Bourgeois vs Peasants

Stasia Skonberg

Cultural Geography: Dr Richard Simpson

3/15/21

Response Paper 6

Bourgeois vs Peasants

         There is a fine distinction between bourgeois and peasants and how they eat their food. Bourgeois treat their meals as entertainment and enjoyment while peasants treat their meals as a result of hard work.

         In a consumer society, the goal is to consume products. As a bourgeois, the consumer society is one that they created. Eating extravagant meals and hosting different groups of people in your home is showing off the money you can spend just in the name of entertainment. This behavior came out of the 19th century among French bourgeois who lived life lavishly and for pleasure and they created a society in which depends on their consumption and activities surrounding consumption.

         On the other hand, peasants are also the reason for the success of the consumer society. As the backbone of the workforce, peasants worked to live and eat. They were the reason the rich were able to continue on with their lives. “Working class eating habits have less tradition than those of the other two classes because they are far more vulnerable to fluctuations of the economy” (Berger, 370). Unlike their richer neighbors, peasants didn’t eat foods outside of their life and their home. They stuck to food they could easily get, for cheap and because of this their outlook of eating is different. Peasants eat to fuel their bodies and to continue their work. Without a need for entertainment during meals, peasants don’t need drama and entertainment at their dinner table. Without the need to entertain and impress their ways of eating were different.