#upper class privilege

[thatsmybook]

As talked about in this podcast episode of @peopledonttalkabout , the music room fight scene in season one episode five encompasses the entire dynamic and arc of Wilmon's relationship in Young Royals. Margaret and Anton point out that this is the first ever time that Simon calls Wille 'Prince'.

My thoughts about Simon's feelings towards Wille from the music room up until the hug at Lucia, is that in this period he views Wille as one of the elite kids all having each others' backs (once a brother always a brother) and using their privilege to scapegoat out of their mistakes. From the moment Wille accuses Simon of being low for providing these elite kids with drugs (which he took) is when the switch happens - from perceiving Wille as just himself to a Prince. Judging as low the lower class kid for providing drugs to the upper class kids who consume them is the equivalent hypocrisy that Simon spoke about in the first episode of the show. Simon: "Why is it called tax 'evasion' but welfare 'scam?' It's all right that rich people cheat, but when poor people do it, it's messed up. For rich people, it's not even called 'welfare' it's called 'deduction'." The language and perception is that one is superior to the other.

[Simon suggests that Wille thinks that his family's reputation and future is superior to Simon's. Wille pauses and doesn't answer and Simon takes that as Wille implying the Royal family's concerns are superior to the Eriksson family's. This comes full circle at the end of season 3 when Simon is struggling with his family's reputation being trashed in comments on social media and Wille dismisses his worries because his mother's health and the state of the royal family is more important. Wille's birthday and how he behaves towards Simon is an escalation of what is happening in this music room in Season one.]

Simon himself is in trouble with drugs because of the elite kids' need for alcohol and drugs and to prevent one of those kids from predating on his vulnerable sister because of her access to those drugs.

Wille going on to help August with his finance problems with just one phonecall in the next scene illustrates how this class of kids have each others' backs. (My first thought when I first watched this show was that Wille was now going to cover August's debt to Simon so Simon is no longer having to do what he's doing- but, no, Simon is not whose finances he's concerned about. Though, in fairness I doubt that Simon would have accepted Wille's financial help.)

Wille texts Simon that he understands that he is angry and he will fix the problem. Simon is still angry because in my opinion he's like "well of course you should- it's your problem to fix". And he's frustrated that now his fate at the school and future rests in this upper class kid's hands. He has no reason to trust this group of people, and he is still viewing Wille as a representative of them.

Then at Lucia when Wille tells Simon that they threw Alexander under the bus, he's angry again about this elite group using their camaraderie and privilege at a lower class kid's expense. (Alexander may be rich but he is lower class than the Society kids). When Wille tells Simon what he did to save Simon, he wonders what he owes this elite kids' representative in compensation. A thank you? Wille's groups' classicism did this to Simon in the first place. Now Simon has been granted a reprieve because one of these kids needs him as a friend/lover. He shakes his head because it's so messed up and goes against his principles, which waver, the longer he spends at this school.

Now, of course, Wille is not August and there are individual accountabilities amongst these group of elite kids, but throughout this whole period Simon not only perceives Wille as the Prince, but Wille grouped in with these upper class kids diabolically getting away with their misbehaviour. The show shows a montage of the Society all lying to the headmistress to blame Alexander and Wille is just one of them. That scene for me acts as the show reminding us - Wille IS one of them - they share the same values and principles. (Costuming and casting in that scene does a good job with the storytelling- they all look similar and are dressed in similar colours).

Simon pushing past all this at Lucia to once again perceive Wille as himself to comfort him, because of Wille's loneliness, is testament to Simon's character. This is the reason their love story exists. Because Simon is a person with strong integrity but also one who gives people that he loves second chances. He is brave with his heart like that. In that scene at Lucia, I personally did not want Simon to forgive Wille for his classism both in the music room and concerning Alexander. But Simon cares enough for Wille to forgive him and move on.

This entire event is one of those instances that Simon is referring to in the tent in season three when he says that Wille does not recognise his own privilege at times. Deciding not to be part of the succession in the monarchy at the end of season three will not have rid Wille of his class status and innate classicism (however minor it is compared to the outright bigots at Hillerska). This, as a 17 year old, will take some time to unlearn. Many of us as adults are still unlearning problematic takes from the environments we were brought up in. I'm sure Simon will never miss an opportunity to call him out on it in their future.

[writingwithcolor]

Diversity Win: Is "Crazy Rich" POC Representation Necessarily Empowering?

sodapopsculptor asked:

I’m writing a story with two sets of protagonists: A trio with a Black girl, a Latino, and a Vietnamese-American boy who all come from middle-upper class to ridiculously rich families, and a pair of white working-middle class sisters. They’re all heroes of this story. I’ve seen way too many rich white people and poor poc people in fiction, and I’m kinda getting sick of it, but I’m worried that by having the poc kids be rich and the white girls not so much, I’ll be reinforcing the idea that poc somehow rule the world. The only time the rich kids use their status as leverage is when the Asian threatens to sic his cop dad on a bully (race unstated but I imagined him as white) picking on a freshman, and during the Black girl’s birthday party, when she pays the biggest jock there fifty bucks (And later says offhandedly that it was just what she had in her pocket) to chase off a creep hitting on her.

OP, have you ever seen the “diversity win!” meme before?

I understand that your motivation for these narrative choices is to give POC a chance, if you will, to be the rich characters. But it is evident from this ask that you have not asked yourself what this entails. I want to ask you to critically examine the race and class intersections you’re creating here, as well as these kids’ roles in oppressive systems.

You explain that these rich POC are heroes and only have righteous reasons for leveraging their power.

But is your Black girl character aware of the potential disciplinary and/or legal consequences her jock accomplice might face while she has the resources to keep her hands clean? Are you?

Is your Asian character aware of how much of an abuse of power it is to “sic” a cop on someone, and the sheer amount of harm a criminal record or incarceration does to a juvenile with behavior issues? Are you?

So you want to put POC in positions of power for #representation.

Does it resonate with the group you’re representing?

Do you research and portray the unique ways race, ethnicity, class, and majority vs. minority status come together?

Or are you putting these characters in oppressive hegemonic roles for the sake of a power fantasy, on behalf of a group you're not even in?

To your question, you're not reinforcing the idea that "POC rule the world" because such a generalized belief does not exist. Instead, you're reinforcing:

The idea that society has “winners” and “losers.”

The idea that the problem with disproportionately powerful people is the lack of “equal opportunity” as opposed to the power imbalance to begin with.

The idea that those in oppressive positions of power need only have the right intentions to justify their use of it.

To be clear: that is not to say that you can't have jerk aristocrat billionaire millionaire crazy rich POC. Evil or mean rich characters are fun! I have some myself! You can even have rich characters who are gentle-hearted and well-intentioned, but you have to know the ways in which they’re privileged and decide how aware of that your characters are. That’s no problem.

But if you think that wealthy and powerful POC would have the same values and priorities as their poorer counterparts, you’re deluding yourself. There’s a reason why the quote “power corrupts” exists. There’s a reason why no matter where you look on the globe, there are historical dictators and tyrants.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

~ Rina

I fully agree with Rina, and truly want to emphasize the last paragraph.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

I don't think you need to aim to subvert or purposely make all the BIPOC rich and powerful and the white people poor and suffering. Add diversity and include upper class rich and class privileged BIPOC, sure thing! And you can avoid your fears of intentional subversion message by including rich and powerful white characters as well, even if they're not the focus of your story. Just their existence helps. You could also include middle-class characters of Color as well.

More reading: Black in upper-class society

~Mod Colette

[khattikeri]

it bugs me when people treat lan wangji like a generic yaoi seme (i.e. filthy rich, selfish, arrogantly dismissive and unsatisfied, lords his position over those weaker or poorer, near-universal advantages over others, etc.

lan wangji IS way more privileged than wei wuxian, but lan xichen and the lan elders have FAR more power, control, and political advantage over him. lan wangji single-handedly physically fought 33 members of his own family to protect the man he loved, and they whipped him to near death for it. they forcibly imprisoned ("secluded") him and took advantage of his bedridden state to join the other clans in ambushing and assassinating wei wuxian.

my point is, he's not a stereotypical arrogant jerk with unending influence over others. if anything, being a dom top in bed isn't an expression of power for lan wangji, but an expression of freedom. he can be true to himself, his love, and his desires without being held back by his family and society's politics.

[bauliya]

i really think this was the novel that birthed ecocriticism like my god. 1851. 1851!

[sisilovespink]

i do understand i'm upper class, but sometimes i feel like i'm just not wealthy enough to be considered rich

[nando161mando]

Trump probably owns or is a shareholder in the cruise ship business so the opportunism is there for the nazi fascist capitalists.

Offering rich people a 4 year brunch trip to escape Trump

[synthient]

I should probably write an actual thing on my theory of savantmoding at some point

[alicentflorent]

I’ve started seeing the same bad takes on “saltburn” as I saw on “parasite” back in 2019 send help

[rebellum]

Have you perhaps tried to just not be severely mentally ill 🤔 bro just do stuff anyways what do you mean your "difficulty doing stuff" illness means you have difficulty doing stuff

[selamat-linting]

this is going to be mean but terserah klo kamu ngerokok atau jadi pemberontak menulis puisi soal pesona gairah sex jadi perempuan binal aduhai tuhan tolong jadikan aku pelacur. terserah klo kmu minum-minum sok jadi pendekar unjuk rasa anarko sindikalis anak skena egoist anti moralitas. kuliahmu masih dibiayain orang tua. you are nerds to me. poser. paling lima tahun balik jadi anak baik-baik.

[tilbageidanmark]

[wisdomfish]

Very few of the privileged and learned classes turned to Jesus, as they felt comfortably secure and satisfied with their achievements in life.

Flemming, Donald C.  [ref. Matthew 11:29]

[gothiings]

I feel like present day Dani would appreciate how fractured pop culture is nowadays thanks to the internet. People can find more things they are interested in and not be confined or limited to a few sources.

[mchiti]

go back to this post when you’ll see hakim score tomorrow and I wont be there to celebrate our first hakim goal together cuz I have a birthday’s party and I can’t escape

[uinferno]

The dichotomy of how I treat my Desktop vs Laptop is truly the encapsulation of the favorite vs unfavorite.

If they were human children, the left would be my desktop and the right my laptop. I turn my desktop off every night and only give it a dozen tabs to run and I close them when I'm done.

Meanwhile, I made my laptop train a neural network for 100 hours straight in a random corner of my house.

There's a reason why I haven't used my laptop in a while.

[fireworkss-exe]

If Valerie met me, would she vibe with me?

she doesn't vibe with a lot of people