Home > Terms > English (EN) > etiquette

etiquette

Class and status anxiety in an apparently egalitarian society have created ample opportunity for social advisors to judge correct behavior, especially with regard to formal ritual occasions like weddings and funerals. At the same time, etiquette as a social code of the elite was also identified with assimilation through mass media, permitting a series of published social arbiters to flourish from generation to generation. Emily Post’s 1920s Etiquette, for example, drew on the cachet of old money to advise on problems dealing with servants, accents and travel, as well as special occasions. Amy Vanderbilt, with another established name, took on a similar role for the postwar middle class.

While many baby boomers rejected such stylized behaviors as inauthentic in the 1960s, the uncertainties of multicultural lives as well as ongoing life crises have produced new figures for millennial behavior. These again cater to individuals without family guidance or education in such social traditions. Miss Manners (Judith Martin) in her columns and books adapts an ironic Victorian voice to current questions of shifting gender, family and ethnic conjunctions; Martha Stewart, while focused on style, conveys guidance in living for the leisured middle class. Etiquette has also been conveyed by mass media as part of the portrayals of class, as well as explorations of character, issues of marriage, bereavement, etc.

There are, of course, class and ethnic differences in behavior, ranging from expectations of participants in ritual events to issues of loudness, assertiveness or presentations of self in social situations that continuously divide multicultural and intergenerational gatherings. In such a setting, formality (derived from European models) may constitute a neutral ground or an additional layer of repression or exclusion.

0
Collect to Blossary

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Terms in the News

Billy Morgan

Sports; Snowboarding

The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...

Marzieh Afkham

Broadcasting & receiving; News

Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...

Weekly Packet

Language; Online services; Slang; Internet

Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Banking; Investment banking

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...

Spartan

Online services; Internet

Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...

Featured Terms

stanley soerianto
  • 0

    Terms

  • 107

    Blossaries

  • 6

    Followers

Industry/Domain: TV shows Category: Drama

The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is a supernatural drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, based on the book series of the same name ...

Contributor

Featured blossaries

Capital Market Theory

Category: Business   1 15 Terms

Mental Disorders

Category: Health   3 20 Terms

Browers Terms By Category