Terms and Explanations

Because I will be referring to many various terms and concepts which may be confusing and some may find quite complex, I’ll be providing a list on the various terms I’ll be using so that, at any time, a reader can look back up if they become confused or need clarification.

The term, cultural capital, was created by the sociological thinker, Pierre Bourdieu, as a way of explained how and why people interact the way they do. Bourdieu defines cultural capital as “accumulated labor…which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor…the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. It is what makes the games of society-not least, the economic game-something other than simple games of chance offering at every moment the possibility of a miracle” (Capital 46).

Now, if this confuses you, do not worry, one of the biggest criticisms of Bourdieu is his lack of clarity with his concepts. If you don’t understand what he is saying, some of the brightest thinkers in the world have had problems with Bourdieu. An easy way of think about Bourdieu’s ideas is to think about all social inactions as a vast marketplace, the cultural marketplace. In this market place, there is no money, only what Bourdieu calls cultural capital, which can be described as a sort of influence or authority. Every person, or agent, in society has a little bit of cultural capital, but it is possible to gain more and the more cultural capital someone has, the more their opinions and beliefs matter, the legitimacy and credibility they have and the more people will listen to what they have to say. Cultural capital provides structure to social situations and informs our decisions in social exchanges, for example, if you go to a doctor’s office and learn that you need to start eating better, you’ll listen to a doctor more than a nurse because a doctor has more education and more skill, which gives them more cultural capital.

Bourdieu names identifies that there are several different types of cultural capital, each of which come from different sources. One is known as known as “the embodied state” which relates to money and wealth, as well as all things inherited like linguistic skills, and, while some say that queer people have a lot of money on political campaigning, known as “Pink Money”, I have never bought that idea because then they would actually be a demographic that politicians would cater to refer than just a passing consideration. Besides, if they really had the money that the term implies, full marriage rights would have been passed years ago. But, perhaps, this category does relate to the queer community, then obviously something else is in the way. That is where the other categories come in.

The next form of cultural capital, one which is key to any group that faces stereotyping is what Bourdieu calls cultural capital’s “objectified state” which he states is “objectified in material objects and media, such as writings, paintings, monuments, instruments, etc., is transmissible in its materiality. A collection of paintings, for example, can be transmitted as well as economic capital (if not better, because the capital transfer is more disguised)” (Capital 50).

Cultural capital in its objectified state, according to Bourdieu, is actually more powerful than its embodied state because it is more transmissible and is something that is produced and created by the agents instead of merely something that is possessed. The objectified state of cultural capital is something that is key to queer people because this is the power that their narratives give to them and it is this power that allows them to be able to break the screens and the stereotypes which define them, but this is the power that is often exchanged for another type of capital in order for others to listen.

Symbolic capital is the type of capital which is very present nowadays and one which queer people must trade in their objectified capital in order to gain. Bourdieu defines it as “economic or political capital that is disavowed, mis-re-cognised and thereby recognised, hence legitimate, a ‘credit’ which, under certain conditions, and always in the long run, guarantees ‘economic’ profits” (Svendsen Expanded Concept 4). Symbolic capital can be explained through the saying “everyone has their fifteen-minutes of fame.” Symbolic capital is the type of capital that comes from recognition and from the public noticing you, like the Warhol effect. Symbolic capital is something that allows queer voices to be heard, but, in order to receive symbolic capital, queer people must conform to common portrayals of them in the media and popular culture and this causes them to loose their ability to have their stories heard because they often do not fit with the commonly held beliefs and conceptions.

Works Cited:

-Svendsen, Gunnar L. H. Bourdieu’s Expanded Concepts of Capital: Its Potential for Application with a Focus on Social Capital. 4. The Danish Institute of Border Region Studies. October 2001. Retrieved 19 Nov. 2012. Online.

-Bourdieu, Pierre. “Forms of Capital.” Handbook of Theory of Research for the Sociology of Education. 46, 50. Ed. J. E. Richardson. Greenwood Press: 1986. Online.