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Elle Writer's Solution To Poverty Is A Superiority Complex
New York, 10:31 PM
Mon Dec 21
55 posts in the last 24 hours
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Elle Writer's Solution To Poverty Is A Superiority Complex |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/19/08
11/19/08
It also made me think of a book of essays I read once, recently. I can't remember what the theme was. It might have been motherhood or women in the workplace or some such. The Achilles heel of the whole collection was that all of the essays were by professional writers. I have nothing against writing for a living, and I've written for money and teach writing, but I know very well that it isn't a life that's like everyone else's life. I'd have found it more insightful if it had been by women from a variety of professions, on the same topic. It seemed to imply that writers were the only people who could write eloquently about that topic. That really annoys me; it just isn't so.
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I'm solidly middle class and I busted my ass, and continue to bust my ass, to get here.
I grew up dirt poor. You know, the real kind of dirt poor. Spent most of my life with no health insurance, ate rice and beans and chili mac on a constant basis and got really excited when my mom bought me a candle holder and a new set of pajamas for Christmas one year.
The thing that annoys me the most about this whole recession and the media surrounding it is people's attitudes. 'OMG, coupon clipping! How quaint!'
It's insulting to those of us for whom those things are just a part of life and always have been.
11/19/08
this woman needs to gain some perspective and maybe meet some actually "poor" people and stop acting like she's better than everyone else. having, or not having, money does not make a person better or worse than anybody else. it's how you use what you do have that forms your character.
that said, next time she gets a check as a gift, maybe she could send it my way. all the damn Ramen is starting to accumulate on my ass.
11/19/08
So my point is (no longer really related to what andromache said): we can criticize this author's attitude, obviously, but when we decide we're better than she is purely because we're struggling more than she is/was, we're being lame.
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And now I'm feeling a moment of smugness that I am so much more well-adjusted than her.
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Glad to see her obliviousness extends to class as well as race.
11/19/08
She might be my new favorite nincompoop.
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1. People made choices that led them to not have money to be lavish (Bliss chose to be a writer erroneously thinking that she would end up rich, banks made poor risk-management decisions and ended up losing all of their money)
2. People think that they're entitled to continue the lifestyle that they didn't successfully acheive (Bliss stamping her feet over her parents not being able to pay for the life she wants, banks trying to convince everyone that they need tons of money, and fast, because please can we just have another chance?)
3. People want their friends to pay for the fact that they fucked up (Bliss w/ her superrich BFF's, banks with taxpayers)
4. Everyone hating them.
11/19/08
Also I have been wanting to post this for awhile, and here seems as good a place as any:
[www.vanityfair.com]
11/19/08
11/19/08
Sadly, my friends are poor too, so I don't have anyone to give me free stuff and feel morally superior to. If any rich Jezebels want to send me a care package, I'll send you my address.
11/19/08
And I mean, do kids really want to go to Europe anyway? Not all that much, in my experience. They want to stay home and hang out with their friends, until they get to college and decide they want to backpack across the Continent with said friends while on summer break. And if they have to work and save some of their own dough to make that happen, then you're raising a good, independent, and self-aware kid/citizen.
11/19/08
Take them to Epcot. Depending on their ages, they won't know the difference.
But seriously--treecut, I'm sure you're raising them just wonderfully. Children don't require much--they never know what they're missing until a certain age, anyway, so it's best not to worry about that stuff.
Raising them while you as parents are working in the nonprofit sector is teaching them the gift of compassion and service, right?
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