Frédéric Roux's 'Éloge du mauvais goût' Defends Bad Taste as a Form of Resistance

In 'Éloge du mauvais goût', Frédéric Roux argues that bad taste is a recent concept, unknown in antiquity, and distinct from the classical 'fault of taste'. He traces its emergence to the bourgeoisie, with Molière's Bourgeois gentilhomme as a naive precursor who believes taste can be bought. The French Revolution, in the eyes of the aristocracy, was an act of bad taste, giving the people a voice in matters of taste. Kant is credited as the first to theorize every individual's right to assert their taste without submitting to authority. Roux aligns himself with the 'challengers', exemplified by a grandmother who declares 'To each his own bad taste!'. The book explores the rhetorical genre of praise, noting that once rhetoric died, even the unworthy could be praised, with style overshadowing the object. Roux distinguishes three forms of praise of bad taste: naive, falsely naive, and polemical. He references Présence Panchounette, a collective he was part of, which aimed to praise bad taste without 'distancing' (which implies distinction). Roux rejects a purely dialectical view of taste, insisting that some objects are stigmatized as bad taste. He cites Baudelaire's 'the aristocratic pleasure of displeasing' and discusses the baroque dimension of enjoying others' dismay at one's taste. The book is not a sociological treatise but a witty exercise in style, blending vulgarity, erudition, and provocation.