Esl Social Issue Response

Issue Analysis Written Response

The aspect chosen to conduct this investigation is wealth stereotyping of the lower class society. Stereotyping has been an eminent feature in society. From stereotyping, the need to discriminate develops and this leads to prejudice towards behaviours of certain groups of people. This issue was chosen to be analysed as this trend was an incongruous setback, especially due to classism.

As put in by McLeod (2008), the fall back of stereotyping is that people blatantly disregard discrepancies between each person, thus leading to false impressions. Typically, the lower class society is perceived as being unemployed, uneducated and homeless. This perception encourages the media to often categorize lower class individuals as “the underclass”, where women and men are both stereotyped to be societal trash. (Social Classes of People, 2010). Due to this prejudice, the lower class population are discriminated against and denied of opportunities in careers and education, making them feel unimportant. As a result, this clan dwells in inferiority, accepting the dominant society’s discernment of norms. This leads to a trend that has, over time, been brought to light by literary works. During the 19th century, the upper class dismissed the working class as having “inherent laziness” (Anderson &Taylor, 2006, p. 276). Individuals of this class were employed as servants, even seen as disposable “cheap labour” to capitalists, as highlighted by Priestley (1946). This not only disallowed individuals of such class to attain higher ranks, but it also brought about the notion that the lower class society is only fit for such jobs and should further be exploited.

To conduct this investigation, a vast conglomeration of articles and books were analysed thoroughly to identify a suitable issue that would expose society’s conception of social exemplars. It was observed that individuals of a lower wealth class were stereotyped and discriminated, thus leading to an obvious gap between social groups. Among the sources, some were unreliable and not useful as it served a one-sided point of view on matters. The sources cited in this analysis had well developed facts and psychological views on classism and stereotyping by experts in their respective fields, therefore important points were summarized and paraphrased to adhere to the word limit. All of these sources were factual and unbiased, except for the play An Inspector Calls, which provided an abstract outlook on this matter. Still, it was referred to as it gave a clear picture of how the working class were stereotyped, abused and exploited for the benefit of the upper class. In addition to that, Priestley (1946), who was a broadcaster, had based the play on the situation during the 40’s, enlightening us on how the lower class was discriminated against. The article “Types of Social Classes of People” gave a comprehensive