brow-level

plural brow-levels · alternative brow level

1. A perceived social affiliation by how highbrow a person’s cultural expression is.

   the central thesis that there is unequal distribution of cultural items across social dimensions is supposed to be upheld. The maps are then read in terms of “brow level,” a shorthand for cultural stratification that mirrors social stratification.

   2003, Shin Kap-Han, “Unraveling the Brow: What and How of Choice in Musical Preference”, in Sociological Perspectives, volume 46, number 4, →DOI, page 435

   2 more examples

   Clear determination of the brow level of a text was also dubious, both because the level of reflection with which one addressed a given text affected the experience and because the wider culture’s ranking of the brow status of cultural productions often changed over time.

   2005, Elizabeth Gregory, ““Combat Cultural”: Marianne Moore and the Mixed Brow”, in Critics and Poets on Marianne Moore: “A Right Good Salvo of Barks”, Bucknell University Press, page 208

   Reverse snobbery is just another form of snobbery, after all – it’s a peril at any brow-level – and corrosive tides of partisanship along left wing/right wing, liberal/conservative, populist/elitist divides are rising not just in global political discourse, but in the cultural discussion too.

   2017 January 27, Jessica Kiang, “Why snobbery is bad for you”, in BBC