all the university applications from students from a LPN, only 22% are accepted and 50% of universities only accept less than 20% of applications from these potential students.

And then gender is mentioned.

“Of the higher education providers who responded to a survey by Neon, fewer than 40% were doing outreach work specifically with white males and fewer than 12% with white females from low-participation backgrounds.“

Later in the article it goes on to mention that white disadvantaged male students are the least likely of every ethnic group to attend university. However, this means that proportionally across universities, the majority of working class students will be female.

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https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/14/half-of-universities-england-have-fewer-than-5-poor-white-students

https://www.educationopportunities.co.uk/news/new-report-shows-differences-in-white-working-class-students-going-to-university-by-higher-education-provider/

Starting Over Vol. 2

Inspiration, My Project, , , , ,

Richard talked about learning ecologies in class and how we should bring our whole selves to our projects. I realised that I was going about my research all wrong. I was focusing on the wrong things and trying to change something that didn’t have my whole self in. So I needed to change. Quickly.

I wrote notes about the things I truly care about, and then I asked myself “Felicity, why did you apply to MAAI?”

I went back and read my personal statement/study proposal from when I applied to this course. Admittedly I wrote it at 7am when I was half asleep so there are a couple of spelling mistakes (I only noticed them after I submitted it) but I think writing it so early in the day allowed my true thoughts to come out without censoring myself or trying to appear impressive. I wrote about how people from lower socio-economic backgrounds struggle to make their way in the creative industries, and how they don’t feel that they have permission to express their creativity. I come from this background, so I know exactly what this feels like. And honestly, I feel like a fish out of water at CSM most of the time. There is no visible support for people who are here because they worked their butt off and gave up a lot of things to be able to even think about affording their course.

This is what, and who, I care about.

I care about the creative industries truly being inclusive, and I care about anyone being able to have a creative career, no matter where they come from or how they are perceived by others. 16% of people in the creative industries come from working class backgrounds, compared to 29% across all occupations. 13% difference doesn’t sound like a lot of people but it equates to thousands of people. Thousands of people who are stuck doing jobs they hate instead of doing what makes them happy. Is it fair to deprive people of what could be a wildly successful career just because of where they were born? Of course not.

Freedom.

It’s all about freedom.

And if I can help even one person feel more free, then I consider that a success.

So having said all that, my new question is…

“How can arts universities better support female students from working class backgrounds?”