Tag Archive for 'social class'

Economic inequality and attitudes towards same-sex relationships

Published
by
Kim
1 month, 4 weeks ago
in Economics, International, Lesbian and Gay, Politics, Sexuality and Sociology
. 20 Comments

There’s a really fascinating post at scatterplot from sociologist Tina Fetner. She reports on research with Bob Andersen just published in the American Journal of Political Science. Their interest was sparked by a sudden shift in Canada and the United States towards more accepting attitudes towards same-sex relationships and lesbians and gays - among people from all ages contrary to the usual stickiness of attitudes formed early in the lifecourse. (Note that the shift was from a smaller base in the US than Canada.) They wondered whether the post-materialist thesis - the idea that when material wealth increases, other issues come to the foreground in such a way as to promote greater tolerance. The new study found:

Continue reading ‘Economic inequality and attitudes towards same-sex relationships’

Quentin Bryce becomes Governor-General

Published
by
Kim
3 months ago
in Politics and Women
. 46 Comments

History has been made with the swearing in of Quentin Bryce as Australia’s first female Governor-General.

I was interested to read in the Fin Review yesterday that there’s supposedly some social progress because she will become Patron of teh Really Posh North Shore Polo Club or something similar, where women weren’t admitted until recently. Maybe so. But maybe this should also prompt us to reflect on the role of a very modern Governor-General, and whether this sort of Vice-Regal social frippery really reflects what we want from the representative of our Head of State. And while we’re at it, whatever happened to that great debate over Republicanism that Kevin Rudd called for? Another sound bite?

But in any case, congrats to Quentin!

Blogging political fiction

Published
by
Mark
3 months, 2 weeks ago
in Blogging, Books, Writers & Writing and Film, TV, Video etc
. 34 Comments

One of the rather egregious questions on last week’s Q&A asked the panel to comment on why there was no contemporary political fiction of the stature of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s. As with a lot of the queries posed on Q&A, it’s a bit of a silly one, but it did remind me that we discussed political fiction here at LP a while back, and to give folks the heads up that American speculative fiction writer and anthologist Jeff VanderMeer is blogging about political fiction at The Huffington Post.

[VanderMeer, along with regular guest bloggers, writes regularly at Ecstatic Days.]

The middle-classing of Labor?

Published
by
Kim
3 months, 3 weeks ago
in Federal Elections, Howardia and Sociology
. 40 Comments

The graph is from page 101 of a Parliamentary Library paper on the 2007 federal election. It shows voting patterns disaggregated by electorates ranked in four socio-economic groups according to income.

As Brian Costar observes at Australian Policy Online, it doesn’t mean what you think it means - particularly if your perception of “Howard’s battlers” is that they’re all outer suburban. It’s an artefact of a correlation between voting patterns and low incomes in rural and regional electorates.

I haven’t had a chance to look at the full report, but I’m sure there’s lots of interesting stuff in there for the psephologically inclined.

Guest post by Aaron Darc: Morgan and the Multiplex

Published
by
Guest Poster
3 months, 4 weeks ago
in Consumerism, Culture, Film, TV, Video etc, Food, Foreign policy, Life, Masculinity, Relationships, Religion, Sociology, Terrorism, USA, Urbanism and War
. 193 Comments

Aaron Darc, whose work will be familiar to LPers from his incarnation as Eye on Big Brother, recently interviewed film maker Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock came to prominence with Super Size Me and his new film Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? will be released in Australia next week. You can read more of Aaron’s writing at Pop Psychology for Beautiful People.

MORGAN & THE MULTIPLEX

From fat to fatwah, Murgon Spurlock has lost the pounds he gained for his smash-hit, Super Size Me, and hired himself a camel, for his latest film, Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? I caught up with Morgan, this week, on his press tour of Sydney.

My 20 year old brother, Glenn, lives in a distant galaxy from me, on a planet called Regional Suburbia. He likes football, easy girls and fast cars. His favourite film is The Fast & The Furious; he calls it “wicked sh*t.” It would never have dawned on me, it goes without saying, to peruse my brother’s DVD collection. I knew it would be large, and I knew it would have been entirely purchased at JB Hifi; I know probably more than I should about Revolution Plasma and its disturbing power to appeal to the working and middle classes, and replace what would once have been their lives; draining whatever connection to the real world they had, by offering their unconscious longing to escape, a glistening, mostly poisonous, apple. Here, everybody! Plug into this - you’ll find it… easier. You will have a purpose. You will own that 42″ plasma, even if you f*ck yourself up on credit to do it, and you will build thyself a DVD Tower. There, thy shall easily access The Fast & The Furious; it shall keep the company of Face Off, Rush Hour, the Terminator Trilogy and, but of course, the Die Hard Box Set. Got plasma? check. Got plasma tower? Check. Okay, then, you’re all set to waste a good deal of your life plugged right into consumer oblivion. Isn’t modernity just fabulous?!

I only neared my brother’s DVD tower, out of that familiar desperation to escape the reality of my awkward bi-monthly family visit. Somewhere, in between the time your mother has once again implicitly let it be known you’ve not amounted to what you should have, and the moment following eight meaningless remarks about the state of recent weather, you look around the room, and you think, quite simply, “What can I do, here, to pass the time without having to sincerely engage my family?” My brother’s DVD tower seemed like a pretty good idea.

Continue reading ‘Guest post by Aaron Darc: Morgan and the Multiplex’