Most totally bourgeois thing or activity?

[Guaranteed]

Poll question: Most totally bourgeois thing or activity?

I spent the whole day driving around town, and the whole time I couldn't help but talk about how bourgeois everything is.

In your mind, what's the epitome of bourgeois in our society?

(Some of my choices will overlap a bit)

Just as a side question, am I an elitest asshole for expecting something more from our culture? :P

[JVS]

1. College savings plans

[progmom]

81. ??

Really?

[JVS]

87. Totally

The proletarian outlook is: get a scholarship, get it from uncle sam via the military, or get a job and then if you want to you can afford it later

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. golf

apologies in advance. but golf is so ridiculously bourgeois i can't think of one thing that comes close.

[JVS]

5. You don't think that putting money aside in the hopes that little Tyler..

can be a Harvard Blue-Blood wannabe is more bourgeois that golf?

Although Golf is high on the bourgeois-sports-o-meter

[TyeDye75]

40. I love the game, I hate the establishment.

[autorank]

3. SUV -- gotta have it, "the suburban war wagon," conspicuous waste

These are all good choices and it depends on when you're asking. In the sixties it would have been "the yard." "The yard" is still current but the SUV sums it all up -- waste, impractical, ugly, causes others problems in traffic, dangerous to others when they crash into you, out of place, offensive to the eye, excessive cost, and regulatory sham.

[Guaranteed]

8. What do you mean about "the yard?"

Did that kind of come into being with the whole suburban lifestyle? Could you explain further?

[JVS]

10. I would say both Yard and SUV are high-proletarian rather than bourgeois

Yards and SUVS (at least domestic ones that are not Lincolns or Cadillacs) are enjoyed by the upper echelon of the working class, those who have enough money to afford such things but are not truly independent in the manner that being a member of the bourgeoisie class implies

[Guaranteed]

14. I think I'm thinking in a more conceptual sense...

While I find it hard to believe that a member of the true proletariat could actually afford an SUV, I'm thinking more about what it means to aspire to the bourgeois lifestyle- i.e. what items should be owned, what activities should be engaged in.

I can absolutely see where you came up with "the yard" thing, especially if you throw in "white picket fence" with it. But I'd see ownership of an SUV by a lower class citizen as merely an attempt to appear bourgeois in the mind of his peers.

[autorank]

20. Of SUVs and Yards

The SUV is the perfect union of the bourgeois and the petite bourgeois. It is ostentatious and, at he same time, emulates faux working class affinities. It also compensates for underlying homo erotic tendencies the owners assume are unnatural. What a multileveled material and emotional incantation!

The yard is a more genteel version of the above. It allows status and presumed aesthetic expression while, at the same time, hearkening back to rural origins to eschew any appearances of effeminacy or effete tendencies.

Dude, it's all fucked up, that's all I can say.

[yardwork]

23. I beg your pardon!

What exactly is wrong with a yard? And working in it? What's wrong with that?

Do you wanna take this outside?

[autorank]

30. yardwork, OMG, a thousand appologies. I meant "yard work"

Let's do take it outside but I'll help you hoe your garden; or garden with your ho...which ever you prefer.

[barb162]

33. we'll all be doing a certain kind of yardwork soon, growing

crops to try to feed ourselves when we all lose jobs. Front and back yards will be filled with crops instead of neatly trimmed lawns

[autorank]

35. You've hit on it. The "master plan."

Why would * avoid the global warming issue? Makes no sense whatsoever...unless its to give the entire USA a temperate climate; when we're all broke, we can use our yards as produce farms. Wow, I knew he had something up his sleeve! Guy's a genius!

Good luck with the farm.

[yardwork]

79. That would be fine with me - that's the sort of yardwork I like!

[yardwork]

80. lol! You are forgiven.

[KitchenWitch]

4. Hey BullGooseLooney! n/t

[Guaranteed]

6. Hey!

:)

[Seabiscuit]

37. Hey BullGooseLooney and KitchenWitch!

[barackmyworld]

7. Old Navy is the opposite of bourgeois

It is cheap crap that falls apart and doesn't even attempt to be some kind of status statement.

[Guaranteed]

9. It's immensely popular with the middle class, though.

All looks the same...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Enlighten the furrinah, part #290,838,792:

What's the diference between a "strip mall" and a normal mall?

[barackmyworld]

12. strip mall is outdoors and in one line

a regular mall is usually multi-floor, with interior corridors.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. Malls (not strip malls).

Also the recent bourgeois-morality fuelled drive for greater censorship of broadcast media. Also, polo, golf, country clubs, and pretty much any other activity that the "leisure class" (in Veblen's phrase) engages in to fill the emptiness of their lives.

[Xipe Totec]

15. Martinis

[cestpaspossible]

16. Labelling everything 'bourgeois'

How bourgeois is that?

[Guaranteed]

17. So NOT bourgeois,

nowadays. :P

I knew that one would come up- SO bourgeois of you to say that.

Jus' messin...:)

[yardwork]

21. That was my vote

[baldguy]

18. Voting Republican

[Guaranteed]

19. LOL you're absolutely right.

Fucking unbelievably bourgeois- and stupid. :)

[Swamp Rat]

22. I second that!

[msgadget]

71. Tuly elitist, imo.

"Only WE know how to manage money and hold people accountable for screwing up their lives while encouraging the all-important free trade and market based economy. Cheap labor is the only way to go, baby!! Viva the republic!"

[Bouncy Ball]

24. Bourgeois

"A person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class."

That could apply to things as well.

Strip malls, hands down. And aesthetically revolting, too.

[OrwellwasRight]

25. SKIING!!!

Know any poor people who ski? I don't.

It involves every bourgeois travesty there is:

Driving from your tract home in your SUV to the mountains to engage ina sport that costs, what, $45 for a lift ticket evey single day you want to do it (not to mention clothing and equipment purchases/rental)???

Add to that the food and drink you must buy while you are there and the fact that there is such a pretentious word as apres-ski to signify the time during with you decadently soak in a hot tub out on the redwood deck OR wear a fur in the ski lodge, next to the fire place.

Finally, after returning to town, you leave the lift ticket onyour jacket so folks know you have been skiing recently and will ask you about your trip. Ick!

How's that for a rant?

[Ron Green]

34. I would narrow that to ALPINE skiing, rather than Nordic. Cross-country

doesn't involve the chic clothing, lift tickets, apres-ski pretention, etc. It's more of a real backwoods workout.

[OrwellwasRight]

45. I'll go along with that. nt.

[St. Jarvitude]

38. I take it you had a horrible skiing accident as a child

It's okay, I understand.

In other news, skiing kicks ass... when I can afford to go.

[OrwellwasRight]

76. Na, but there was a group of snooty rich kids

who were members of the ski club at my high school. Those of us who didn't go on the ski trips they planned were not as cool as them (in their minds, anyway).

My long term annoyance with any sport that you have to be well-off to participate in began then.

Think about it: track, soccer, basketball, baseball = no real capital investment, therefore played by down-to-earth folks.

Skiing, golfing, yachting, jet-skiing, horse jumping = snotty rich kid sports.

These are all stereotypes, of course, but maybe it is the basis of a new political theory: forget red v. blue, or fundie v. sane religions. Let's just ask which sports you like.

Yeah, Isiah Thomas in 2008...

;-)

[progmom]

83. ...or you have to live somewhere near hills

Not a lot of opportunities for downhill skiing in SE Michigan,

[illbill]

26. Chilis???

... thats even sort of ghetto.. not bourgeois!

[American Tragedy]

27. I'm sorry, but I find the term bourgeois kind of pretentious.

It seems to imply a superior attitude toward middle class people. I could be mistaken, but that's how it's always struck me.

Personally, I do find most of the things that you've listed to be very unappealing. I'm just reluctant to judge others' lifestyles, or to broadly generalize socioeconomic groups.

Am I wrong?

[cruadin]

28. No, you're not. Very well stated.

[tigereye]

29. when I think of bourgeois,

I think of trying to attain a certain level seen as middle class, so I think of Whole Foods, ironically. They have cool stuff there, but the one here is packed with folks driving Mercedes, Volvos, and other expensive cars that I see as fitting with a certain desire for acquisition/getting the "best possible." That seems bourgeois to me, also the lack of awareness that most "classes" could not afford to buy most of their family foods there.

[autorank]

31. Holy shit Batman, I'm bourgeois! Whole Foods

I go there every week to buy meat and poultry. There are indeed a lot of SUVs and EuroCars. I get my meat and chicken there because (I think) the creatures are raised without the benefit of steroids and all that other nasty stuff the chains stuff into their creatures. I hear that they wait until the cattle and chickens die a natural death thus allowing Whole Foods to claim the dearly departed for a higher purpose, my dinner table. The joke in some areas is to call it "While Pay Check" but that's means shopping for every thing there. Personally, I think it's just smart to buy food that doesn't poison you.

On edit:

[tigereye]

57. no I see why they do it

it's how expensive it is, that bothers me. :)

[American Tragedy]

42. Well, I guess I better stop shopping at Whole Foods then.

Clearly, the wrong kind of people with the wrong kinds of cars go there. I'd hate to tarnish my carefully crafted persona. :eyes:

[Modem Butterfly]

47. I'll go you one better: I shop at Whole Foods and I drive a Volvo

Of course, said Volvo has 130,000 miles on it and was purchased for $3,000 used (I'm very proud of this: I didn't even have to put much work into it to get it to run like a dream). Also, my Whole Foods is in a converted Farmer's Market that is heavy on "exotic" produce and products, and so attracts a much more diverse crowd than other Whole Foods I've shopped at.

I don't think the poster was mocking Whole Foods shoppers or those who drive "Euro Cars" per se. But I do think that some folks shop at Whole Foods because of the cachet value.

[tigereye]

59. it's the upscaling thing that bothers me at times

some of my best freinds drive Volvos and Saabs. ;) It was more a comment on our stratified economic system.

[tigereye]

58. they asked what I felt was bourgeoise

and I answered. I like going there too, I just think that healthy foods should be affordable for all, so that's my " beef, " so to speak. I come out of the co-op mentality, although that can be expensive too.

[Modem Butterfly]

61. We don't buy meat from Whole Foods

It's way too expensive. We get ours from Value Save, which is a cut-rate Winn-Dixie, itself a down-scale grocery store chain. We have to cook the shit out of it, too, because it's on the far end of the freshness scale sometimes. But you can get some great meat quite inexpensively. I've got a freezer stocked with boneless, skinless chicken breasts at .89 a pound.

[OrwellwasRight]

77. Well, you're wrong if you want to stop having fun by judging

others' lifestyles.

I mean we are Democrats, and we're normally nice and empathetic and compassionate and all that.

But can't we have fun at other people's expense just once in a while? Please? If we keep it in the Lounge? :shrug:

Especially when we are having fun at the expense of people we are stereotyping as materialistic, red-state Bush voters who don't give a rat's rickshaw about the environment??? :spank:

[greendog]

32. The Bourgeois Blues.......Leadbelly

Me and my wife went all over town
And everywhere we went people turned us down
Lord, in a bourgeois town
It's a bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Home of the brave, land of the free
I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs
We heard the white man say "I don't want no niggers up there"
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Well, them white folks in Washington they know how
To call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow
Lord, it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

I tell all the colored folks to listen to me
Don't try to find you no home in Washington, DC
`Cause it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

[tjwmason]

36. Expecting better is not elitist

An elitist would recognise that the morass of the great-unwashed will never amount to anything worth contemplating; would rise effortlessly above them, and would only rarely look down on them to obverve the validation of his/her prejudices.

Observing how bourgeois things are (using the term in a pejorative sense) is completely bourgeois because of the implied smug self-satisfaction of superiority.

[American Tragedy]

41. You just hit the nail on the head, tjwmason.

[Butterflies]

52. I hadn't thought of it that way

but you're right. :-)

[Guaranteed]

70. Well, there may be some overlap between elitism and

the bourgeois, but I don't see it as strongly. I've seen responses like skiing, going to Whole Foods and calling things "bourgeois" on this thread- to me, those are elitest.

I just can't imagine a Republican middle-class tract-house living doing those things, for the most part. Republicans, yes- rich ones. But not the bourgeois.

[nytemare]

39. Any purse or handbag that costs over 50 dollars

It is a bag. How many people in the tsunami ravaged areas could eat for the money people pay for these things??

[Bouncy Ball]

44. Hear, hear.

I once had a girlfriend try to talk me into buying a purse that was $275. Her argument was that:

a) it was made well and thus would last a very very long time (and it was and I'm sure it would have )

b) the style of it wasn't faddish--it was classic.

Those things were true, but call it the Scottish blood in me, call it the trace of Puritan DNA still left, there is just NO WAY I can bring myself to spend that much money on a freaking PURSE.

And for the very reason you named--I would think of how I could have purchased a perfectly nice purse for $50 and given $225 to people who could really use it. It'd eat me alive, carrying around an almost $300 purse.

(The purse I carry now was $12 at Target and I love it.)

[bobbobbins]

53. did you donate the money you saved to people who could use it?

[Bouncy Ball]

56. Good question. In that particular case, I put it in savings

to pay for graduate school. Once I paid my first semester's tuition, I gave $300 to the tsunami relief efforts (through the Red Cross). My husband gave more than that. (Yes, I'm bragging on him--he was saving that money of his for a new game system, but when the tsunami hit, he gave it to the Red Cross. I was really proud of him for that.)

I just had to make sure I had enough set aside for school. Whether that's selfish or not, I don't know. But whenever I have extra, I give it. (DU, ACLU, DFA, PFLAG, Amnesty International, etc.)

Speaking of, do you happen to know of an organization which specifically helps Iraqi civilians? I've been looking around on the internet, but haven't found anything yet. I'd love to support something like that.

[bobbobbins]

62. I don't know of any.

I've been giving to the tsunami as of late.

[Bouncy Ball]

63. Ok, thanks.

I'll keep looking.

[rox63]

43. SUVs

Absolutely, it's the SUV. Unless you are towing or hauling something big on a regular basis, or you have a half-dozen kids, there is no reason to own one of these gas-guzzlers. People are dying in Iraq so you can get 10 miles per gallon.

[achtung_circus]

46. A story

Back in about 1995 I delivered a horse we had sold to a buyer from Calgary, Alberta. She was going to keep the horse at a stable near Bragg Creek, Alberta. Now, Bragg Creek is about 30 miles west of Calgary, transitioning from foothills to mountains, a very pretty place.

It is also very trendy. The gas stations are log, the parking lots are paved, the landscaping is anal, the shopping is upscale. We agreed to meet in the parking lot of a gas station in Bragg Creek & we would follow her to the stable. We got there first.

Now we were driving a somewhat beat-up pickup truck. It wasn't a beater by any means, but it was a working truck. We were pulling a 2-horse trailer. I had rebuilt it from the ground up and it didn't know the meaning of the word fancy. It was (and is) a working trailer. We were wearing boots and jeans, T-shirts and I was wearing a ball cap. It's a useful working wardrobe.

As we were waiting in the parking lot, talking to the horse, sitting on the tailgate, etc. we were approached by a huge number of people. Over the course of an hour there must have been 75 of them. What struck me was the consistency of these people.

They were apparently DINKs- Double Income, No Kids. They had put on their Dockers and boat shoes, loaded the Golden Retriever into the Jeep Comanche and tooled out to Bragg Creek to buy fudge, walk the main street, to see and be seen. A small minority had children, carbon copies of Mom (or perhaps Mother) and Dad.

They all expressed wonder at seeing a real live horse, they all pretended that they were "involved" in horses to some extent. About 2 minutes conversation with each made it pretty clear in my mind they watched show jumping on TV and that was the extent of their horse experience.

I suppose the horse nonsense is part of the "Alberta" experience.

That's what I think of when I think Bourgeoisie.

[ArkDem]

50. Paved parking lots, huh? Who'd a thunk it.

[ArkDem]

48. Owning a cat and buying stuff for it.

[liberalitch]

49. stopping to vote republican, in your SUV, on the way to chili's...

to eat and watch the football game

[XNASA]

51. Watching Television.

Eating at Wendy's.

Shopping at Wal-Mart.

[ProfessorGAC]

54. Strictly From A Personal Standpoint

My most bourgeois activities:

1) I own 9 guitars. Can only play one at a time. Unnecessary consumption is bourgeois.

2) I bought a seat belt for my dog, so i can take him for convertible rides. (I do buy used convertibles and drive them until the doors fall off.) Buying safety gear for the dog is bourgeois.

3) Fastidious landscaping arrangements. We do have a small house in a budget town, though. So, i'm caught between practical and bourgeois. But, the little bushes, and the flowers and the greenery, and the rock arrangements are definitely bourgeois.

4) I don't wear jeans, EVER! Self-explanatory.

5) I love to play golf. (I don't belong to a country club, though.)
The Professor

[NoPasaran]

60. I don't think a seat belt for the dog is bourgeois

Getting the dog his own high speed internet connection... THAT'S bourgeois

[ProfessorGAC]

67. LOL! I Guess You're Right!

But, i didn't get him that. He just has plain old dial up. So, by your definition, that's not bourgeois.
The Professor

[bloodyjack]

55. Posting on the internet

[MrModerate]

64. Ballet lessons for 7-year-olds n/t

[progmom]

84. Why?

I took ballet, and my parents were far from well-off at the time.

[ThorsHammer]

65. Hummers, aka the Posermobile (nt)

[BurtWorm]

66. Getting engaged and taking a full year to plan a wedding.

Hiring someone to help you take care of your infant while you're on maternity (or paternity) leave.

Asking someone how their vacation was, then talking more about your last several more than they talk about theirs.

[ernstbass]

68. Definately golf

[ThorsHammer]

73. Disagree on golf

I'd agree to the extent you're talking about the corporate, $1MM membership type places. However, there are a lot of us who play affordable public courses, don't buy $1000 clubs, play with people of both genders, all races, and all socioeconomic groups, but still enjoy the game. It gets a bad rap for all the rich, exclusionary people, but there are many of us at the other end who are from bourgeouis.

[Bullwinkle925]

69. Facials - Nails and Pedicures

Which I must admit to experiencing myself. Totally decadent.

[mark414]

72. living in the suburbs

booya

[Phentex]

74. Flying to Europe to bring home a $1500 dog....

when there are so many good pets already here. :(

[DrGonzoLives]

75. Eviscerating the proletariat

n/t

[Redleg]

78. Surfing the internet for shits and grins.

That is the epitome of bourgeois in our society.

[HEyHEY]

82. Fucking in a car wash

[progmom]

86. really??

I am so naive. I had no idea this activity went on.

Man...you gotta be really fast.
No fun for us girls.

[kohodog]

85. Don't forget Fox Hunts