Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The clash of a working class culture and the bourgeois in small town Ontario
A recent visit to my parents’ small lakeside town, just north of Toronto, and its’ local bar reminded me of our lecture discussion on class and culture (though that’s quite a few weeks ago now), and the question of whether the working class have a culture and if that culture is disappearing.
Most of the 5000 residents in the town are either retired or work physical labour jobs – and from one step into the only local bar, it’s not difficult to perceive what some may imagine as the stereotypical image of the working class. Most of the people drinking are regulars; beer is the drink of choice; $200 black heels (as seen on every other club going girl in Toronto) are replaced by work boots; while pool and cigarettes are the game and distraction of choice. A hint of an untraceable accent can by heard in most of their voices that which can only be compared to the American “hillbilly” drawl. It is certainly not Toronto’s entertainment district, or what you might describe as “classy” or of bourgeois taste, but it is the culture of the largely working class town.
This might suggest to some that although the working class culture may seem to have disappeared almost entirely in the cities, it may still lay stagnant in Ontario’s small towns. This would be easy to argue if I hadn’t also observed the transformation of this town over the past few years in a process of embourgeoisement that Barthes would have despised.
As stagnant as some elements of the working class culture seem to have remained in the town, it has just as quickly and readily adopted elements into the town that are distinctly prestigious, exclusive, fashionable – as a very bourgeois reflection and often very direct result of the wealthy and middle to upper-class tourists and summer residents who flock to the town in the summer months. As far as I can perceive, there has been very little resistance to the sudden eruption of expensive spas, gourmet coffee shops, and boutiques which have replaced family-run shops and the like – despite the fact that most of the locals in the town don’t have the expendable income to afford these places. In fact, there seems to have been no resistance at all, aside from a few overheard remarks from older residents resentful of the too-sudden changes.
It seems to me to be a clear example of the demise of the working class, and very much so an example of the bourgeois imposing their culture on the lower classes. Afterall, it is a town very much reliant on tourism and profits from the town’s wealthy summer visitors and residents – so it has been forced, or at least is remotely convinced that it must keep up with and embrace the bourgeois paces and tastes in order to keep them returning every summer. Although the truth of the matter is, though rich, most of the residents and tourists have been coming for generations and would likely have continued to do so with or without the changes.
Aside from this, it will be interesting to observe how the recent economic situation will affect this domination of the bourgeois over the working and middle class. Will the working class reemerge and be forced to resist bourgeois culture as a necessity to survive a recession?
