An angle to all the “Dimes Square” stuff I’m still not clear about, is the establishment of a hip young scene back in Manhattan a sign that trust-fund kids aren’t slumming anymore?

kontextmaschine:

Caught an episode of Tanked at the bar last night. That thing where all the blues and oranges are supersaturated and everything else is desaturated bugged me at first, but it started to grow on me. [edit: I think the bar’s flatscreen just had its settings fucked]

All the middlebrow documentary channels in the 30s-50s range have turned into channels about the working class experience. But interestingly, working class in a cultural and not economic sense - a lot of these people seem to have higher-than-average incomes, actually, it’s just that they’ve got ribald, down-home personalities and biker beards instead of college degrees.

Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch might count as working class in a Marxian sense, I didn’t watch and I don’t know if any of the operators owned their trucks or boats - but when you get down to it a lot of these shows are about owners of small businesses (businesses that seem to require a reasonable bit of capital, actually), their office and sales workers, frequently family (the “Duck” doesn’t negate the “Dynasty”) and experienced artisan tradesmen. They mostly avoid coming off as white collar by the literalist expedient of wearing t-shirts.

It’s telling that there’s a subgenre of this stuff (Storage Wars, Pawn Stars, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Lizard Lick Towing) that valorizes people whose jobs are at the expense of - whose jobs, while they may be private sector are in a real sense to salvage from and discipline - the actually poor and marginal.

It’s super-telling that the one eviction-themed show is called “World’s Worst Tenants”, and it’s about people who discipline those who irritate small propertyholders. And not, say, lower-middle class types in foreclosure. That one would probably hit too close to home.

But hey, if you ever did create a show with a focused appeal to the truly poor, who would you sell ads to?

Thinking about this kid I knew in elementary school who was like part of the remnant of local working class culture before the area got all Toll Brothers upper-commuter/consultant subdivisioned out, whose dad had apparently been skipped a grade back in the big post-Sputnik drive to turn out smarties, whose sister once got in trouble for bringing in and sharing vodka in 8th grade, and all the results for his unusual last name are presumably relatives like, involved in NASCAR or running a powder-coating shop or moving to Colorado for a redeployment or graduating from Pennsylvania’s CalState-equivalent system with a degree in physical therapy and like, yeah

I keep telling you people I’m gentry

NE Alberta St.
Portland, OR

Oh I just remembered how in the late 90s/early 2000s I called nü metal “some college rock”, I should take credit for that

surprisingly engrossing

alexanderfury:

yhji:

Let’s say a 15 year old boy lives in a house with his dad and his six older brothers. He lives in a town where if you do not fit the stereotypes assigned to your gender, you are ridiculed for them. He tells his dad and his brothers that he’s going to off to football practice but in reality, he’s sneaking off to the store to pick up the latest issue of Vogue. He reads his Vogue under his covers every night with a flash light because he hopes that one day, he can achieve his long life goal of becoming a Fashion Designer. 

Let’s say a girl is getting bullied at school because she has a strange teeth and her dentist won’t allow her braces. She buys a fashion magazine and she takes one look at these beautiful models with strange facial features. She idolizes models like Lindsey Wixson and Georgia May Jagger because they share the same gap-tooth teeth as her. She feels beautiful and less lonely in the world because she knows that you can be beautiful even if you have imperfections on your face. This magazine with her favourite model on it gives her hope, that one day, maybe she can be one of these beautiful women on the front cover of her magazine. 

Let’s say a 17 year old gay boy buys as many fashion magazines as he can so he can collect every editorial of his favourite models. He is an aspiring fashion journalist and articles written by his favourite fashion writers inspire him. He is bullied constantly for his sexuality and he is always getting beaten up and verbally abused just for being gay whenever he steps outside of the house. He finds comfort in fashion because it makes him feel a little less alone in the world. He hopes one day he could be the new face of Prada, or maybe he could be an award-winning fashion journalist. He dreams of surrounding himself with people just like him who won’t relentlessly torment him based on the way he walks or his sexual orientation. Fashion makes this boy feel like he isn’t all alone in this world. And this boy is me. 

Don’t you see? Fashion magazines aren’t just about glossy pages filled with clothes and campaigns etc…These magazines are a shining beacon of hope for people who sometimes may feel alone in this world. Fashion is such a huge community. Fashion feels like home to some people. Sometimes these magazines are all the hope we have left in this lonely world, and these magazines inspire us to work harder each day in order to feel accepted finally. 

THAT is why fashion magazines are so important.

What he said.

Remember Bratz? The dolls, kinda like Barbie, except, you know, trashy.  “My Little Hoochie Mama” and all that.

Back in college for a gag gift party I got someone a Bratz coloring book, except they left it behind and I ended up keeping it. And then in LA I ended up writing manuals for a few Bratz games, so to get the brand voice right I turned back to that coloring book, and other official Bratz media.

And I was stunned to realize how fundamentally Correct the official Bratz “message” was. I’d put it in one sentence as, “no matter what you’re like or what you’re into, a bit of effort towards style can put that across to people as the reason they should look to you as an interesting person”.

Like, there really wasn’t any more sexiness or boy-craziness to it than Barbie, hardly any at all honestly. (There’s more prominent makeup, I’ll spot you that.) So I thought further on what the distinction was, and I realized that Bratz, both as characters in the auxiliary media and as products packaged with coordinated outfits, are defined by a particular style - goth, or rocker, or raver, or whatever.

Whereas with Barbie, some of the dolls are oriented to a look, or to gimmicks like colorable hair, but a lot of the packages are a role - looking at the webshop I immediately see singer, soccer player, ice skater, chef, entrepreneur, ballerina…

And that’s really the distinction. If you bother to read the official backstories the Bratz have jobs, but that’s not how they distinguish themselves as people. Rather, the identity they present to the world is based on their personal taste and interests. Whereas Barbies define themselves by what they do for a living, and more specifically given how these tend to be “star” or “leadership” type careers, their position in life.

Which is to say, while Barbie is bougie, Bratz are working class.

Which is how it came to be decided that they were contemptible sluts.

Caught an episode of Tanked at the bar last night. That thing where all the blues and oranges are supersaturated and everything else is desaturated bugged me at first, but it started to grow on me. [edit: I think the bar’s flatscreen just had its settings fucked]

All the middlebrow documentary channels in the 30s-50s range have turned into channels about the working class experience. But interestingly, working class in a cultural and not economic sense - a lot of these people seem to have higher-than-average incomes, actually, it’s just that they’ve got ribald, down-home personalities and biker beards instead of college degrees.

Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch might count as working class in a Marxian sense, I didn’t watch and I don’t know if any of the operators owned their trucks or boats - but when you get down to it a lot of these shows are about owners of small businesses (businesses that seem to require a reasonable bit of capital, actually), their office and sales workers, frequently family (the “Duck” doesn’t negate the “Dynasty”) and experienced artisan tradesmen. They mostly avoid coming off as white collar by the literalist expedient of wearing t-shirts.

It’s telling that there’s a subgenre of this stuff (Storage Wars, Pawn Stars, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Lizard Lick Towing) that valorizes people whose jobs are at the expense of - whose jobs, while they may be private sector are in a real sense to salvage from and discipline - the actually poor and marginal.

It’s super-telling that the one eviction-themed show is called “World’s Worst Tenants”, and it’s about people who discipline those who irritate small propertyholders. And not, say, lower-middle class types in foreclosure. That one would probably hit too close to home.

But hey, if you ever did create a show with a focused appeal to the truly poor, who would you sell ads to?