Man of Distinction (A Sociological Poem)

Can you tell us your secret?

How did you get such great taste?

So cool how you wear something new

You always find the perfect restaurant

You even know who to read

You stay one step ahead of us

And when we catch up you’ve already moved…..on

It’s all so perfect because you present the everyday man façade

Everybody (and I mean everybody) can relate to you.

You’re an amazing balancing act

You distinguish yourself from the rest of us

But never act like you’re better than us

And that’s why it works so well.

Year in, year out, you find it before we do

You know exactly how to work the display

It’s an intangible thing

A skill we can’t compute

If asked about it, you wouldn’t even field the question

Or you’d say something clever (“I like what I like”)

But can it be so simple?

You’re a class act

You make it look so easy

Today it’s vodka

Tomorrow a cigar

Then an obscure ingredient (“Ooh, I never heard of that one before!” we say with delight)

Top it all off with a philosophy you found around the corner.

It’s incredible, all these tricks up your sleeve

We’re dazzled by the impressions you leave

You don’t have more than us

But you’re a man of distinction

And that’s enough.

Author's note: I wrote this poem to convey sociological ideas that captured my attention at a time I was reading a lot about social class--notably, the book Facing Social Class (edited by Susan T. Fiske and Hazel Rose Markus) and the blog post "High Heels And Distinction Among Women" by Lisa Wade. My poem appears in the blog post "Poetic Sociology," written by Peter Kaufman. Check out his post for great ideas about using poetry to teach sociology.

On a related note, I'm in the middle of reading a work with great insights about social class--Shamus Rahman Khan's Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School. I recommend this book and think it's a good fit for an undergraduate course on social class/social stratification. I'm thinking of teaching Social Stratification next year (would be first time teaching course) and will likely assign Khan's book along with Fiske and Markus' book, plus a few short readings (including the one mentioned above by Wade).