Topic: social class

When I was taking cotillion classes as a kid, our teachers would reiterate that the point of etiquette was to be an equalizer. In other words, since we all knew what politenesses were expected of us in social situations, everyone would feel comfortable. However, that’s not the case. Different cultures have different standards of etiquette, and etiquette often becomes a way to quickly indicate who came from the ‘right’ background and who didn’t. While common etiquette united the kids in my social circle, anyone from a different background would have immediately given themselves away as an outsider when they didn’t grab the right fork or know the proper pleasantry to use. More »