brow-level

Noun

brow-level (plural brow-levels)

1. A perceived social affiliation by how highbrow a person’s cultural expression is.
   • the central thesis that there is unequal distribution of cultural items across social dimensions is supposed to be upheld. The maps are then read in terms of “brow level,” a shorthand for cultural stratification that mirrors social stratification.2003, Shin Kap-Han, “Unraveling the Brow: What and How of Choice in Musical Preference”, in Sociological Perspectives, volume 46, number 4, →DOI, page 435
   • Clear determination of the brow level of a text was also dubious, both because the level of reflection with which one addressed a given text affected the experience and because the wider culture’s ranking of the brow status of cultural productions often changed over time.2005, Elizabeth Gregory, ““Combat Cultural”: Marianne Moore and the Mixed Brow”, in Critics and Poets on Marianne Moore: “A Right Good Salvo of Barks”, Bucknell University Press, page 208