Teenage Girls Talking about Class

Abstract

Here I present extracts from discussion about `class' by teenage girls from working class, upper working/lower middle, and upper middle/upper class backgrounds. The data demonstrate the variation in salience of class for girls from these different groups. This finding stands in contrast to the finding from the same research project that for all girls `gender' is highly salient. The material also underpins an argument about research method. There are ambiguities in the girls' talk about class, which raise two issues: first there is the question of how we interpret ambiguous talk; second, there is the issue of our responsibilities to our informants, who are made aware by the research process that they put forward ambiguous or even contradictory views, and are discomfited by this knowledge.

TEENAGE GIRLS TALKING ABOUT CLASS
Heather	[whispers] what's the difference between middle class and lower class?
Linda	lower class don't work
Sarah	middle class are lower than working class
Suzanne	no, working class are lower
Heather	what is the lower class?
me	well...
Heather	I think it is the working...
(17 year old comprehensive school pupils)
Caroline:	well it's money that makes you upper class
Jemima:	no, I think upbringing...
Fiona:	or mixing with rich people
Jemima:	but look how we look down on people with new money, nouveau people...
Candida:	yes, because even girls in this school, they mix with us, but I'll tell you something, I hate nouveau people even more than I hate the middle classes
(laughter)
(17 year old public school pupils)