Taste and Self-expression
This post was first titled "Reject Cultural Capital, Embrace Aesthetic Communication" and then "Reject Cultural Capital, Cultivate Self-expression" and then just "Cultivate Self-expression" and then "Communities of Self-expression" and finally "Taste and Self-expression".
I think these changes are important because they communicate both the direction I'm intending with this post and some clarifying thoughts on the (false) mutual exclusivity of cultural capital and aesthetic interest (and also thoughts on the social basis of the self). Anyways, onwards.
This post is about how, in the context of presentation (whether that's fashion, fragrance, gender, your instagram profile, etc.), I think it's important to be yourself as you exist in society. That's it, that's the whole post. The song of the day is birthday girl, etc. etc., have a good night.
The Pursuit of Cultural Capital
When I take an interview, I put on a collared top. The fact I do so (against a personal aesthetic interest in bodysuits) is important, as is the fact I knew I ought to. It communicates to the interviewer that I care more about the job than looking pretty, that I am functional enough in ~ society ~ to navigate shifts in social context, and that I own a physical necessity for employment. That is: I can be professional, I know I ought to be, and I have the physical means to do so. That is: I can willingly abide by the tastes of the social class that earns the job's salary. That is: symbolic violence.
My actions are changed by the tastes of the more elite social class.
Cultural capital (like all forms of capital) flexes its muscles at every conceivable opportunity. As such, it is pursued with great interest and expressed to a similarly great extent at all times, though likely heightened in certain contexts (re: job interviews).
Society (in its various fields, namely by class) is stratified. Capital is the means by which one may remain in their strata and climb*. Cultural capital is the social expression of capital. Social elites distinguish taste (ie. what is good vs. bad), which becomes the aim of cultural capital. For example: Prada Paradoxe Intense (eau de parfum). For example: collared tops in interviews.
So where does that leave us? Actually, nowhere. I'm just informing you that cultural capital is relevant, that it is tasteful, and that its tastefulness is defined by the elite strata.
* Note that this is not a Marxist definition of capital, but a Post Structuralist one based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, specifically his work on distinction and taste.
Field Theory
Imposing, but I believe this will be short.
Field theory (by a familiar name: Bourdieu) posits social fields: stratified environments where people are A) positioned socially, B) competing for field-contextualized capital and C) under field-specific rules and systems of belief. Fields can be hierarchically organized amongst themselves (eg. the field of pop music (as an environment of socially positioned singers) is still affected by social class).
Through interaction with a field, people form unconscious principles, perceptions, and (guys guys guys we're going somewhere) tastes. Tastes, naturally, defined by the field's elite members and influenced by encompassing fields and social systems.
Aesthetic Communities
~ we are now breaking from bourdieu and field theory ~
Fields are socially competitive environments. What happens when they're just social environments?
Aesthetic communities are social groups oriented around shared interest in [nouns] due to their aesthetic properties. Think: emo subcultures, Ariana Grande fans, TTRPG nerds. Don't think: tech bros (that's a field). An aesthetic community can be described as counter-cultural if the aesthetic properties it elevates are in opposition to broader social tastes.
This is a rather diminutive break from Bourdieau's social theories. All I'm stating here is that non-stratified communities can form around (or in the creation of) shared aesthetic interests.
Further, aesthetic interest =/= tastefulness. Taste is constructed in stratified social environments. Aesthetic interest may be influenced by taste (as it often is) but is a broader term for ~ things people find appealing ~. And of course, all of this is socially constructed.
In other words, society's elites have deemed luxury fragrance (re: Prada Paradoxe Intense) as tasteful. So you want it. But your social involvement as an Ariana Grande fan also creates an inclination toward Ari's fragrance line (which is, itself, packaged and marketed in an effort to be tasteful).
To beat you over the head, tastefulnes is less an objective truth than an ever-changing scalar. Ari's MOD Vanilla is tasteful, to a lesser extent than Prada Paradoxe Intense. Aesthetic communities and their interests are influenced by taste. Expressions of cultural capital and aesthetic interest are rarely mutually exclusive. Even then, expressions of counter-cultural aesthetic interests can serve as tasteful cultural capital in counter-cultural social fields.
Self-expression
I have three takeaways here and they are all pretty straight-forward.
Cultivate self-expression
Aesthetic objects and the lack of them are tools of communication. They communicate class, hobbies, religious affiliations, fundamental worldviews, etc. You are never not communicating. Generally speaking, it is both fun and socially helpful to communicate yourself intentionally.
Aesthetic interests > tastefulness
Cultural capital is important for the purposes of navigating social fields. At a job interview, you really ought to wear something collared. If you want people to read your blog, you really ought to make it polished with a minimalist interface. If you care for favorable public opinion, you should wear deodorant.
That being said, the pursuit of cultural capital squashes aesthetic appreciation down to tastefulness. An art gallery is tasteful, but do you care for the art? Or only for the semiotic value of an instagram post depicting your distant gaze?
Engage with aesthetic interests, largely irrespective of tastefulness. It's more fun. It's more personal. I'd say it's more authentic, but the perception of "authenticity" is becoming tasteful now, and that's not the point.
Communicate yourself through your aesthetic interests.
Cultivate aesthetic community
As discussed, aesthetic interests do not exist in a vacuum. Do not just experience aesthetic objects, create them. Read books, then write books, or at the least, talk to people about the books you've read or join a book club. View photographs, then take and share them. Appreciate the fashion of others and then communicate yourself through clothes also.
Cultivate (to the best of your ability) non-hierarchical social spaces. Construct aesthetic interests by sharing your own. Engage with culture, etc.