Prestige and intimacy

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Abstract
“ … I can't believe we're talking about this!” Margaret, an informant in a study of college-age women, said this in the midst of a “talking diary” interview. Earlier, the interviewer had limited herself to questions that a friend or new acquaintance might ask: What's been happening since I talked to you last? How are your classes going? Who is this Alice that you're talking about? When did you join volleyball club? Then, at a point in the interview, Margaret began to describe a skit about “jocks,” “frat guys,” “Susie Sororities,” and other campus types. For a time, Margaret answered the interviewer's questions about the different types and how they could be identified and then interrupted herself: Margaret: … I can't believe we're talking about this! Interviewer: Why? Margaret: I don't know. You just don't sit around talking about it that much with anybody. It's just kind of there. Interviewer: So it's not the sort of thing you'd sit around in your dorm room and talk about to your roommates? Margaret: No, you allude to it more than anything else. Interviewer: What do you mean, allude? Margaret: You know, little things, like, “Oh, you're wearing your add-a-beads today.” Things like that. Interviewer: And that's all you have to say? Margaret: Yeah, it's understood. As might be expected, our participant–observation and interview data from a group of college-age Americans shows such types to be a conventional way of talking about other people.

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