PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Dress for success: Research examines male influences on 'looking' middle class

2014-08-18
(Press-News.org) They might be called a chip off the old block, but when it comes to upward social mobility, they might call Dad a lesson in what not to wear. University of Cincinnati research takes a new approach to examining the socialization of male children into the middle class. The research by Erynn Masi de Casanova, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of sociology, was presented at the 109th Meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco.

Based on interviews with 71 male, white-collar workers in three major metropolitan cities, Casanova explores how adult men perceive the relationship between representing family, identity and culture through appearance. "Their accounts show how parents, particularly fathers, explicitly or implicitly socialized them into standards of dress and appearance that can best be described as respectable and professional in relation to work dress and the middle class," says Casanova.

"Many of these men remembered receiving from an early age the message that being presentable and dressing appropriately was important and expected in locations such as school, church and work," Casanova says. The paper includes one German immigrant's recollections of his father – a handyman who dressed blue collar during the week and wore a Sunday suit and tie to church. Other accounts described fathers wearing their very best at all times, among them a father who wore a tie even when he was gardening.

On the other hand, many men linked less formal dress with their father's blue-collar social status, while others felt disdain or embarrassment toward fathers who tended to wear flashier fashions. "This predominant middle-class orientation toward dress – that is, the devaluation of lower-class or 'street style,' and the simultaneous shunning of overly luxurious clothing – held true even for families that were wealthier or poorer than the average U.S. family," writes Casanova.

Casanova says in some cases, the men mentioned their father's ethnicity or nationality to either distance themselves from, or identify with, their father's culture, such as mentioning "Italian glamour" in reference to fashion style, or in the case of a son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants citing a family motto, "Think Yiddish and dress British."

"Nearly all of the black men I interviewed – some of whom were children of black immigrants – referred to the distinctiveness of black style and the importance of dress and fashion in their communities," Casanova reveals in the paper, adding that in some cases, men kept their business and non-work clothing separate, believing that fashion worn during their off-hours was inappropriate for the white-collar business world.

Casanova says that some of the men, feeling that their fathers were fashion challenged, would buy their fathers clothes to influence their sense of style. Several of the men interviewed reported that their mothers selected what their fathers should wear.

Casanova says around 15 of the men felt their father's manner of dress was something to be avoided, and she says one-third of that group were from blue-collar backgrounds.

In conversations that included stories of handing down a patriarch's watch, Casanova says the interviewees would often cite fashion in connecting three generations of men in their family, from their grandfathers to the study participants, or from the participants' fathers to their own sons. She concludes, "Learning about dress is part of learning to be a man in a particular place and time, but these lessons varied depending on class status and family background. Some of the men in this study were raised to expect to don the white collar, whereas others came to corporate workplaces through a different path of upward mobility, and had to learn how to fly."

The interviews were conducted with male, white-collar workers in New York, San Francisco and Cincinnati. The median age of the participants was 40, and interviewees ranged in age from 24 to 71. The majority of the participants (76 percent) were born in the U.S. Seventy-two percent of the participants were white; 8 percent identified as Asian; 7 percent identified as black; 3 percent Latino/Hispanic; 3 percent Indian; and 7 percent identified as "other" race/ethnicity (including Eurasian, Brazilian, Ukrainian.) The majority of the respondents, 61 percent, had achieved a bachelor's degree while 34 percent had achieved a master's degree. Fourteen percent identified as gay. Fifty-six percent of the participants did not have children.

INFORMATION: The research is part of a larger book project that is in the planning by Casanova. Funding for the current research project was provided by the University of Cincinnati Taft Research Center.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Family members of victims pose a growing challenge for capital punishment

2014-08-18
An examination of the nation's history in carrying out executions is encountering a new challenge for modern-day capital punishment. Bringing in family members of victims to witness executions brings about a new source of pressure on the execution, complicating actual execution arrangements and the position of capital punishment in the public imagination, according to Annulla Linders, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of sociology. Linders' research, titled, "Bearing Witness: Victim's Relatives and Challenges to the Execution Narrative," was presented at ...

Rheumatologic diseases like lupus can initially look like neurological disorders

2014-08-18
MAYWOOD, Ill. – Lupus and other rheumatologic diseases can initially present as neurological disorders such as headaches and seizures, and thus delay diagnosis for many months, according to Loyola University Medical Center neurologists. Moreover, treatments for rheumatologic disorders can cause adverse neurological effects, Dr. Sean Ruland and colleagues report in the journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. Rheumatologic diseases include autoimmune and inflammatory disorders of the joints and soft tissues, such as lupus, systemic vasculitis and ankylosing ...

Despite academic achievement, pay gaps likely continue between the races

Despite academic achievement, pay gaps likely continue between the races
2014-08-18
A nationally representative comparison of salary, academic achievement and race finds that racial and gender inequality continue to exist regardless of academic success. The study by Ervin (Maliq) Matthew, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of sociology, was presented at the 109th Meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco. Matthew's research paper, titled"Making the (Pay) Grade: Racial Variance in Financial Payoff to Academic Success," examined data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey from 1988-2000. The study followed approximately ...

Life after prison: Sociology professor presents findings on research

2014-08-18
Todd Callais, an assistant professor of Sociology at UC Blue Ash College, presented his findings on how ex-inmates cope with life after prison at the American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting, held August 16–19 in San Francisco. As part of his three-year research for a new book, Callais conducted in-depth interviews with a total of 60 ex-offenders, but he focused specifically on 13 former inmates for his presentation, titled Ex-offenders and Stigma Management: Redemptive Contestation. Roughly two-thirds of former inmates in the U.S. eventually return to ...

Recycling old batteries into solar cells

2014-08-18
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- This could be a classic win-win solution: A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries — a potential source of lead pollution — into new, long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power. The system is described in a paper in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, co-authored by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others. It is based on a recent development in solar cells that makes use of a compound called perovskite — specifically, organolead ...

Study reveals sex differences in experiencing orgasms

2014-08-18
Among single adults in the U.S., women, regardless of sexual orientation, have less predictable, more varied orgasm experiences than do men, new research indicates. The study revealed that men experience orgasm during sexual activity with a familiar partner 85% of the time on average, compared with 63% of the time for women. The Journal of Sexual Medicine study also found that for women, but not men, the likelihood of orgasm varies with sexual orientation, with lesbian women having a significantly higher probability of orgasm than either heterosexual or bisexual women ...

Are children who play violent video games at greater risk for depression?

Are children who play violent video games at greater risk for depression?
2014-08-18
New Rochelle, NY, August 18, 2014—While much attention has focused on the link between violent video game playing and aggression among youths, a new study finds significantly increased signs of depression among preteens with high daily exposure to violent video games. The details and implications of this important new study are described in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website. Susan R. Tortolero, ...

Smoking during pregnancy may affect grandchildren's growth

2014-08-18
A UK study published in the American Journal of Human Biology has found that smoking during pregnancy has discernible effects on the growth of a woman's future grandkids. With non-smoking mothers, if a paternal grandmother smoked during pregnancy, her granddaughters tended to be taller and both her granddaughters and grandsons tended to have greater bone mass and lean (muscle) mass. If a maternal grandmother smoked during pregnancy, her grandsons became heavier than expected during adolescence, with increased lean mass, grip strength and cardiovascular fitness. When ...

Ebola has profound effects on wildlife population dynamics

Ebola has profound effects on wildlife population dynamics
2014-08-18
New research in gorillas that were affected by an Ebola virus outbreak shows that disease can influence reproductive potential, immigration and social dynamics, and it highlights the need to develop complex models that integrate all the different impacts of a disease. This approach requires long-term monitoring of wildlife populations to understand the responses of populations to emerging changes in the environment, according to the Journal of Animal Ecology study. "Along with the decrease in survival and in reproduction, Ebola outbreak perturbed social dynamics in ...

Pigs' hearts transplanted into baboon hosts remain viable more than a year

2014-08-18
Beverly, MA, August 18, 2014 – Investigators from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have successfully transplanted hearts from genetically engineered piglets into baboons' abdomens and had the hearts survive for more than one year, twice as long as previously reported. This was achieved by using genetically engineered porcine donors and a more focused immunosuppression regimen in the baboon recipients, according to a study published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, an official publication ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New strategies to enhance chiral optical signals unveiled

Cambridge research uncovers powerful virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety

2025 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit to spotlight groundbreaking research

International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change

Cambridge scientist launches free VR platform that eliminates the fear of public speaking

Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases

Good fences make good neighbors (with carnivores)

NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer

Introducing our new cohort of AGA Future Leaders

Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help

Engineering excellence: Engineers with ONR ties elected to renowned scientific academy

New CRISPR-based diagnostic test detects pathogens in blood without amplification

Immunotherapy may boost KRAS-targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer

Growing solar: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crops and clean energy

Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”

YouTube influencers: gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?

uOttawa scientists use light to unlock secret of atoms

NJIT mathematician to help map Earth's last frontier with Navy grant

NASA atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits

‘Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires more deadly than remote wildfires

What’s your body really worth? New AI model reveals your true biological age from 5 drops of blood

Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior

With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it

University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease

UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS

Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it

A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’

Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression

Liquid metal-enabled synergetic cooling and charging: a leap forward for electric vehicles

[Press-News.org] Dress for success: Research examines male influences on 'looking' middle class