Is that a tongue ring but no earrings?  Audrey Hepburn, you are not.

I challenge anybody to get through all 10 dull, navel-gazing pages of the Emily Gould article linked above. Z-z-z-z.

It’s a tooth, actually.  I have earrings, but they are very small and disappeared under that alarming flash.

Nothing sexier than a book and drool stains on the pillow! I’d totally buy a Vanity Fair with that picture on the cover.

Seriously, Keeshond. I tried but damn, that is some tedious writing.

I find I have little sympathy for someone who gave up a career as a book editor to become a pro blogger for that bunch of illiterate swine at Gawker, only to discover that being paid to pretend to be a selfish, snarky bitch for a living was kind of a drag and just a little bit demeaning.

Goddamn… is.. is that drool?  I must say I am impressed.

Keeshond, I was just back to say, holy friggen hell, that Emily piece goes on for 10 fucking pages!

Then I skipped to page 10 and it seemed like something interesting had happened, so I skimmed over 4 pages trying to find the interesting, and it turned out to be one line at the end of page 9.

God.  Damn.

Is that a tongue ring but no earrings?  Audrey Hepburn, you are not.

And Amanda, dear, whatever you do don’t fall asleep in a hospital, funeral home, or near a fatal car-accident, because you look like a cadaver when you sleep! Some uppity-ass med-student, E.M.T., or mortician might mistaken you for a corpse, and uh-oh, spaghetti-autopsy-o’s!.

Well, I think one thing you need to do to become more materialistic and oversexed is to write about your various dates. I recently heard about a book called “The Year of Yes,” where this young woman (again living in New York) did not turn down any single fellow who asked her out for a whole YEAR! Her only criteria, I think, was that they had to be sober when they asked her.  So you need to get out more with more people than your boyfriend, because we cosmopolitan sluts want our DIVERSITY.

And then, you also need to go on some fairly expensive and/or amazing dates that most normal people could not go on in their own real lives. I think that’s part of the sexxess of SaTC: they live in NYC, so they can boink on top of the Empire State Building, or in Central Park, or on the F Train if they want to, whereas most people can’t (or don’t).

I have these fantasies of Texas that include armadillos, open fields, oil wells against the big sky, and lesbian bars. I would love to hear people’s dating stories from their own cities. There is (or was) actually a website created by the Museum of Sex (again in NYC) where one can “map” their erotic experiences in any city across the United States. It is pretty cool.

Mapping Sex: Interactive Site
http://mos.dreamhosters.com/interactive/USAmap/participate.html

That photo is going to end up illustrating someone’s slashfic within a week.  Truly, you have made it as an internet phenomenon.

Is it just me or is there a resemblance here?

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/05/29/funny-pictures-drool/

I’m not surprised that the book in question killed you dead...was it the pointless travelogue, the pointless metamorphic orphaned male wizard baby, or the pointlessly bloody death that took three times as long as anatomy would dictate in Chapter 32?

*flees*

thats a mighty sharp tooth lady. i take it you feed on the living?

I guess the question is, did you send a query letter to the Time Magazine? Did you write the story and give them a taste? That’s how it works, at least when you don’t actually hang out with the editors.

they live in NYC, so they can boink on top of the Empire State Building, or in Central Park, or on the F Train if they want to, whereas most people can’t (or don’t).

OK, wait.  I live in NYC, and I’ve definitely never had sex on top of the Empire State Building or the F train.  And it wasn’t actually sex in the park, I promise… Heavy petting, perhaps.

Actually one of the things that annoys me wrt movies and TV shows obsessively taking place in New York is that it elevates ordinary things like the subway and our bigger/nicer parks.  Which then makes the non-NYC-residing friends and family members of New Yorkers get all obnoxious about how we just think we’re so damn fancy, with all this boinking on the F train and all.  Whereas nobody would ever accuse someone who lived in Austin for being such a snob because they totally hooked up with someone in that drive-in where they shot that scene in Dazed and Confused.

Seriously, I think Traister’s right.  Women like Gould get puffed up by the mainstream media precisely because they’re juicy targets for misogynists.  I thought the piece was overwrought, but the ugliest reactions show a larger contempt for the right of women to be in the public eye, at least pretty women who aren’t currently sucking the cocks of the male haters or apologizing for shining too bright to the female haters. Like this asshole in the comments at Salon:

The problem I have with Emily Gould, and the problem I think most people have with her, is that she’s an emotional slut, discussing her feelings and problems with anyone who will listen.

She talked about an intimate relationship on the internet like it was hers, and hers alone. That’s a form of infidelity. And the one thing Americans prize above all else (statistically) in a relationship is fidelity.

Like Rebecca says, the guy who wrote the drooling article about how badly he wants to cheat on his wife doesn’t get called a slut of any kind, even though he’s 100% worse.  Gould is indiscreet talking about her feelings, but that guy humiliated his wife in a way beyond anything Gould has ever done.  But he’s just an honest guy talking about how men are, dontchaknow?

Gould got this gig because she edited Gawker, one of the few blogs with a following among New York legacy media types. Her essay confirms all their stereotypes about the young people nowadays and those crass upstart bloggers they hate and fear so much. The New York Times Magazine gave her a platform so that its readers could pat themselves on the back for being so much more refined and sophisticated than this oversexed, vacuous blogger.

they live in NYC, so they can boink on top of the Empire State Building, or in Central Park, or on the F Train if they want to, whereas most people can’t (or don’t).

OK, wait.  I live in NYC, and I’ve definitely never had sex on top of the Empire State Building or the F train. 

I was born, raised, and currently live in NYC with some time lived in the midwest and the New England area. 

From what I’ve heard about SATC from co-workers and blogs, the only thing they got right is the greater materialistic/fashion obsessiveness among university students and professionals here than at my midwest liberal arts college undergrad or the New England area.  I noticed this the instance I moved back to NYC and got severe judgmental stares and comments from passersby about “sloppiness” during my evening/weekend strolls that I never received while wearing the same/similar getups in the midwest or New England area.* This did not abate when I went back to grad school and was shocked to see grad students and many undergrads being similarly judgmental....though they were easier to deal with as pointedly asking them whether such attitudes had a place in a higher ed institution where one’s intellect and ideas were supposed to matter far more than one’s appearance was usually enough to shut them up. 

As for endless sex and dating opportunities, that is so contrary to the experience of most co-workers and grad classmates who regularly complain about the dearth of good dates/relationships/sex. 

* Didn’t receive this treatment when I was in high school and younger.  One benefit of going to school where most classmates, with few exceptions, were too poor to even care about keeping up with fashion trends....and where excelling academically was prioritized over everything else.

Yeah, actually now that oppo and exholt mention it, there are some “legends” about NYC sex that I have never experienced. I’ve never had outdoor sex in NYC, or on the subway, or in any place other than an apartment--mind you, a couple of really NICE apartments, but they were still pretty tame. I did get a chance to do some S & M roleplay at the Hellfire club back when it was still open, and THAT was totally wild and unprecedented. I don’t know if I would do it again, but it was fun and involved trannies and an older doctor. I spanked. Probably too weird for an episode of SaTC.

I don’t recall my grad school peers being too obsessed about clothes during our course work years, although now I do notice it (a concern with material things) more among the undergrads. I seem to recall that we all looked pretty ratty here in NYC, although there were always the *really* scruffy types who lived in their shoebox basically, and the rare people whose parents gave them uber-money. In the East Village and downtown, there’s not a whole lot of homogeneity in terms of fashion, and I don’t know if your midwestern attire or New England attire could raise any more eyebrows than some of the stuff I see on St. Mark’s Avenue.  You might be an uptown scholar, exholt?

I noticed more fashion snobbery in smaller New England cities where I studied before NYC. But i have always been a city slicker, and find smaller cities provincial and self-conscious to begin with, so perhaps this was my perception?

The way I’ve always felt about the issue you raise, exholt, is simply that people dress differently in New York.  Things that would enable you to fit in in other parts of the country are completely gauche here (and vice versa, probably, or maybe instead of gauche, “faggy”, “depressing”, “freaky” etc)

And if you think people in other parts of the country are actually less judgmental about personal style than New Yorkers are, man, you must have lived in some incredibly kind-hearted and open-minded places.  I moved here partially to get away from the sort of place where people thought I was a guy because I had short hair and didn’t wear piles of makeup.

I’m ready and willing to become the girl everyone loves to describe as materialistic, self-centered, and oversexed.

You might have to do something about your colour coordination.  A boudior decorated in Early Explosion In A Paint factory is off-putting.

And Amanda, dear, whatever you do don’t fall asleep in a hospital, funeral home, or near a fatal car-accident, because you look like a cadaver when you sleep!

I ATEN’T DEAD!

-------------------

The above joke is a) only for those cool enough to recognize the source and b) delayed payback for the toilet paper joke yesterday.

Amanda:

While the drool stains are distinctive, if you really want to be MSM bimboblogger material:

Less bangs.
More tats.

I’d say go ahead go for this new position where you blog about your romantic/sexual experiences if you want, or just make fun of it if you like. It think you’re right that people take a kind of S&M;enjoyment of tearing down female writers.

What I really wanted to say was that the new design looks boss.

While you may “totally sleep in (your) make-up sometimes,” you didn’t have particularly photogenic makeup on this time; perhaps the cat named Lady Crapsherself took this picture out of revenge? 

I ATEN’T DEAD!

Pining for the fijords?

Hmmm.
No drool.
Weak then.

Kyso K - I did the same damm thing.  it wasn’t very interesting.  I am glad I didn’t delve into the comments, though.  Sure, she is self-obsessed and over shares, but didn’t strike me as a bad person.  Unlike the middle aged, married, douche who wants to bang 25 year old waitresses; therefore ALL men do too.

Amanda - You have to show the tattoos in the photo.  Nipples poking through a thin t-shirt help too.

I don’t recall my grad school peers being too obsessed about clothes during our course work years, although now I do notice it (a concern with material things) more among the undergrads. I seem to recall that we all looked pretty ratty here in NYC, although there were always the *really* scruffy types who lived in their shoebox basically, and the rare people whose parents gave them uber-money. In the East Village and downtown, there’s not a whole lot of homogeneity in terms of fashion, and I don’t know if your midwestern attire or New England attire could raise any more eyebrows than some of the stuff I see on St. Mark’s Avenue.

Foucault,

How long ago were your coursework years? Some of this may be changing times/attitudes as I did not notice this level of fashion obsessiveness in random passersby anywhere when I was a child/adolescent growing up in NYC or when I visited older friends at NYC area college campuses 10+ years ago. 

Undergrads and grad students seem to dress far snazzier and fashionably than 10+ years ago.....especially the international students.  This was a total contrast to my parents’ generation when it was American students who dressed well/decently and the international students had to make do with worn shabby second hand clothing due to the strained economic circumstances of their families and home countries. 

The way I’ve always felt about the issue you raise, exholt, is simply that people dress differently in New York.  Things that would enable you to fit in in other parts of the country are completely gauche here (and vice versa, probably, or maybe instead of gauche, “faggy”, “depressing”, “freaky” etc)

And if you think people in other parts of the country are actually less judgmental about personal style than New Yorkers are, man, you must have lived in some incredibly kind-hearted and open-minded places.  I moved here partially to get away from the sort of place where people thought I was a guy because I had short hair and didn’t wear piles of makeup.

The Opoponax,

The funny part was I was wearing the same types of clothes that I wore when I was an adolescent growing up in NYC....regular t-shirts and jeans...some new...some heavily worn.  For some reason, it wasn’t an issue when I was an adolescent...but it became one when I moved back in 2003...especially in the middle and upper-class neighborhoods in Manhattan and Queens. 

I will admit that the midwest undergrad deemphasized fashion due to widespread student perceptions that being judgmental on the basis of appearance or being obsessed with dressing-well/fashionably was anti-progressive and fed into mindless bourgeois consumerism.  Only exceptions were clothing which sported hate speech, anti-progressive messages, or ones expressing affiliation with religious/theistic beliefs.  While wearing Che and Mao t-shirts and paraphernalia among many students was widespread enough to be considered a fashion trend....no one will care if you didn’t. 

In fact, the only people on campus who bothered to dress well were the minority of us who were conservatory students.  Most college students just didn’t really care....one prominent college guide even quoted one parent of an alum who said we “...go out of their way to dress ugly.” It was also a reason why even with classist attitudes among the socio-economically privileged students that it was considered declasse to even bring up someone’s clothing choices for a critique beyond the previously mentioned exceptions.  Doing so in the prevailing campus culture would almost always result in one being challenged and denounced as an overprivileged shallow ignorant asshole. 

As for my time in New England...while a few were fashion conscious....most people in my experience didn’t really care as much, especially with the large college student populations in the area.  Dressing sloppily was normal and nothing to be ashamed of, especially during the evenings and weekends.  I did not find this to be the case in NYC...especially in the middle-upper class neighborhoods and at some university campuses...especially the private ones.

especially in the middle and upper-class neighborhoods in Manhattan and Queens.

One thing that is important to realize about New York, and as someone who grew up here I’m surprised you weren’t aware, is that the whole city is so large that overall mores about how to dress, etc. aren’t really affected by what’s going on in the college campuses.  I guess a gigantic university hoodie, running shorts, and birkenstocks might fly as fashion in college towns, because students dominate the population.  But even though New York has lots of students and lots of different educational institutions, that just doesn’t happen here.  Even the really huge universities like Columbia and NYU don’t have “campuses” per se, they are right out there in the middle of the city.  Which means there are going to be tons of non-students walking through, and yeah, they have just as much right to judge the ridiculous things the college kids are wearing these days as you have to get all swoony about the fact that not everyone in a 2 mile radius of your university dresses like a midwestern college student.

I’m sorry if I sound snarky or elitist or materialistic or something, but one of the things I like most about New York is that people care about their appearances and generally dress presentably (to whatever standard “presentable” is for their particular urban tribe).  I didn’t feel like people at my university “dressed” for the occasion of going to class, but then most of us had jobs and lives outside the campus so, no, actually, we were generally not wearing pajamas to class.  And I don’t see anything wrong with that.

I was glad to leave Columbia University (where I was a grad student, with hardly any money) when the undergraduates started dressing in Prada (c. 1997-9).

Of course, I did not get a look at the labels, but that’s what it looked like. Right out of The Matrix: long expensive dark coats with attitude, all winter.

I shopped in thrift stores. There are about 10 branches of the Salvation Army in Manhattan, and you could count on the fashionisti and older rich people discarding stuff that was still good.

Auguste:

have you heard about Terry Pratchett?

also… rent “HogFather” it was beautiful!!!

I guess a gigantic university hoodie, running shorts, and birkenstocks might fly as fashion in college towns, because students dominate the population.

I am not talking about dressing up in pajamas, hoodies, etc.  I am talking t-shirts and jeans...and being criticized while leisurely strolling during the evenings/weekends and minding my own business.  Even if one is pajamas and hoodies, making remarks about a random stranger’s dress and appearance is rude and a sign someone is a busybody who feels the need to butt their way into something that is not of their concern. 

It is one thing to be concerned about presentable appearances in a professional environment or specific occasions.......it is another to be issued unsolicited critiques to random strangers on the street.  IMO, that’s a sign of someone who cannot mind his/her own business and who seriously needs to get a life. 

What made this more aggravating was that I wore the same types of clothes* while growing up in NYC in junior high and high school and it was never an issue.....have New Yorkers became so busybodyish over the last 10+ years as to feel entitled to make unsolicited critiques on a stranger’s appearance while s(he) is minding his/her own business on a public street??

* In high school, they were actually in worse condition as they were all hand-me-downs and worn as economic constraints back then meant my family and I did not have the middle-class luxury of regularly buying new clothes.  When this issue started, I had long since replaced my waredrobe and the most worn t-shirts and jeans in my possession at the time were still good. 

I’m sorry if I sound snarky or elitist or materialistic or something, but one of the things I like most about New York is that people care about their appearances and generally dress presentably (to whatever standard “presentable” is for their particular urban tribe).

I have no problems with other people dressing up well so long as they do not feel the need to compel complete strangers with whom they have no business to conform to their standards.

I believe that other than professional settings or occasions which requires dressing presentably.....one should be free to dress down to relax without being bothered by unsolicited critiques from random strangers. 

Though I apologize for possible presumptuousness, your attitude reminded me of one reason why I was glad to not have attended a typical American public/private high school where being judged by one’s superficialities/appearances and labeled accordingly defined ones entire high school existence, especially after hearing how it ruined the adolescence of many co-workers and undergrad/grad classmates.

My course work was in the early 2000s. In them millennial years, as we now fondly look back on them now. So about seven or eight years ago. Honestly, I don’t recall a single fashionista among my many peers. Now, however, in my interactions with the undergrads, I do see a bit more ritz. But not with everyone, and not in an overwhelming way. There are rich kids and then there is everyone else.

I think that many people dress up for special occasions, and for some people that might include going to class. But on a day to day basis, doing groceries and hanging out around campus, etc. I still think that most of my academic peers look pretty casual. But then again, I am pathetically non-observant in the social arena, so I may just ignore the Prada and Yves St. Laurent all around me.

I agree with oppo that NYC is really one of the most dressed-down places I’ve ever lived. I love the freedom to be who you are, even if that is a slob. I have always been able to find people I like, and who don’t judge me on my clothes. It’s sort of interesting that people can have all these difference experiences even though they live in the same city.

I was glad to leave Columbia University (where I was a grad student, with hardly any money) when the undergraduates started dressing in Prada (c. 1997-9).

Of course, I did not get a look at the labels, but that’s what it looked like. Right out of The Matrix: long expensive dark coats with attitude, all winter.

From my recent campus visits and from what I’ve heard from friends who study and/or teach, NYU is far more fashion obsessed than Columbia...especially with the influx of wealthy students and the gentrification in and around the NYU area. 

Out of curiosity, department did you study under?

I do agree, though, that even in New York there are people who manage to raise a few eyebrows. People who throw scenes on the street, yelling and screaming, are pretty eye-catching. People who are partly nude are still sort of shocking. Women who go to work or to school dressed in lingerie still manage to get my attention. Mohawks, tattoos on your face, piercings in your face, all of these things still remind me that there is a range of appearances with which I am not wholly comfortable.

As for the lone guy running around in--god-forbid--jogging pants, who cares? (Just so long as they are BLACK jogging pants, damn in!)

I am talking t-shirts and jeans...and being criticized while leisurely strolling during the evenings/weekends and minding my own business.  Even if one is pajamas and hoodies, making remarks about a random stranger’s dress and appearance is rude and a sign someone is a busybody who feels the need to butt their way into something that is not of their concern.

Maybe it was your particular university, or neighborhood?

I’m a Hunter alum and wore t-shirts and jeans to class any day I didn’t have to be at an office job before or after.  Most of my fellow students seemed to do the same, aside from the large contingent of Muslim women who wore hijab with their long-sleeved t-shirts and stylish long skirts.  And again, a HUGE proportion of the student body had full-time jobs off campus, and most of us didn’t live in campus housing (which meant we had to pass muster in our various neighborhoods, too).  T-shirts and jeans were fine for those of us lucky enough not to be coming to class directly from some evil cube farm.

I wear t-shirts and jeans to work most days, and the vast majority of the time that I’m not at work, too, out and about on the street.  Nobody ever looks at me twice.  Certainly nobody has ever commented; in fact one of the reasons I love New York is that while I might rate the stink-eye from some silly fashionista, nobody is actually going to call me out when I do something borderline inappropriate like wear ratty yoga pants or a paint-spattered t-shirt to work.  Well, OK, maybe my friends, because they are cool and honest like that. 

One thing I will cop to—don’t know why this is, exactly, but here in NY people seem to be slightly more obsessive about things like cut and brand and what exactly is in fashion right now within the basic genre of “jeans and t-shirt”.  Which means that there are certain assinine busybodies out there who really do care whether your jeans are properly “skinny” and your t-shirt came from American Apparel, vs. whatever was on clearance at the Walmart in the midwestern college town you lived in last year.  It doesn’t matter if you score those skinny jeans and AA tee at salvation army for a quarter apiece, what matters is that you fit the cookie cutter mold of What People Are Wearing Now.  For instance right now I’m wearing this vaguely polyester sundress from the clearance rack at the Dillard’s in my hometown, which I love but which matches nothing in the Current Acceptable Fashion Choices Menu.  I feel vaguely self conscious about this, even though, c’mon, I am rocking this ever-so-slightly-unfashionable outfit. 

Another confession—I fully caught myself giving the stink eye to this girl walking through Chelsea dressed to the nines except for incredibly loud-print pajama pants.  WTF?  I mean, I never would have actually said anything, and seriously you should see some of the things I’m willing to wear to pick up a carton of milk on a Saturday morning.  But it was really, really odd, ok?  She was, like, out and about with her boyfriend, in this very hip neighborhood, obviously trying hard to look like Posh or Paris Hilton or someone fashion-ish like that.  Except for the pajama pants...?

Maybe it was your particular university, or neighborhood?

Nope.  I’ve had random NYC fashionista busybodies of both genders making such comments not only on my university campus or my neighborhood, but in various areas of Manhattan and the gentrifying/upper/middle class areas of Queens. 

Some of the worst examples of this happened in the Midtown/Village area where NYU and the New School are located when I went down there to hang out with old friends who were holding informal academic events, strolling around alone for leisure, or to look for old/used books. 

Interestingly enough, a lot of this crap stopped when I started to continue wearing my business casual shirts and docker type pants required at work into the evening hours/weekends and when I perfected the “Don’t mess with me” glare I usually gave as a response.  The glare does not work as well, however, with the busybody types at my uni....hence the necessity of the “Does prejudging people by superficialities such as fashion/appearance have a place at higher ed” speech/rant to undergrad/grad classmates who attempt to pull this crap. 

As for clothing, I just buy whatever happens to be on sale and is in the colors/appearance I like....don’t really look too hard for labels.  Emphasizing labels is the mark of a clothing marketer’s confidence trick, especially when I found that the quality of many popular top brands left much to be desired considering the going price.

Yes, Chelsea is currently a trendy and hip neighborhood.  However, as with other neighborhoods such as the lower east side, the village, midtown, Times Sq, the upper west side, Harlem, Williamsburg, Astoria, etc, the gentrification is such that the present characteristics of those areas have greatly altered the characteristics of those areas compared to what it was 15-20 years ago.

Some of the worst examples of this happened in the Midtown/Village area where NYU and the New School are located

To which I’d reply, again, that there is no such thing as a “university” neighborhood in New York.  Yes, the West Village has two universities taking up real estate space.  But there are a lot of others who live, work, and hang out in those areas, and they have every bit as much right as you do to make judgments about this sort of thing.  It’s not really fair to be all bent out of shape because the rich WASPs who bought up the quaint West Village townhouses 25 years ago dress better than you.

I feel the pressure sometimes, but it’s a mental thing.  And I am also able to realize that the mental pressure to dress a certain way comes from my own willingness to fit in here.  The way I see it, either you care what others think and act accordingly, or you don’t.  If you really didn’t, other people giving you a look wouldn’t make a dent in your personal style or lack thereof.  There are plenty of people in New York who couldn’t give half a shit if the “right” wash for denim is light or dark, or if gold lame bike shorts worn with moccasins are hot or hideous (I’m thinking ‘hideous’, but then I’m not the girl who stood in front of me at the coffee shop this morning).  If you never see those people, you might not be looking in the right places.  In New York, because there’s no such thing as a “campus”, the universities are not the right places to look.

But there are a lot of others who live, work, and hang out in those areas, and they have every bit as much right as you do to make judgments about this sort of thing.

To which I will reply again that it is one thing to make a judgment in your mind.....it is something else when one is rude, busybodish, and overentitled enough to make unsolicited comments to complete strangers based on such comments. 

It bothers me because when it happens to me, I find such behavior to be an unacceptable intrusion into business that is no one else’s but my own. 

The few first-years who were clueless enough to do this at my undergrad orientation were mercilessly berated by older students for being overprivileged shallow judgmental assholes.  Not surprisingly, we all learned the campus culture frowned on such behavior. 

Never had this issue in New England.  Most people IME didn’t care so long as you were friendly, intelligent, and were able to get along with them. 

Speaking of fashion....did you know that the Paris fashion industry and its derivatives originated in part from Louis XIV’s plan to get powerful French nobles to waste their resources on constantly changing fashion trends so they would not be able to use them to build independent power sources that could be used to challenge his rule as the absolute monarch of France.

I hate to be a busy-body, but what exactly did people say to you, exholt? I am in the Washington Square Part area most every day of the week, or at least a couple of times a week, and have lived in that general area (East and West Village) for close to a decade. I’ve honestly never heard of random people stopping other random people to degrade their clothes! I just find that so weird.  Maybe you were dealing with crackpots or something?

I have a friend who wore a polka dotted skirt to school one day, and some homeless asshat had the nerve to make a wisecrack about it, “You look like a loaf of Wonderbread!” I mean, honestly, coming from a homeless guy, stuff like that should make you laugh. And in the Washington Square Park area, there are homeless people who really have ATTITUDE! I once tried to give this one guy a turkey meal for Thanksgiving, and he said he was a vegetarian. Fuck you, homeless person!

Foucault,

Comments were mostly along the lines of “Slob”, “You’re sloppily dressed”, “FOB"(Mostly from other Asian-Americans), “Get some new clothes, man”, etc.  Everyone who made such comments were far from homeless....in fact all were relatively young (undergrad to mid-30s) dressed in quite well/to the nines in highly fashionable clothing of the time.  They also looked upper/upper-middle class...though they could be mortgaging their house/condo and other assets to keep up with the NYC Joneses.  They look like the very types I see regularly in corporate work settings and in school.  None of them ever stopped me, they just snidely said/yelled it within earshot...and it was quite annoying. 

I am in the Washington Square Part area most every day of the week, or at least a couple of times a week, and have lived in that general area (East and West Village) for close to a decade.

My high school friends and I used to hang out there during the early 90’s.  While there are some similarities, the characteristics of the area totally changed since the mid-late 90’s with the influx of wealthy NYU undergrad/grad students and the subsequent gentrification.  I had to help a high school classmate and his family move out of a lower east side apartment in the late 90’s because the landlord was illegally tossing out working-class rent-controlled tenants in favor of more upscale tenants like NYU undergrad/grad students and highly paid corporate professionals. 

Heck, NYU has greatly changed....when my graduating high school class was applying to colleges(pre-95), it was a far less of a prestigious or a “must-go to” school than it is now.  Classmates from my graduating senior high school class who go on alum visits are still floored by how the current high school kids are pining to get in there....and how much more demanding they are in the applications process than in the past when a classmate was able to get in with a scholarship to study bio-pre-med despite earning average grades and less than 1100 on the boards (Pre-1995).

P.S.: As for the angry homeless....don’t you think they are that way because of all the shit heaped upon them by those who consider themselves superior due to their higher socio-economic status? Personally, I’d be far more willing to give them some slack than some overprivileged snotty middle-upper class adolescent/adult twit.

Hi Exholt,

Of course you are right: it isn’t fair or kind to make fun of the genuine homeless. I’ve never actually said “Fuck you” to the homeless. I was just sort of surprised when this young man (with depressed looking homeless dog in tow) rejected a brand new, warm, delicious looking turkey dinner because he claimed he was a vegetarian. And I’ve seen “homeless” people with designer running shoes and Razor phones. So you have to wonder a little from time to time. But I agree that being on the streets is a horrible life, and I do actually try to help in my own grad student ways when I can.

As for the comments you received from your peers, I think that is horrible! It’s really mean and just shocking. I also wonder if perhaps you were targeted by fellow Asian-Americans because they have bought into “brand name culture” more than average Caucasian students? I’ve been reading an essay called “A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia” by David Eng and Shinhee Han. They address precisely this issue: why Asian-Americans and other groups of color have a “melancholic” relationship to assimilation, and to the so-called American Dream. Since many people of color can rarely pass as white based on skin color, perhaps high-priced fashion items and other luxury commodities become one way of trying to “internalize” a whiteness that is always out of reach?

Yesterday, I was going to say that Asian-Americans and perhaps Indian-Americans (or international students from Asia and India) are probably more snazzier-looking en masse than other demographics at NYU, except for white sorority girls.  But I didn’t want to stereotype based on my personal observations.

I’ve also noticed that many Asian-American students (Koreans in particular, but also Chinese students) seem more stressed out academically than their white counterparts. I don’t know if this due to family pressures to succeed, or because of the costs of NYU, or because the students want to do grad school in the Ivy League, but I agree with you that there is more at stake in attending NYU than there might have been a decade or more ago. I was talking to an Asian-American student in a professional capacity about a year ago, and she was really stressed out about grades and about the financial and emotional toll that NYU was taking on her parents. I asked her if she would consider transferring to a state or city college or university, and she told me sheepishly, “No, I need a brand-name school.”

IT’s sad, because tuition only gets higher each year, and many NYU students are actually NOT that wealthy. People think it;s a school full of rich kids due to the costs of going there, but there are students who honestly sleep in the library (or who did that till they were caught) because they couldn’t afford dorm life. That’s an extreme, but it;s a school of appearances as many are.

IT’s sad, because tuition only gets higher each year, and many NYU students are actually NOT that wealthy. People think it;s a school full of rich kids due to the costs of going there, but there are students who honestly sleep in the library (or who did that till they were caught) because they couldn’t afford dorm life.

That may be true for some of the NYU students whose socio-economic backgrounds resembled those of most of my high school classmates who attended.  From what I’ve heard from co-workers who graduated from NYU CAS more recently (2003-5), however, there seems to be a large presence of wealthy kids who are driving up the real estate of the campus and surrounding neighborhoods and who are obnoxious to classmates who aren’t as socio-economically privileged. 

Also, unless the financial aid situation has improved substantially since I applied and turned down admission 10+ years ago, the parsimonious aid combined with their ridiculously high tuition means that the upper classes could comfortably attend, the middle classes have to scrape hard to get by, and the working-class have to work nearly full-time and mortgage their parents and their own already precarious futures on the tender mercies of exorbitantly high loans.

I also wonder if perhaps you were targeted by fellow Asian-Americans because they have bought into “brand name culture” more than average Caucasian students?

While a few Asian-Americans did join in this obnoxious behavior, the vast majority who made unsolicited comments about my clothing and appearance were White. 

Moreover, the Asian-Americans who did participate in this were not recent immigrants or first generations...but resembled the privileged upper/upper-middle class second or later generation Asian-Americans raised in all-White suburbs I encountered at my undergrad or among some older cousins. 

Also, if there is a greater tendency to desire high fashion brand name high fashion clothes...it was certainly not among the vast majority of Asian/Asian-American high school classmates when I attended.  I don’t remember any of the Asian-American high school classmates beyond the few wealthier ones wearing anything but ordinary or ratty clothes due to constrained economic circumstances and/or the lack of emphasis on fashion among most of us.  No one that I could recall there gave a crap about what you wore when I attended.  If there were students who dressed well in anything like high fashion brand names...it would be the wealthy White or Jewish students whose families lived on the Upper East Side or other similarly upscale neighborhoods in the NYC area. 

I’ve also noticed that many Asian-American students (Koreans in particular, but also Chinese students) seem more stressed out academically than their white counterparts. I don’t know if this due to family pressures to succeed, or because of the costs of NYU, or because the students want to do grad school in the Ivy League, but I agree with you that there is more at stake in attending NYU than there might have been a decade or more ago.

Explaining this would require a long essay. 

I would recommend examining the educational systems of Confucian influenced societies such as Taiwan(ROC), South Korea, and Japan....especially their ways of determining college admissions...which has its origins in the Imperial Chinese Civil Service exams* which date back to the Tang Dynasty.

* The wikipedia article dating is a bit off as the Imperial examination’s influence as the main avenue for civil service qualification and civil service positions did not really start until well into the Tang dynasty.

Hi Exholt,

Well, I am sorry to hear about your experiences with asshats. I agree with you that by the time you arrive in university, you should be sensitive enough to diversity to accept the different fashion senses that one might encounter in NYC. These people sound like they have insecurities about their own status. Why else would you care how a stranger dresses?

Hope you will not judge NYU too harshly based on these isolated jerks.