Reading: Bettie, Women without Class

1. How does Bettie employ the terms performance and performativity? What are the differences between them? How do these terms help her to understand class?

2. We've seen that anthropologists frequently grapple with the role of structure and agency in shaping the experiences of the people they study. According to Bettie, what is the relationship between structure and agency for the different types of girls she studied?

3. What is class, in Bettie's view? How does class interact with race/ethnicity and gender in Bettie's account? Based on her ethnography, how should we understand class in the United States? Do you find her analysis persuasive?

4. Bettie repeatedly says that the girls she studied do not talk in class terms. What other differences do they highlight? What terms do they use? Why do you think they don't explicitly identify class differences as such? Or does Bettie overstate this point?

5. What factors differentiated the working-class preps from other working class girls who were not on the college track?

6. What methods did Bettie use in her ethnography? Were they effective?

 

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