Aesthetic Pleasure

Pierre Bourdieu’s work is all about revealing the pernicious social consequences of modern aestheticism’s exaltation of art and those who appreciate art. Bourdieu's work reveals that aesthetic judgment is a process of sorting according to economic status. He rejects Kant’s work which drew heavily upon the idea of aesthetics as that which is related to disinterestedness, taste, and autonomy. Kant held that art is to exist in its own autonomous realm whereas Bourdieu insists that aesthetic disinterestedness and autonomy are class-based notions.

As I was reading Bourdieu’s, From Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, I couldn’t help but relate that which he wrote about to fashion, namely, clothing style. I have often considered the reality that much of my own aesthetic taste related to clothing flows from my parents own taste. At times I have had a crisis of identity where I wonder if my style is at all my own. Ok, so perhaps I was being a bit melodramatic when I wrote that I have had a crisis of identity, but this is something I have often pondered.

I remember clothing shopping with my mother when I was a young girl. If I would select an article/s of clothing that did not please her taste she would condemn my selection. She would also often point me in what she believed to be the tasteful direction of style. Through this process I developed my taste, but when I consider how it was developed, I must question whether it is really even my own. As one who enjoys fashion and is a keen observer I often notice that many children have styles similar to their parents. I was thinking this just last night when one of my friends mother’s was visiting her here at school and I observed that what she was wearing looked just like something my friend would wear. So I recognize that I am not the only one whose taste might not really be my own.

Perhaps sadly, this process might last a lifetime. Granted I am a twenty-one year old woman, by this point one would hope that I would be able to select my own clothing without having my parents say, not so. I remember last Saturday night I got out the clothes that I planned to wear to church on Easter Sunday. My mother took one look and proclaimed to me that she wasn’t so sure the top and the bottom matched style wise. She advised me to consult my father, who in my estimation has an “eye” for style. Of course according to Bourdieu perhaps my father’s eye for style is based solely upon his class status.

I contemplated the above as I was reading Bourdieu’s essay, so as you might imagine I was quite pleased when I came upon the paragraph in which he writes, “And nothing is more distinctive, more distinguished, than the capacity to confer aesthetic status on objects that are banal or even common (because common people make them their own, especially for aesthetic purposes), or the ability to apply the principles of pure aesthetic to the most everyday choices of everyday life, e.g., in cooking, clothing, decorating, completely reversing the popular disposition which annexes aesthetics to ethics. And I say, right on Bourdieu!