The wealthy side of cultural consumption

Why does the image matter so much? The answer lies in what is called cultural capital. Cultural capital is best demonstrated in the behaviors of the wealthy class in the society and simply stands for the consumption of the upper-class families in the society.

In the movie The Nanny Diaries, It is very obvious that cultural tastes have value and could be transferred to others as well as they could be converted to financial wealth to help reproduce the class structure of the society. This means that wealthy families introduce their children to arts and take them to museums, plays, concerts and send them to private piano, violin and ballet lessons.

This process is represented in the movie through the X family who are an example for the stereotypical upper-east side family in Manhattan. Through the movie it is reviled that the wealthy X family has several traditions including forcing their child to eat expensive French food and to spend his time in educational activities which include learning French so he could be enrolled into a prestigious French school. If school was canceled or if he ever has any free time, he is allowed to go visit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Morgan Library and the French culinary institute. 

These attempts made by the X family was to cultivate in their child the sense of respect and esteem for the fine arts and cosmopolitan culture that they themselves have come to appreciate or least value.

However, these attempts are pricey, such private lessons, foreign travel and private schools cost a lot of money. In this sense, economic capital could be converted into cultural capital as an investment. 

This means that cultural capital is transferrable (form parents to children) and converitable (to economic rewards) which means that it plays a role in reproducing the class structure of the society which starts from wealthy, upper-class parents. As much cultural capital they put into their children, as much as their children generate enough cultural capital on their own to effectively continue the cycle.


During a job application process and on the job itself, those who make the most of their cultural capital are able to convert it back into economical wealth through the financial rewards of the high-paying job itself. This cycle means that upper classes are reproducing themselves over and over again and building a wall to distinguish between their elite cultural consumption and the ones who lake it.