Social Inequalities In Contemporary Society

In contemporary society, social inequalities are produced and perpetuated by social structures. One prime example is social class, which is created and sustained through the use of power by different people and groups. This will be explored through two artworks by the British street artist known as Banksy, who is known to comment heaviliy on social class, to show social inequalities within contemporary society.
Social class is defined in classical Marxist theory as a three level structure where people, are seperated by either being 'exploited ' or the person who 'exploits ' someone else with the end goal of making a monetary profit. Technically, the exploiter is known as the bourgeoisie ( capitalist class) and the group exploited is the proletariat …show more content…
The artwork portrays an un-identifiable person who is holding and about to throw a bouquet of flowers. During the years leading up to the artworks creation, many wars and protests had occured between national governments and people. These wars and protests are often due to the power imbalance between different social classes, where the bourgeoisie aim to exploit the proletariat, in one form or another in order to achieve a goal. Bull (2015) states that Banksy commented on a common image or idea seen in media such as the B.B.C, which is an un-identifiable person throwing a Molotov cocktail at an un-known target. A Molotov cocktail is a weapon consisting of a lighted piece of paper placed in a bottle of alcohol with the intention of being used as a bomb and is used in the visual arts a symbol of conflict between two groups/people. In contemporary society, Banksy noticed that most of modern conflict rose from the bourgeoisie exploiting the proletariat and modern protests, are believed to be due to this issue. According to Parry (2010), Bansky swapped the image of a Molotov cocktail to a bouquet of flowers to symbolism the idea that conflict should be solved through peaceful actions, instead of violent ones, to assist in providing a solution to the issues between different classes. In this …show more content…
Reid (2012) states that the I.O.C in its history has regulary been found to attempt to 'cut corners ' and achieve its goals by using its power to coerce people from lower social classes than it, to reduce costs and make the Olympic games a cheaper event. This issue is not a well known issue within the general public and Banksy aims to identify this issue in his artwork 'Person stealing Olympic ring '. In this artwork an un-identifiable person is seen to steal one of the Olympic rings. The Olympic rings is a symbol of unity and according to Golden (2011), Banksy 's goal is to show that the rings are not a united force. Rather, they are only claimed to be a force of unity when they actually divide people and are a cloak used to hide the issues behind the I.O.C. In this artwork, the person stealing the ring represents the lower social classes, which are fighting the I.O.C and seeking to solve the power issue, but the I.O.C which is also represented by the Olympic rings is just standing still and allowing itself to be broken up as it often aims to abuse its power for aims which are not achievable. In this case, the I.O.C is shown by Banksy 's artwork to be the bourgeoisie and the workers/