Posh People:Tatler

The program shows a good insight into the culture of the people who have grown up and lives in a higher culture setting. The people who are classed as posh like to think of themselves as part of a small elite group that take part in social events of a similar nature. However, they are finding that as that the middle class is becoming richer and rich people are moving to England, their small elite group is becoming neither small nor elite. Within the group they still perceive themselves as small, they also put across in the magazine that they are "a group of upper class good looking people who wear pretty clothes." The code of higher class people is apparently all in the hand book 'Debrett's Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners' which details the way they think they should act. It includes; rules on social kissing, the use of compliments and how to eat caviar. 

Even though the higher culture have a view of the middle class such as “The middle class becoming rich has destroyed taste in Britain." they are increasingly trying to embrace popular culture, due to the struggle of some people to spend well, in addition to having to maintain a large house. One even had part of his mansion be covered in graffiti to attract "punters" to get money to keep running his house. Within the program one of the writers within Tatler is sent to do a piece on poundland, she is given a £15 budget to spend on the most impressive things in the shop. In the shop she was amazed by things such as washing powder for £1, which is "unheard of". She breaks the stereotype of higher class people looking down on people who use shops such as poundland, yet there seems to be an aspect of being entertained by the environment she's in. There's also a change in the people in the upper class. In the program they interview a man from Nigeria who's made large amounts of money before moving to London. When he was driving in his Ferrari he was asked who he played for, the assumption being that he was a football player. This shows the stereo type that most people have in all the classes that those that have lots of money through means of their own are posh and white.

Amy Cuddy's TED talk, Your body language shapes who you are.

Amy Cuddy's TED talk focuses on how we can change the way we are presented to others as well as ourselves. The way we communicate to people causes them to judge us based upon these communications; they can be verbal or non-verbal. The talk focuses on the importance of our non-verbal communication and how we can change it. She also makes the point that we are influenced by our own non-verbal communications. Cuddy says we often change our body language to show either our dominance, by opening up and making ourselves bigger, or our powerlessness, wrapping ourselves up. It is seen too often be linked to gender, "women feel chronically less powerful then men". She says that our non-verbal govern how we think and feel about ourselves. The research that she conducted showed that after partaking in high power poses for 2 minutes, such as the "wonder woman", the candidates felt more confident and took more risks than the ones who were in low power poses for the same period of time. These poses can, eventually, cause us to change how confident we are in everyday situations, and even change our non-verbal communication permanently.

Sub-cultural groups are sensitive to contemporary trends in fashion,style and music.

   Students are a sub-cultural group that is sensitive to contemporary trends in fashion, style and music. This group is younger, often 16-18, than the rest of the western sub-cultural groups. Stereo typically, they all dress very similar to keep with current trends. A signifier of students is often an up to date phone and fashionable clothing, along with the way they talk by using abbreviations, are a syntam of a student.

    

    Maslow's hierarchy of needs gives some reasoning as to why a person would join a group that is sensitive to contemporary trends in fashion, style and music. The hierarchy suggests that you need friends before you can wok on self esteem, which is aided by your friends who you receive respect from. When you've achieved the self esteem you can do the parts in self actualization such as creativity. The creativity is what allows the trends to become sensitive. People also join a group to fulfill the need for a social status, in accordance to Gration, Reilly and Titford. The trends are also there for the need everyone has for group identification, if the group changes the way it's identified also will change.

     There are many codes that attract people to be in a sub-culture, even within culture there it is a code to be part of a group. There is code within the group to wear clothes of the same style, fashion in popular culture is sensitive, causing the group's style to be sensitive. The music is less sensitive as groups usually stick to a few popular artists. Other groups that are different to the stereotypical student will use fashion, style and music to show how they are separate to popular culture. There, there is a code to dislike the popular culture.