See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/316543063

Psychology, Gender, Sexuality, Class

Chapter · November 2015

DOI: 10.1057/9781137345899_23

CITATIONS READS

0 1,141

2 authors:

Bridgette Rickett Maxine Woolhouse

Leeds Beckett University Leeds Beckett University
22 PUBLICATIONS   151 CITATIONS    14 PUBLICATIONS   54 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

'Bad mothers of fat children': A feminist analysis of discourse and voice in relation to 'childhood obesity' intervention View project

Women, Work and UK IT View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Maxine Woolhouse on 28 April 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

This file is to be used only for a purpose specified by Palgrave Macmillan, such as checking proofs, preparing an index, reviewing,
endorsing or planning coursework/other institutional needs. You may store and print the file and share it with others helping
you with the specified purpose, but under no circumstances may the file be distributed or otherwise made accessible to any other
third parties without the express prior permission of Palgrave Macmillan.
Please contact rights@palgrave.com if you have any queries regarding use of the file.

PROOF

22
Class
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse

This chapter will present research and theory in the field of psychology that
help us to understand how gender, sexuality, and class articulate together to
fashion our everyday understandings of other people, ourselves, and the spaces
and places we inhabit.
The first part of the chapter asks how psychology has conceived of class and
how class is understood to relate to our experiences, practices, and relationships
with people and place. Second, we look more closely at research and theory
in psychology that have examined how gender and class intersect in impor-
tant and interesting ways. Moving on to reviewing literature and theory that
have attended to sexualities and class, we aim to map out some of the fascinat-
ing findings that have emerged from this very small, but growing, literature.
The chapter will then focus on recent, illuminating research that has honed
in on some precise ways in which our gender, sexuality, and social class are
understood by us and others in intersecting and multiple ways.
Within the discipline of psychology, social class has a wide variety of mean-
ings, definitions, and modes of measurement, but is often understood simply
as socio-economic status or ‘SES’ (pertaining to the relative social position of
individuals based on differences in income, educational attainment, and occu-
pation). However, some work in psychology and in social sciences conceives
of the term ‘class’ in a much more complex manner: class can be consid-
ered a social category which reflects practices, values, histories, and the social
‘capital’ associated with these (e.g. Langston, 1988). Accordingly, Lott (2012)
understands social class as comprising both social and material structures and
ideology, which are mutually reinforcing to “produce and maintain inequal-
ity” (ibid., p. 651). In this way, social class can be thought of as both a social
construction (e.g. produced and reproduced in and through discourse and
discursive practices) and simultaneously structured through unequal access to
material resources and social, economic, and political power. Therefore, using
these ideas, class may or may not be related to actual differences in income (see

391

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-391 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
392 Intersections

Diemer & Seyffert, 2013 for a discussion of debates about the conceptualisation
of social class).
The first thing to note in a chapter on gender, sexuality, and class is the
startling paucity of research on class within psychology (Lott & Bullock, 2010).
For example, Lott (2012) notes that, in the two volumes of the fifth edition of
Fiske, Gilbert, and Lindzey’s (2010) Handbook of social psychology, social class is
covered in little more than one page. This has led many authors to attempt to
explain the reasons for such an important omission of thought on the subject.
For example, Sayer (2005, p. 1) has argued that “class is an embarrassing and
unsettling subject”.

History, key theory, and research

Given the contemporary dominance of social cognition in the discipline

(Augoustinos, 1999), it is perhaps unsurprising that the majority of psy-
chological research has been mainly interested in the relationship between
‘socio-economic status’ and health (risk)-related behaviours, prompted by the
large body of research which points to gross health inequalities across the class
spectrum (e.g. Graham & Kelly, 2004). This research typically applies social cog-
nition models in attempts to link attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions to health
behaviours (Mielewczyk & Willig, 2007). Congruent with mainstream, Western
psychological research in general, such models focus on the individual (e.g.
beliefs, attitudes etc.) at the expense of examining the wider socio-political,
cultural, and economic contexts within which ‘health behaviours’ take place
(Mielewczyk & Willig, 2007). Consequently, class-related health disparities are
commonly regarded as resulting from individual (poor) choices (see Day et al.,
2014 for a critique of the treatment of class within psychology), ignorance of
health-promoting activities, and faulty cognitions (e.g. Malson, 1998).
An example of the above are Wardle and Steptoe’s (2003) findings that that
those from ‘lower’ SES groups were less ‘health conscious’, held stronger beliefs
about the role of chance in health, and spent less time thinking about the
future, all of which were associated with “unhealthy behavioural choices”
(ibid., p. 440). However, as those such as Day et al. (2014) have argued, the
notion of ‘choice’ in relation to health has been invoked as part of the neo-
liberal agenda, promoted as if we could all have healthful lives if only we would
take personal responsibility for health and make the ‘right’ choices, something
which those such as Walkerdine (2002) argue to be a myth.
Aside from ‘mainstream’ psychological research on class, there exists a body
of work informed by more ‘critical’ perspectives which, rather than reducing
classed practices to the level of the individual (e.g. attitudes, cognitions etc.),
aim to understand these through a lens of ideology and structural positionings.
For example, in the context of the United States, Lott (2012) notes the
myriad ways in which poor people are disadvantaged in most aspects of life

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-392 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 393

compared with the more affluent. For example, despite the rhetoric of edu-
cation being the route to happiness and success, children from poor families
are educationally disadvantaged from the start; the schools available to them
are inadequately resourced, teachers have lower expectations (than those of
middle-class children), and their parents are assumed to be disinterested and
lacking in competence to help their children (Lott, 2001 cited in Lott, 2012).
Later, children from poor families encounter financial barriers to accessing
higher education and, should they manage to get there, experience a lack of
sense of belonging, which, in turn, predicts social adjustment and academic
performance (Ostrove & Long, 2007). Aside from educational disadvantages,
Lott (2012) notes that the psychological and physical health implications of
these experiences leave working-class people subject to discrimination and
stigmatisation.
In the therapeutic domain, Smith et al. (2011) investigated classism in
the context of the counsellor–client relationship. Specifically, they explored
the influence of clients’ social class on the early diagnostic impressions of
counsellors-in-training. The authors reported that counsellors with higher lev-
els of “belief in a just world” (i.e. “people get what they deserve in life”)
were more likely to view hypothetical clients from poor or working-class back-
grounds as unpleasant to work with and more dysfunctional than clients from
more privileged backgrounds, findings which (as the authors suggested) imply
that poor and working-class clients may receive less than favourable treatment
in the counselling context.
In relation to class and affect, Power et al. (2011) conducted an intriguing
experimental study investigating gender, class, and emotion. The study was
informed by arguments that the expression of emotions is, in part, governed
by power relations (Hochschild, 1979), whereby, for example, those in more
powerful positions are at liberty to express anger in ways that people of ‘lower’
status are not; the more powerful attempt to suppress anger in ‘subordinates’
as a form of social control (Stearns & Stearns, 1986 cited in Power et al., 2011),
and people in less powerful positions are likely to appease their oppressors by
expressing submissive emotions such as shame and gratitude (Tiedens et al.,
2000 cited in Power et al., 2011). Indeed, Power et al. (2011) found that, when
presented with a poor white woman who expressed either anger or shame
about her poverty, participants (students at a prestigious university) responded
more positively to the expression of shame; the poor woman’s expressions
of anger prompted the participants to feel anger towards the woman. Con-
versely, the poor woman’s expression of shame produced expressions of pity
from the participants. The authors argued that performances of emotion may
legitimise existing hierarchical power relations; expressions of shame from
poor women about their poverty suggest taking responsibility for it, which,
in turn, justifies the circumstances of the more privileged. Responding with
anger towards angry poor women is a mechanism of silencing them and “they

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-393 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
394 Intersections

are denied an important pathway towards political mobilization” (Power et al.,

2011, p. 191).

Important points for students

Contemporary ‘mainstream’ psychology is dominated by social cogni-

tive theories which tend to reduce understandings of ‘ways of being’ to
individual ‘choices’ structured by an individual’s cognitions. This has
the effect of obscuring the wider socio-economic, political, and social
conditions that structure people’s lives and therefore justifies the status
quo by failing to acknowledge the privileges and disadvantages that are
(re)produced through social inequalities. As such, it is crucial to:

• recognise our own class positioning (including our access to material,

social, and economic resources and our value systems, which may be
informed by these) and how this may shape our worldview and the
psychological theories we adhere to;
• adopt a critical and ‘class-focused’ lens when considering psychologi-
cal theories by, for example, asking questions such as “To what extent
is social class acknowledged?”; “How is social class conceptualised?”;
“What might be the implications of this theory for different social
groups?”;
• take social class into account when engaged in our own work as either
students of psychology, practitioners, or academics.

Gender and class

A tendency in psychology to both focus heavily on ‘sex difference’ and ignore
or minimise social class, while simultaneously constructing these two categories
as separate and ‘fixed’, has led to little attention being paid to the theoreti-
cal accounting of the intersection between gender and class. However, there
has been interest in developing a cohesive theoretical account of the inter-
secting constructs such as class, with assumptions of the identity as being
constructed by fluctuating and fluid discourses/meanings from the world an
individual inhabits (e.g. McDowell, 2009) rather than ‘fixed’ in time and space.
In this section we will consider ‘gender’ in terms of research that has focused
on cisgender experiences, masculinities and femininities, and class. In our
last section we look at research around the intersection of gender, sexuality,
and class to enable a focus on the ‘T’ (in ‘LGBT’ – commonly used to refer
to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sexual minorities) while allowing

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-394 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 395

an examination of the crucial dimension of gender for trans experience and

identity.
For many theorists, the understanding and analysis of intersectionality
between gender and class coincides with poststructuralist argument (Butler,
1999). Poststructuralism is a term used to denote the ideas of mid-twentieth-
century French philosophers/theorists who focus on the complexity of humans
themselves and the impossibility of escaping structures in order to study them.
This body of research also tends to follow Foucauldian understandings of
power, where discourse is the medium through which power is transformed
into knowledge and understanding of ourselves and others (see the chapter on
ageing for more detail on poststructuralism, power, and identity). This small
body of research falls roughly into the three applied areas of education, health,
and counselling.
Our first example is a study with mothers that explores the psychological
impact of social class on involvement with their children’s schooling. In this
research Reay (1998) found that, although both working- and middle-class
mothers were significantly emotionally invested in their children’s education,
the mothers’ differing class positions were very apparent. For example, middle-
class mothers conveyed a sense of entitlement and belonging in relation to the
education system, assuming their children would academically achieve, enter
the higher education system, and pursue prestigious careers. In contrast, the
working-class mothers expressed uncertainty, a sense of inadequacy in terms of
their ability to support their children through the system, and assumptions that
their children would not be welcome in middle-class (e.g. grammar) schools.
For example, talking of her daughter’s possible entry to grammar school, one
working-class mother commented:

It won’t make much difference whether Susan passes the entrance exam,
they won’t think she’s good enough to go there and they won’t think I’m
good enough either.
(Reay, 1998, p. 161)

Further research by Ringrose and Walkerdine (2008) explores intersections

of femininity and class through analysis of British ‘make-over’ reality TV
shows such as ‘Honey We’re Killing the Kids!’ (BBC3) and ‘The House of
Tiny Tearaways’ (BBC3). Here it is argued that such shows serve to produce
and transform ‘failing’ working-class mothers into idealised, neo-liberal, bour-
geois (feminine) subjects. Typically, primarily working-class parents’ putative
faulty parenting practices and dysfunctional lifestyles are monitored, scruti-
nised, and held responsible for sabotaging the future health and life chances
of their children. Underpinned by the question: “Is the transformation of
abject subjects possible?” (ibid. p. 227), the goal of such shows is to re-educate

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-395 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
396 Intersections

these so-called failing mothers, while, at the same time, these abject feminine
subjects invite the viewer to identify “against what we must not be” (ibid.,
p. 227), thus fuelling attempts to transform ourselves into the normative bour-
geois feminine subject (Ringrose & Walkerdine, 2008). However, the authors
note how the pathologised “working class failure” (ibid., p. 237) depicted
in such programmes is crucially represented as resulting from individual bad
choices and ignorance, serving to screen out the poverty, deprivation, and
social exclusion which commonly structure the lives of those featured in the
shows.
In the broad area of health, and in particular food, eating, and body manage-
ment practices, Woolhouse et al. (2012) examined the talk of predominantly
working-class teenage girls in the context of focus group discussions. Feminist-
informed poststructuralist discourse analysis was employed, a mode of analysis
that aims to identify dominant discourses, or ways of talking, that are drawn
upon and resisted to construct identities. Woolhouse et al. (2012) specifi-
cally explored the ways in which classed and gendered discourses were drawn
upon in order for the girls to make sense of various ways of eating and
body management practices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a key finding was that
eating was generally constructed as an ‘unfeminine’ activity, involving expres-
sions of desire, appetite, greed, and animality. For example, when discussing
the different ways in which boys and girls ‘can’ eat (producing a general
consensus about the social acceptability of boys eating greater quantities, con-
suming ‘unhealthier’ foods, showing greater enthusiasm for food and feeling
more comfortable eating compared with girls), one of the participants (Celia)
accounted for this disparity by stating: “cos girls aren’t supposed to eat like
pigs are they?” to which another participant responded “like [girls should be]
ladylike”.
The authors accounted for such talk by considering longstanding construc-
tions of women ‘as body’ (e.g. Bordo, 2003) and ruled by their bodies, which
are regarded as unstable, out of control, and inherently weak (Ussher, 1989),
yet simultaneously voracious, threatening, and in need of control (Bordo,
2003). Therefore, for a woman to exhibit control over her appetites sig-
nifies moral and sexual virtue, and constitutes her as ‘properly’ feminine
(controlled, delicate, dainty, passive, and so forth). Yet, as implied by the
participants, this idealised version of femininity is very much classed (i.e.
‘ladylike’), built upon bourgeois feminine characteristics (Walkerdine, 1990,
1996).
Edley and Wetherell’s early (1997) work with public school boys’ experi-
ences in school with a focus on the ‘cults’ (p. 205) of masculinity within this
middle-class, educational context is a rare example of research that explores
the more privileged domain of middle-class living and experience. Here the

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-396 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 397

authors report how the boys are often caught between two contradictory,
hierarchically structured positions of boyhood, where ‘hard’ boys and sporty
boys were both structurally (through representation in awards and positions
of power and esteem, e.g. head boy) and discursively privileged, and other
masculinities that fall outside this position were constructed as ‘wimps’ or ‘new
men’, differentiated into a lower social order.
The sociologist Dianne Reay’s (2002) work later referred back to these findings
when she told us the compelling story of Shaun, using narrative analysis to
tease out the main features of a white, working-class boy struggling to achieve
academically during his first year of secondary school. This research provides
an acute example of how processes of class work through the individual as
Shaun struggles to reconcile being a tough boy in the playground and being
a high-performing boy in the classroom. Unlike Edley and Wetherell’s (1997)
boys, being a tough boy in the playground, while privileged in terms of social
order, is derogated in school structures and processes, and, in turn, being a high
achiever is highly valued in educational discourse, structures, and processes.
This causes a classed and gendered collision of identities for Shaun, forcing a
split for him into what he sees to be a double person. Reay (2002) powerfully
argues that this dilemma or split “lies at the very heart of class differentials in
attainment” (p. 228).
In addition, Courtenay’s research has aided us to begin to think about how
masculinity and class could be implicated in explanations of health practices.
According to Courtenay (2000), men want to demonstrate dominant ideas
around manhood that are culturally defined though classed (and raced) posi-
tions. However, despite differential positions, all these ideas about manhood
commonly reject what is feminine and often also embrace what is considered
to be unhealthy. For example, unhealthy practices (such as extreme risk-taking)
are often used to enable power positions (‘risk-taker’ versus ‘coward’, for exam-
ple) to reproduce unequal power relations between them and women and less
powerful men.
Lastly, American Counselling Psychologist William Ming Liu’s research work
(e.g. Lui, et al. 2009) has mapped out many applied repercussions for the classed
nature of how masculinities are practised and understood. His 2009 work looks
at homeless working-class men’s experiences, examining the stories these men
tell about their lives. In these, masculinity is suffused with status and class,
with the construction of a successful masculinity being drawn as independent,
achieving, and being a breadwinner. But these constructions are themselves
classed in ideology that fashions itself differentially according to class (i.e. hard-
working labourer versus successful lawyer). Through this research, Liu argues
that men who do not meet the normative expectations of what is successful for
working-class men may experience frustration and shame.

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-397 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
398 Intersections

Important points for applied professionals

Gendered identities and experiences are always constructed and

shaped through class ideologies. For example, different versions of
masculinities/femininities are privileged or marginalised and may carry
different meanings according to the particular class context. This implies
that gender and class intersect to produce various forms of subjectivity,
and therefore attempts to understand gendered or classed ‘ways of being’
in isolation from one another will result in impoverished accounts. For
example, working-class women’s experiences are likely to differ signifi-
cantly from those of middle-class women given their different material,
structural, and discursive positionings and differential access to social,
cultural, and economic forms of power.

Sexualities and class

During the rest of the chapter we will attempt to examine the way in which
LGBT groups have been researched and understood in terms of the social class
they are categorised, or categorise themselves, as belonging to. However, as
McDermott has previously argued (2006), LGBT psychology has conducted
important research, but there remains little work on social class in LGBT
psychology’s wider academic thinking, with much research generated from
samples that are usually white and middle-class. This has led to a conclusion
that “The exclusion of social class from sexualities research and theory raises
epistemological questions about whose experiences are being used to generalise
understandings of sexual and intimate life” (McDermott, 2011, p. 64).
McDermott has carried out a body of research that aims to illuminate some
of the processes involved in the regulation of sexuality and class inequities
that often result in negative outcomes for women who identify as ‘sexual
other’. For example, using interviews with 24 women (living a variety of loca-
tions across the United Kingdom and employed in various types of work)
and drawing on feminist interpretations of Bourdieu’s work (1984) to under-
stand sexuality and class (e.g. Skeggs, 1997) resulted in a number of findings.
First, the women reported a heavy regulation of their sexuality in the places
where they were employed and recounted multiple experiences of their sexu-
ality being derogated. Indeed, many reported leaving their places of work as
result of the homophobia they experienced. In addition, the women reported
that the performance of a lesbian identity in their working environments
was a serious risk for them that resulted in psychologically demanding ‘prac-
tices of survival’ (p. 202) such as ‘acting straight’. The important feature of
these findings is that these experiences were heavily classed. For middle-class

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-398 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 399

women, the understanding of their sexuality by their colleagues was less likely
to be considered threatening or risky, whereas for working-class women their
sexualities were more likely to be seen as risky to perform while at work, forcing
them to engage in a number of practices, such as masquerading as heterosex-
ual, which, in turn, placed a greater burden on their psychological health.
So for working-class women the impact of both their class and their sexual-
ity colluded to ensure that their experience of being a lesbian at work was
risky, stressful, and, as McDermott terms it, ‘dangerous’ for them and their
health (p. 201).
Other psychologists have made clear attempts to research communities that
do not fit a heteronormative and middle-class focus. For example, Flowers and
Buston (2001) have looked at the experiences of young gay men in working-
class communities. While an explicit theorising of how class is intersected
with masculinities for young, gay men is not a main aim of this research,
we do see heterosexuality problematised in the stories emerging from young,
gay working-class men. This research focuses on the sociocultural context of
heterosexuality and sees this as central to understanding accounts of identities
and experiences. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, interviews
with young men revealed multiple barriers to ‘being’ gay. For example, one
theme centred on the view that a gay identity was a derided one, resulting in
a need to ‘live a lie’ and conform to the default assumptions of being straight.
Interestingly, we also see the emergence of stories that see gay identities as
being continuous and spatially located, highlighting the importance of differ-
ing locales in the construction and performance of gay identities (i.e. home,
school, and the workplace). In addition, the authors conclude that access to
positive representations within working-class communities is of crucial impor-
tance for gay men and lesbians in providing access to possible identities and
practices that are valued and respected.

Important points for academics

As with gender (and other forms of identity, e.g. ‘race’, age, ability, etc.),
sexuality intersects with class in ways which shape our practices and sub-
jective experiences and may produce very different outcomes depending
on the marginalised or privileged status of our sexuality and class loca-
tion. As students of psychology, practitioners, or academics, it is therefore
paramount that we recognise the privileging of heterosexuality and the
persistent homophobic cultural climate that people of marginalised sex-
ual identities contend with on a daily basis. However, as the research
reviewed above clearly indicates, we cannot assume that people sharing

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-399 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
400 Intersections

(Continued)

similar sexual identities will have similar experiences and outcomes

when, in fact, their class positionings may impact these greatly. This
points to the need for examining how class and sexuality may intersect
to produce very different experiences, practices, and outcomes.

Intersections of gender, class, and sexualities

Lynn Weber’s (2001) early work suggests that the psychological dimensions
of everyday life are intertwined and mutually dependent, as are systems of
inequality that both limit and restrict some people while privileging others.
Weber’s arguments go on to map out a theory of gender, sexuality, and class
hierarchies that are not static or fixed but are located within space and time.
Therefore, to understand the intersections of these multiple identities we must
understand the specific historical and political context they exist in. Weber
uses the illuminating example of the term ‘mothers’ to argue the importance
of such a focus. For example, if we compare how we understand ‘traditional
mothers’, ‘lesbian mothers’, ‘social mothers’ (and, we would add, ‘single moth-
ers’), we can see that meanings are hierarchical in that they serve to prescribe
the morality, the legitimacy, and, indeed, the legal rights of these mothers to
rear their children. In addition, these meanings are located within multiple
understandings of gender, sexualities (and, indeed, race), and class.
As such, other authors have argued (e.g. Clarke & Braun, 2009) that it is
vital to examine the hierarchical gendered, classed (and raced) positions that
LGBT people occupy in order to examine the multiple categories of identity
and the impact these have on experience. Research carried out by Gibson
and Macleod (2012) has used such a focus to look at how South African
female university students who identify as lesbians talk about their experi-
ences. Here, women reported experiencing differing levels of ‘heterosexism’
(a term commonly used to describe an ideology that denies and denigrates
anything non-heterosexual) depending upon which socio-economic space they
occupied. For example, while white, middle-class spaces (such as university)
were constructed as ‘safer’ for middle-class women, more traditional working-
class spaces (such as townships) were represented as ‘dangerous’ for them as
lesbians. However, heterosexism ensured that even while in ‘safer’ spaces the
women still felt ‘strange’. For working-class women, the otherness associated
with their sexuality was compounded by the otherness of their class, with
homosexuality constructed as a being derogated as ‘other’ which reflected their
association with the ‘other’ of lower social classes, and they therefore feared
being associated with either. In sum, LGBTQ (generally referring to Lesbian,

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-400 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 401

Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer or Questioning) people’s experiences of what

is considered to be safe are shaped by intersecting positions of class and
sexualities.
Further research has examined how culturally valued discourses around
gender, heterosexuality, and class articulate through workplace practice. For
example, in Rickett and Roman’s (2013) work on female door supervisors,
the authors identify a discourse of ‘playing the hero’. This discourse illumi-
nates and troubles notions of heterosexuality. For male colleagues, ‘playing
the hero’ appears to be a powerful means of gaining sexual success through
a heterosexual, hegemonic masculinity whose inherent ‘hero’ status is gained
through the capacity to protect woman. Women, in turn, are presented as
being helpless in the face of such displays, turning from sensible womanhood
to ‘throwing themselves’ at the ‘hero’, an unruly and hypersexual femininity
that draws on heavily gendered, classed, and morally imbued understand-
ings of acceptable and unacceptable sexual practice (Skeggs, 1997). Here, then,
notions of the working-class hero bolster powerful ideals around masculinity
and heterosexuality that position men and women in firmly divided roles. It is
argued that it is through heterosexuality that working-class masculinities can
be invested with notions of strength and bravery. In addition, it is the use of
‘playing the hero’ that reiterates ideology around ‘the hero’ as being knowing,
strong, powerful, physically and sexually agentic, and in control of the space
he inhabits and the occupants of it. On the other hand, normative expecta-
tions of femininities in the same space are associated with a lack of autonomy
and agency, having potentially ungovernable sexual practices, and being vul-
nerable to physical harm. Indeed, it appears for many working-class women in
this workspace that any social and political inequalities can only be overcome
by securing a heterosexual relationship with a man who embodies this ‘hero
position’.

Current debates and future directions

A recent example of research in psychology has purposefully focused on the

cultural and social meanings associated with gender, transsexualities, and class.
Using media text, Rickett et al. (2013) analysed the reporting of a UK media
‘story’. In January 2013 the UK media were dominated by an article/thread writ-
ten by newspaper writers and feminists Julie Burchill and Susanne Moore. The
resulting explosion of online and print content preoccupied itself with defin-
ing feminism, feminists, ‘real women’, transgender, and the trans community.
Using feminist-informed poststructuralist discourse analysis, this research inter-
rogated constructions of what it is a woman and/or a feminist and how these
ideas can be shaped by a gendered and classed ideology around who and what
we see to be genuine, legitimate, worthy, and respectable.

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-401 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
402 Intersections

A first feature of the reporting of this story was the drawing up of two fac-
tions of women, who were presented as being involved in a war/fight. Within
this fight, two clear positions were constructed: the ‘old guard’ (characterised as
second-wave, working-class feminists who are drawn as out-of-date, ‘ugly’, and
angry older women) and what researchers termed the ‘young pretenders’ (mem-
bers of the trans community depicted as inauthentic, immature, hysterical,
educated but unknowing).
Throughout the texts there is a continual and wilful mis-gendering of trans
women, coupled with a stark depiction of their lives and activities as an effort-
ful and economically privileged performance of womanhood. This enables a
questioning of the authenticity of womanhood for trans women (i.e. effortless
womanhood versus effortful womanhood). In doing so, heavily classed notions
around self-care product consumption are drawn upon; for example, the use
of a ‘Bic’ versus a ‘litre of yak’s butter’ is used to derogate easy, cheaper-to-
buy products commonly associated with working-class consumption, whereas
other, more expensive, perhaps exclusive products, usually denoting middle-
class consumption, are held up as desirable. All in all, a purposeful attempt is
made to present trans women as inauthentic, using their classed privilege to
purchase the accoutrements and time to ‘perform’ womanhood.
Analysis of these media texts illuminates the intersection of gender,
sexualities, and class in action. Throughout the texts there is a clear classed and
gendered discourse on the appropriateness of language and action (Day, 2012).
Here, educated trans women are ridiculed for the consumption of self-care
products and the perceived ‘effort’ required to maintain markers of femininity,
while women written as working-class are positioned as acting outside nor-
mative boundaries by being angry, argumentative, ‘never one to miss out’ on
an argument. As other feminist authors have argued, women’s bodies in gen-
eral are constructed as leaking, uncontrollable, and extranormative (e.g. Tyler,
2008). But these depictions are also heavily drawn from constructions of sexu-
ality and class, with trans women’s bodies presented as out of control, difficult
to ‘maintain’, while older feminists are ugly (‘bitten old trout’) and ‘disgusting’.
Arguably, both positions are also drawn from ideas around class, with the ‘bit-
ten old trout’ and the ‘yak butter’-using women’s bodies both keenly rendered
as extranormative. This analysis leaves us with important questions that need
to be asked. For example, who is deemed to be respectable, valued, or heard
within these texts?

Implications for applied psychology and the wider world

As a number of academics and practitioners have already brought to our atten-

tion (e.g. Liu, et al. 2012; Maracek & Hare-Mustin, 2009), psychological research
and theorising around social class and classism has important implications

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-402 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 403

for those working in applied psychology. For example, Liu et al. (2004) and
Liu (2012) have argued, social class is of the utmost importance in the areas
of Counselling and Clinical Psychology, and other therapeutic domains. That
poor and working-class groups suffer most with mental health problems has
been well documented (e.g. Liu et al., 2004). Furthermore, social class is asso-
ciated with the effectiveness of therapy (Carter, 1991 cited in Liu et al., 2004),
and clients “who do not reflect the middle-class values of traditional therapy
(e.g., verbal ability, timeliness, psychological mindedness) may not receive the
best treatment” (Sue & Sue, 1990 cited in Liu et al., 2004, p. 4).
Liu et al. (2004) and Liu (2012) suggest that as psychologists we need to reflect
on our own class positioning, personal histories, and any experiences of clas-
sism (Liu, 2012). In addition, we need to consider that issues underpinning
‘problems’ are likely to differ across the class spectrum, as are understandings
of them, and therefore it is necessary for practitioners to take this into account
(Liu et al., 2004). It is also important that we explore with the people we work
with how social class is understood and how it is ‘played out’ in our interper-
sonal relations and social interactions (Liu, 2012). Lastly, we echo Liu’s (2009)
sentiments by cautioning against treating anyone requiring our help as ‘help-
less’ or without identity by being acutely aware of the gendered, sexual, and
classed world in which they have lived, do live, and hope to live.

Implications for theory and research

At the height of this recent interest in how gender is classed, a number of
debates and issues have emerged. For example, there are growing calls for work
on the intersection of gender and class to take the role of emotions more seri-
ously (e.g. ‘class disgust’; Tyler, 2008). The clear conclusion from reading the
stories told in the research reviewed in this chapter is the constant reiteration of
the emotional pain and distress that often accompanies experiences of deroga-
tion and subjugation. Any future research will need to take these highly charged
stories of emotional life seriously.
All in all, there is a clear need for more psychological research on gender,
sexuality, and class, and, further, research that takes a holistic and contextu-
alised approach to this (e.g. Walkerdine, 1996). In addition, this focus needs
to be widened to include other class groups rather than just focusing on the
poor and working classes. This would address the overwhelming tendency of
research and theory in psychology to leave middle-class culture and practices
unexamined.
However, while we firmly argue for class to be at the centre of analysis in
psychology, we do echo Linda McDowell’s (2009) concerns that, if we are to
have a renewed and concerted focus on class in psychology, we must be very
wary of the fact that this could marginalise gender and sexualities if it fails to
recognise the intersectional politics of class.

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-403 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
404 Intersections

Summary

• Social class can be thought of as both a social construction and as being

structured through unequal access to material resources and social, eco-
nomic, and political power.
• As students, we can adopt a critical and ‘class-focused’ lens when considering
psychological theories by, for example, asking questions such as “To what
extent is social class acknowledged?”; “How is social class conceptualised?”;
“What might be the implications of this theory for different social groups?”
• Mainstream psychology tends to both focus heavily on ‘sex difference’ and
ignore or minimise social class while simultaneously constructing these two
categories as separate and ‘fixed’.
• Alternatively, gender and class can be seen to intersect to produce various
forms of identities, practices, and experiences, and, therefore, attempts to
understand gendered or classed ‘ways of being’ in isolation from one another
can be critiqued as being impoverished.
• As with gender, sexuality intersects with class in ways which shape our iden-
tities, practices, and experiences and may produce very different outcomes
depending on the marginalised or privileged status of our sexuality and class
location.
• As students of psychology, we can start to recognise the privileging of
heterosexuality and the persistent homophobic cultural climate that may
shape psychological research and theory.
• It is important that we do not treat anyone we work with as ‘helpless’;
instead, we should be aware of the gendered, sexual, and classed world in
which they have lived, do live, and hope to live.
• Poor and working-class groups can suffer most with mental health problems
but may also receive poorer-quality ‘treatment’ than their more privileged
counterparts.
• A classed, gendered, and sexual collision of identities can force dilemmas
or splits that may be a helpful way to start to understand differentials in
attainment and ‘successes’ and ‘failures’.
• Interrogating the wider classed, gendered, and sexual dimensions of valued
ideas around being ‘psychologically healthy’ and a ‘good client’ may help us
to avoid these values being unwittingly used to derogate and disadvantage
quality of intervention.
• As applied professionals, reflecting on our own class positioning, personal
histories, and any experiences of classism allows us to consider that issues
underpinning ‘problems’ presented to us differ across the class spectrum, as
do understandings of them and the values attached to them.
• Exploring with clients how social class is understood and how it is ‘played
out’ in interpersonal relations and social interactions, including the practice

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-404 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 405

setting, will help to keep class experience ‘live’ for us and the people we
work with.
• As academics, we could enrich the complexity of our research by moving
away from the idea that social class can now be dismissed as unimportant or
is an embarrassing subject by taking social class into account when engaging
in our own work.
• The exclusion of social class from research and theory raises epistemo-
logical questions about whose experiences are being used to generalise
understandings of our lives and practices.
• Our work could also benefit from a recognition of our own classed posi-
tioning (including our access to material, social, and economic resources,
and our value systems, which may be informed by these) and how this may
shape our worldview and the psychological theories we adhere to.
• If we are to have a renewed and concerted focus on class in psychology,
we must be very wary of the fact that this could marginalise gender and
sexualities if it fails to recognise the intersectional politics of class.
• Emotional pain and distress often accompanies experiences of derogation
and subjugation because of gender, class, or sexuality. Any future research
will need to take these highly charged stories of emotional life seriously.
• A focus on class also needs to be widened to include other class groups rather
than just focusing on the poor and working classes. This would address
the overwhelming tendency of research and theory in psychology to leave
middle-class culture and practices unexamined.

Further reading
Kraus, M. W., & Stephens, N. M. (2012). A road map for an emerging psychology of social
class. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(9), 642–656.
Liu, W. M. (Ed.) (2013). The Oxford handbook of social class in counseling. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Lott, B., & Bullock, H. E. (2007). Psychology and economic injustice: Personal, professional,
and political intersections. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Task Force on Resources for the Inclusion of Social Class in Psychology Curricula
(2008). Report of the Task Force on Resources for the Inclusion of Social Class in Psychol-
ogy Curricula. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/social-
class-curricula.pdf

References
Augoustinos, M. (1999). Ideology, false consciousness and psychology. Theory & Psychol-
ogy, 9(3), 295–312.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard University
Press.
Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble. New York: Routledge.

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-405 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
406 Intersections

Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2009). Special issue: Is the personal pedagogical? Sexualities and
genders in the higher education classroom. Feminism and Psychology, 19(2), 175–180.
Courtenay, W. H. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-
being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine, 50(10), 1385–1401.
Day, K., Rickett. B., & Woolhouse, M. (2014). Class dismissed: Putting social class
on the critical psychological agenda. Social and Personality Psychology Compass,
8(8),pp. 397-407.
Diemer, M. A., & Seyffert, B. A. (2013). Adolescents, social class, and counselling.
In W. M. Liu (Ed.) The Oxford handbook of social class in counseling. (p. 292). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Edley, N., & Wetherell, M. (1997). Jockeying for position: The construction of masculine
identities. Discourse & Society, 8(2), 203–217.
Fiske, S. T., Gilbert, D. T., & Lindzey, G. (Eds.) (2010). Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2).
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Flowers, P., & Buston, K. (2001). ‘I was terrified of being different’: Exploring gay men’s
accounts of growing-up in a heterosexist society. Journal of Adolescence, 24, 51–65.
Gibson, A., & Macleod, C. (2012). (Dis) allowances of lesbians’ sexual identities: Les-
bian identity construction in racialised, classed, familial, and institutional spaces.
Feminism & Psychology, 22(4), 462–481.
Graham, H., & Kelly, M. P. (2004). Health inequalities: Concepts, frameworks and pol-
icy. Retrieved from http://www.nice.org.uk/niceMedia/documents/health_inequalities_
concepts.pdf [Accessed 1 June 2014].
Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American
Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551–575.
Langston, D. (1988). Tired of playing monopoly? In J. W. Cochran, D. Langston, & C.
Woodward (Eds.) Changing our power: An introduction to women’s studies. (pp. 100–110).
Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. (Cited in Lott, 2012.)
Liu, W. M., Ali, S. R., Soleck, G., Hopps, J., & Pickett Jr, T. (2004). Using social class in
counseling psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51(1), 3.
Liu, W. M., Stinson, R., Hernandez, J., Shepard, S., & Haag, S. (2009). A qualitative exam-
ination of masculinity, homelessness, and social class among men in a transitional
shelter. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10(2), 131.
Lott, B. (2012). The social psychology of class and classism. American Psychologist,
67(8), 650.
Lott, B., & Bullock, H. (2010). Social class and women’s lives. Psychology of Women
Quarterly, 34, 421–424.
Malson, H. (1998). The thin woman: Feminism, post-structuralism, and the social psychology
of anorexia nervosa. Psychology Press. UK.
McDermott, E. (2006). Surviving in dangerous places: Lesbian identity performances in
the workplace, social class and psychological health. Feminism & Psychology, 16(2),
193–211.
McDermott, E. (2011). The world some have won: Sexuality, class and inequality.
Sexualities, 14(1), 63–78.
McDowell, L. (2009). Working bodies: Interactive service employment and workplace identities.
Maiden, MA: Wiley. Blackwell.
Marecek, J., & Hare-Mustin, R. T. (2009). Clinical psychology: The politics of madness.
Critical psychology: An introduction (2nd ed). London: Sage.
Mielewczyk, F., & Willig, C. (2007). Old clothes and an older look: The case for a radical
makeover in health behaviour research. Theory & Psychology, 17(6), 811–837.

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-406 9781137345882_24_cha22

 PROOF
Bridgette Rickett and Maxine Woolhouse 407

Ostrove, J. M., & Long, S. M. (2007). Social class and belonging: Implications for college
adjustment. Review of Higher Education, 30(4), 363.
Power, C. A., Cole, E. R., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2011). Poor women and the expression of
shame and anger: The price of breaking social class feeling rules. Feminism & Psychology,
21(2), 179–197.
Reay, D. (1998). Classifying feminist research: Exploring the psychological impact of
social class on mothers’ involvement in children’s schooling. Feminism & Psychology,
8, 155–171.
Reay, D. (2002). Shaun’s story: Troubling discourses of white working-class masculinities.
Gender and Education, 14(3), 221–234.
Rickett, B., Craig, G., & Thompson, L. O. (2013). ‘Bad wigs and bed wetters’: Constructions
of gender and class in trans-popular discourse. Psychology of Women’s Section, British
Psychological Society Annual Conference. Windsor, UK.
Rickett, B., & Roman, A. (2013). ‘Heroes and matriarchs’: Working-class femininities,
violence and door supervision work. Gender, Work & Organization, 20, 664–677.
Ringrose, J., & Walkerdine, V. (2008). Regulating the abject: The TV make-over as site
of neo-liberal reinvention toward bourgeois femininity. Feminist Media Studies, 8(3),
227–246.
Sayer, A. (2005). The moral significance of class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of class & gender: Becoming respectable (Vol. 51). London: Sage.
Smith, L., Mao, S., Perkins, S., & Ampuero, M. (2011). The relationship of clients’ social
class to early therapeutic impressions. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 24(1), 15–27.
Tyler, I. (2008). ‘Chav mum, chav scum’: Class disgust in contemporary Britain. Feminist
Media Studies, 8(1), 17–34.
Ussher, J. M. (1989). The psychology of the female body. Florence, KY: Taylor &
Frances/Routledge.
Walkerdine, V. (1990). Schoolgirl fictions. London: Verso.
Walkerdine, V. (1996). Working class women: Psychological and social aspects of survival.
pp. 145–162 in S. Wilkinson (Ed.) Feminist social psychologies: International perspectives.
Buckingham: Open University Press.
Walkerdine, V. (Ed.). (2002). Challenging subjects: Critical psychology for a new millennium.
Palgrave Macmillan.
Wardle, J., & Steptoe, A. (2003). Socioeconomic differences in attitudes and beliefs about
healthy lifestyles. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 57(6), 440-443.
Weber, L. (2001). Understanding race, class, gender, and sexuality: A conceptual framework.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Woolhouse, M., Day, K., Rickett, B., & Milnes, K. (2012). ‘Cos girls aren’t supposed to
eat like pigs are they?’ Young women negotiating gendered discursive constructions of
food and eating. Journal of Health Psychology, 17(1), 46–56.

March 2, 2015 15:46 MAC/CRICH Page-407 9781137345882_24_cha22

View publication stats