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15/5/09 13:29![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlectomyLiving in the less-hip part of Williamsburg and working in Canarsie, I'm only rarely overcome by that feeling that everyone in New York is prettier than I am. I couldn't take it if I lived in Manhattan... or even a mile northwest of my current place.
Every so often it's helpful to remind myself: Holy cow, that's almost what I spend on rent. (Or more than what I spend on rent, in the case of the one who gets a powerful toxin injected into her forehead.)
I can hardly imagine what I'd do with an extra $800 a month. Books. Charity. Retirement. Turning my apartment into a high-tech robot house that does my bidding.
Go to Sephora? My God. (I mean, I go to Sephora now and again, and Lush too, but that's a rare indulgence rather than a lifestyle. It's... kind of embarrassing how long it's been since I've cut my hair.)
But, ya know. People try to position this as stupid feminine frivolity, and it's not that either. It's about projecting the image that makes you fit in at work, makes you look like you deserve that promotion, makes you look like you deserve that guy. Everyone makes class-based judgements all the time, and often what we label "smart" or "trustworthy" or "competent" is really just code for "looks middle-to-upper-class." Opting out of that doesn't make me virtuous (unless I really was going to donate that $800 to charity); it's a choice predicated on certain privileges that I have and certain privileges that I don't have.
Every so often it's helpful to remind myself: Holy cow, that's almost what I spend on rent. (Or more than what I spend on rent, in the case of the one who gets a powerful toxin injected into her forehead.)
I can hardly imagine what I'd do with an extra $800 a month. Books. Charity. Retirement. Turning my apartment into a high-tech robot house that does my bidding.
Go to Sephora? My God. (I mean, I go to Sephora now and again, and Lush too, but that's a rare indulgence rather than a lifestyle. It's... kind of embarrassing how long it's been since I've cut my hair.)
But, ya know. People try to position this as stupid feminine frivolity, and it's not that either. It's about projecting the image that makes you fit in at work, makes you look like you deserve that promotion, makes you look like you deserve that guy. Everyone makes class-based judgements all the time, and often what we label "smart" or "trustworthy" or "competent" is really just code for "looks middle-to-upper-class." Opting out of that doesn't make me virtuous (unless I really was going to donate that $800 to charity); it's a choice predicated on certain privileges that I have and certain privileges that I don't have.