Question on "things considered classy/sophisticated"

Is it a money thing?

I appreciate OP's point but cannot every remember someone being described as "Henry Higgins-esque" and certainly not in 2021.

Scotch is often absurdly, randomly overpriced, even among other premium liquors. It's always been a signifier of disposable cash, if not class, education, or intelligence. I don't think younger people are very impressed by Scotch.

Not owning/watching television is no longer a hallmark of cultural sophistication, not since movies are dead and all the smart people have started writing/producing TV in the last decade or so. If you want to participate in contemporary culture, you're watching TV, probably streaming.

I hate beer. Now and forever.

^ever remember, not every

You’re right that it’s a money thing. It’s also a gatekeeper thing, in that you don’t know what you don’t know: you pick up the “right” way to act and consume from the people around you, because people tend to act like those in their social circle. If you’ve not been around people who drink scotch or listen to classical music, you wouldn’t know how to go about it. Your consumption habits, ways of speaking, etc tell people the type of other people you have spent your life around. This is how the upper-class British concepts of “U” and “non-U” behaviors came about, and what The Preppy Handbook was making fun of in the US.

There have always been gatecrashers who study and mimic these behaviors to move between classes. However, this whole concept is changing in the internet age, when anyone can go online and learn about classical literature and music, or the most obscure and expensive type of scotch.

Well said, R2. Thank you. I have a friend that grew up in a trailer in backwoods Mississippi who went to law school and now makes very sizable donations to the Houston Grand Opera every year. His dad still lives in the trailer and says he son never sends him money. The son says his dad will spend it on beer and cigarettes, but he has offered to help pay bills.

A person may be sophisticated or worldly in terms of knowledge or culture but not have class. Class is good manners, not being ostentatious and not making public scenes (among other qualities.) Class is not wealth-dependent. A humble person can have class.

Wow, really good responses here. I'm impressed.

【OP】You know what is definitely not classy? The word CLASSY.

R8 ok, get off your high horse.

[quote] if a person unwinds after a long day by having a scotch, reading classic literature, and listening to Prokofiev by the fireplace in their library/study, they are deemed "sophisticated" or "Henry Higgins-eque."

I don't recall Henry Higgins doing any of these things. He was way too ADHD.

R10 Okay, James Mason-esque. Is that better?

When I was a young in the 1960s, there was a concept of lowbrow-middlebrow-highbrow culture, where the James Mason/H.H. scenario would be considered highbrow and the TV and beer would be middle to lowbrow. But I think postmodernism and multiculturalism trashed that Anglocentric class conscious way of thinking. You should enjoy yourself in your own way.

I'm Beverly Boyer...and I'm a pig.

OP, if you want to do more googling on this, the things you’re asking about are called “class signifiers.”

Well, I'd rather be James Mason than Larry the Cable Guy.

Deep Thoughts, by...

Whenever I meet a vocal scotch enthusiast, usually accompanied by a passion for hand-rolled cigars, they usually are playing some role they think suits their economic position. The same is often true about red wine drinkers, but to a less extent.

Sophisticated people don’t wax rhapsodically about their drink of choice, nor make a big show of puffing on a cigar as big as their arm.

I'm interested in class signifiers, and how they change over time and generations.

Cigars were enjoying a cultural renaissance about 15-20 years ago. I can't imagine anything less fashionable now then cigar smoking, particularly among people under 35-40.

Similarly, golf as a pasttime. It doesn't help that it's come to be associated with Trump and other Evil Old Repug White Men.

Antique furniture. We know the resale value on most antiquities/many collectibles has plummeted.

Classical music and opera are big Ifs for me: the audience for live performance has aged and shrunk dramatically for both. The pandemic has all but killed some smaller performing arts organizations. Of all of these, this is the most worrisome one.

Being obsessed with what other people do, eat, drink, or read has never been sophisticated.

I love stories about class gatecrashers who make themselves over using class signifiers. Wallis Simpson is one example, the novel Vanity Fair, of course The Great Gatsby, but they are always interesting.

[quote]【OP】You know what is definitely not classy? The word CLASSY.

This is actually true.

It's all lipstick on the pig of snobbery.

It’s a taste thing.

As stated above, it's a gatekeeper thing. In the end, you're the one living your own life, enjoying what you watch on TV, enjoying what you eat and drink. Why do all that to try to impress someone else. Easier said than done, probably. Hence, "guilty pleasures."

You can't go overboard, either, though, and make a big deal out of drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, etc.: look at me! Slumming! That's even more obnoxious.

Golf is not a class marker!

Scotch and beer are both horrible tasting, and drinking either one disqualifies a person from being considered classy or tasteful.

Do what YOU like for yourself. Who cares what other people think if it's classy or low-brow? Be your authentic self and people will appreciate that. No one likes a poseur.

[quote] Be your authentic self and people will appreciate that.

Not necessarily, IMO.

As Rossini said, “Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind.”

Classy people are kind and polite to everyone, and never discuss money or possessions

I just want to talk about books, classical music, films, wine, politics, whiskey/bourbon/scotch, and opera. It's all I really care about.

Missionary position. Blankets are compulsory. Lights should be off. Legs should not widen more than 20º from the normal and the height of thrust should exceed no more than 20cm. No eye contacts and breathing at minimum intensity. Thrust count should be capped at 25. Moaning is absolutely prohibited. And always, end with a prayer to the Lord.