Bullshit as resistance: justifying unearned privilege among students at an elite boarding school

Abstract

Resistance is typically framed around the experiences of youth with oppression within institutions and through “intersecting” systems of domination. Resistance among those who benefit the most from current institutional arrangements, like students attending elite schools, has rarely been considered in how resistance is theorized. This postcard is based on two years of ethnographic research into the process by which students at one elite boarding school internalize elite status and convince themselves that they deserve the privileges of an elite education. Drawing on interview and focus group data, I explore the role of what the students describe as “bullshit” as both a form of resistance as well as a key lesson in the process of becoming elite while disguising the appearance of unearned privilege. I draw a parallel between “having a laff” as a form of working class resistance, and bullshit as a form of resistance among ruling elites.

Keywords:

• elite prep schools
• youth resistance
• privilege
• class reproduction

Notes

1. For an elaboration of the key points in this paragraph, see Gaztambide-Fernández (2009). Proper names throughout are pseudonyms.

2. See Gaztambide-Fernández (2009).