Sunday, March 01, 2009 - Posts
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In today's New York Times Sunday Styles section, there are two articles devoted to the educated downwardly mobile. First is a profile of Caitlin Macy, author of the forthcoming book Spoiled, which chronicles “These people on the edge of where they’d like to be: almost rich, slightly rich, very conscious of their place in the world.” It’s no surprise that Daniel Menaker, who is quoted in the Times article, is the person who originally purchased Ms. Macy’s work. He published his own tale of the urbane striver, the under-rated The Treatment, 10 years ago. Menaker’s novel took place in another era of want—the early '70s—and is about an overeducated NYC prep school English teacher and his romance with an old-money widow.
There’s a second article, about how the upper middle classes can no longer afford private school. Add to that the article about living on $500,000 a year from a few weeks ago, and three makes a trend. And when compared to the Styles articles from last year at this time, the contrast is stark. On Feb. 28, 2008, styles had an article about 7-year-olds getting pedicures and other salon services regularly. A month later, on March 27, there was another article about Bottega Veneta handbags, and how, even with the recession looming, women were still willing to shell out $6,000 for a “signature piece.”
For the past five years, the narrative of the Styles section has been a classier version of the Real Housewives franchise: (mostly) women spending outrageous sums on fairly useless goods and services. These articles tended to focus merely on the money spent, not the class implications. Now, the Times is choosing to cover the class anxieties that were always there but that will only become more pronounced as the recession lengthens. I can’t wait for someone to produce something like Whit Stillman's Metropolitan for the late aughts. It’s the logical next step.
Since it’s only the middle middle class relegated to mopping floors, and the genteel impoverished are still thinking of private schools, today’s lipstick level is a 20.
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