#classism tw

[azelmaandeponine]

I shaw someone saying that the life Stan lived after being kicked out was on him and no one else but him. What do you think?

I think that's victim blaming.

Basically "why don't you get a job?"

Or "why don't you stop being poor"

That person needs to shut up.

There are socioeconomic reasons as to why people commit crimes.

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Do you think life is fair

No. If there's one thing this life definitely isn't, it's fair. I foam at the mouth when people act like this world would surely give you everything you desire if only you worked hard enough, because underneath the veneer of positivity, these are the people who will treat disability and poverty as character flaws.

[buffyspeak]

the big book of craig manning meta, part 2: pre-series background.

trigger warnings: discussions of emotional, psychological, physical, and potential financial abuse, as well as brief references to classist attitudes.

albert: what's your interest in my son? joey: just... albert: he's my son, right? joey: yes, but he's also angela's brother. albert: half-brother.

though craig's introduction is quite memorable and the show is quite good at letting us get to know his life circumstances right away, because certain things happened pre-series (or at least pre-craig's introduction) there are a couple of things that are left ambiguous and up to interpretation. i've seen different perspectives, for instance, on how julia leaving albert went down, whether albert was abusive to julia as well, or whether craig used to live with joey and julia before she died. a lot of this is going to be based on speculation/my interpretation of what's talked about.

a couple of things we know to be textual in canon by when doves cry:

joey and julia's wedding was five years ago, so craig would have been about 9 at the time.

angie is six in season 2, so julia and joey had her before they got married.

craig went to a different middle school as most of the rest of the main cast, which is why he wasn't in season 1. (i mean, realistically, i don't know if the writers had come up with his character at the start of the show. but this is the in-universe reason.) he starts at degrassi because the nearby high school closed down due to budget cuts. this also seems to be the the high school the other grade-nines would have gone to, so he likely would have met them, but he would not have gotten to know emma more or met sean, who are both in grade eight. (and both of whom are pretty instrumental in helping to get him out of his situation.)

albert is a rich surgeon, and at least since julia died, seems to have full custody of craig.

julia died two years ago, given that at the start of season 1, joey says she's been dead for a year, and it's now a year later. so i believe craig would have been 11 or 12, depending on what time of year it happened.

at some point, when angie was a baby, craig was with angie (and presumably joey and julia) on a trip to british columbia.

joey is unaware of the abuse until the events of when doves cry. while he seems generally concerned for craig's well-being due to his mom's death and his clearly missing angie, he doesn't seem concerned for craig's literal safety until sean and emma inform him that albert is hurting craig and angie unwittingly tells him about the bruises she saw.

a couple of things i feel can be intuited from the aforementioned facts:

albert frames the separation between him and julia as her leaving him for a used car salesman. while he is not the most reliable source and we have little perspective about what their marriage was like, the timeline seems to indicate that julia either divorced albert in order to get together with joey very quickly, or that she cheated on him with joey, and that getting pregnant with angie was possibly the final push to leave albert. i've always kind of assumed the latter to be true since i first saw these eps, given exactly how much resentment albert seems to hold for both julia and joey.

(note: i am 1000% not blaming julia or joey for albert's abuse of his son. his actions are his own, and whatever reasons he has or feels he has do not excuse those actions. we also know very little about the relationship between albert and julia, making it difficult to judge her actions, as elaborated on below.)

i think it is unlikely that albert was physically abusive to julia, because i think if that was the case, joey would likely know about it and would be much more concerned about craig's safety. while it's clear joey and albert don't like each other, and that joey thinks albert is not a very nice person, i think it's fairly logical to chalk that up to the relationship drama in their history. i do think it's possible that albert was emotionally/verbally/pyschologically abusive to her, as he also is with craig. but even now, some people don't recognize these things as abuse, and at the time period this would have been happening, i think there was much less understanding of the kind of toll these forms of abuse can take. i think for joey's part, if julia did confide in him about any potential problems with her relationship with albert, he likely thought albert was a dick and a bad husband, but may not have the language or the knowledge to recognize him as an abuser. julia herself may not have at the time, either.

these notes are even more speculation based, but this is how i tend to interpret the events before craig's intro on the show, based on what we do know:

i pretty strongly believe that even when julia was alive, at the absolute most, the time craig spent with joey, angela, and julia was on weekends, maybe holidays, and at least one trip to british columbia.

i know people are often confused by the idea that albert might have gotten full custody, but honestly, it is not that much of a stretch to me. if julia initiated the divorce, and especially if she and joey had an affair, putting my own feelings about it aside (because again, i really do not want or think it's fair to judge her for this, given how little we know about the relationship), i think any court likely would have seen julia as the one 'at fault' for the divorce. we also don't know anything about her own background or what she might have done for work: it is possible that she did not have the financial means to either start or win a custody battle, and albert is established to be a rich surgeon with a good reputation. so it's possible that julia did fight for custody, but it's also possible that she wasn't able to and that they worked something out for whenever albert oh-so-graciously (note the sarcasm) decided to let craig see her.

i've seen it implied that joey, julia, and angela might have lived in british columbia, or that albert and craig moved there for a while, but i don't see this as viable, given that we know joey has a long-standing used car dealership and that albert is a well-regarded and well-known surgeon at his hospital. while it's not impossible, it seem seems unlikely and is not confirmed.

what we do know is that at some point, craig and angie were there together, though angie was too young to remember it and craig says she was "just a baby". my best guess would be that maybe joey and julia had a little honeymoon there and brought both kids along with them. angie would have been about 1, then, making it a lot more feasible that they would have taken her on this trip. with her being so young, i doubt they'd want to leave her, even with another family member, like joey's mom. and hey, if angie's coming, craig can come along, too!

it might seem counterintuitive, when i'm sitting here saying that i don't think albert usually let craig see them, that he would then allow him to go on this trip, but for one thing, it's clear that craig did spend at least some time with them, given the bond he and angie have developed. i also think the show does a pretty good job at showing the complexities of abusers: they're not always these complete monsters, doing one bad thing after another. we see 'nice' moments between craig and albert, couched as they are in manipulation, but realistically, he probably wasn't always this 100% unreasonable guy all of the time. and honestly, that's one of the really dangerous things about abusers: they can seem nice in front of other people and even to their victims, and they may even mean it some of the time, but that 'niceness' is often what keeps people from seeing the truth. someone could see one of act of kindness albert might do for his son and think, there's no way that guy hurts his kid.

maybe craig really wanted to go, and the day he asked, albert was feeling charitable. because again: the show is actually pretty good about showing the cycles and complexity of abuse. albert, while awful to craig in general, probably did not always seem awful 100% of the time.

or maybe julia insisted and threatened, regardless of her circumstances, to take him to a court. for one reason or another, i think it's feasible that this happened without necessarily being indicative of albert agreeing for craig to spend a lot of time with them in general.

however, based on what we know, i do not believe craig lived with joey long-term prior to the show for a couple of different reasons. this is fairly subjective, and they obviously know and are decently familiar with each other in when doves cry, but it does not seem like they know each other particularly well. i don't know exactly why i say this, it could be totally off-base but... the way they talk to each other just does not strike me as two people who have spent tons of time with each other.

to be fair, you could chalk this up to the fact that julia has now been dead for two years, and albert obviously isn't letting craig see joey in any signifcant capacity. 12-14 are also pretty formative years where a lot can change for a kid. but still, it doesn't seem like, up to this point, they are more than somewhat acquainted to each other. i imagine that trip to british columbia was probably the most significant length of time they spent together.

however, my especially big reason for believing this is the case is what happens after craig moves in with joey and angela. in the next especially craig-focused episode we get, drive, something subtle is happening in otherwise overall pretty lighthearted episode: craig and joey are both learning the boundaries with each other. craig doesn't know where he'll go if joey goes away for the weekend, but joey says he's old enough to stay at their home. joey establishes ground rules for having friends over during the weekend. craig gets into trouble at joey's for the first time and it is clear it is the first time joey is disciplining him as his dependent. i think that, had joey and craig lived together in any significant capacity prior to this, their boundaries and dynamic would be more firmly established. the underlying conflict here might be "i do not know how to raise craig now that julia's gone and i can't coparent with her" rather than "i don't know how to raise this new teenager in my life." but instead, a lot of what we see between them this season is learning how to live together, what the roles are, and how to be a family unit.

this sort of leads to my next point, as convoluted as all of this problem seems (i swear the structure makes sense in my head): because i believe that albert had full custody pretty much from the moment julia left, i think it logically follows that the abuse toward craig either started or ramped up/became physical once julia was no longer in the household.

i've seen other people say that it doesn't make sense for albert to be abusive to craig but not julia, and while i can understand that to a degree, i don't know how much i agree. as i said, i think it's more than possible he was emotionally abusive to her, and that may have contributed to her leaving, but it's clear that her leaving triggered a lot of albert's behavior, as he let that resentment fester and began projecting it onto his son. i think the abuse toward craig likely started or significantly ramped-up and became physical once she left because albert could get away with it, being his primary guardian and given his ability to isolate craig the way he does.

albert is an esteemed surgeon who clearly cares a lot about what people think of him and about his prestige, and he is very used to being in control. yet, with his wife leaving him for someone he considers so low beneath him (because classism), his pride is wounded, he feels his sense of worth, tied up in ego and masculinity as it is, slip, and i think his abuse of craig is pretty undeniably him grasping for the one 'thing' that still is under control: his son, who he sees as his to parent how he pleases.

which tracks, because albert often frames his abuse of craig as punishments for craig 'misbehaving', such as lashing out and throwing a dinner plate when craig is home late for dinner, or saying "because you always screw up" when craig reminds his dad that he always says it will never happen again and it always does. it obviously goes past what any reasonable person would deem appropriate discipline for a child and is instead abusive, but i truly do think that's how he justifies it in his mind. it may have even started out - i don't want to say more normally, but there are more socially accepted (especially at the time, though to some degree, even today) physical punishments, like spanking, and it's possible albert's assertion of his extreme control over craig started somewhere there, and escalated as he began projecting all of his issues onto craig and realized the degree of control he had over craig as his primary guardian. which i think is why he can stand there at the end of when doves cry and say he doesn't beat craig, and some part of himself probably genuinely believes it, because cognitive dissonance. (it is still gaslighting, though.)

anyway. this was long. it realistically should have been the first part, but oh, well. i think that a lot of this is subjective and up to a viewer's own interpretation, as i think they left some of this purposefully ambiguous because trying to establish the prior events when craig's story is supposed to be about what's happening now would have been confusing. regardless, this is my two (or three, or five million) cents.

[your-absolute-destiny]

No disasters, eh? And you killed them? For existing?

My sister, your town is the disaster and you didn't kill them all. They're off warning people about the murderers in that there town.

WE KILLED THEM BECAUSE THEY KEPT BRINGING US DISASTERS AND THEY KILLED US!

We haven't had a disaster in generations. Our town has been happy and safe for years. Don't call me your sister if you're going to insult me and my entire damn town. You weren't there. You weren't starving because of constant storms ruining all the crops. You weren't out of a home because a tornado destroyed it. You didn't lose family because the river flooded and swept them away.

You don't fucking get it. You've lived in your safe little house in a big city all your life. You don't need to worry about a murkrow stealing stuff because you can always by another. Anything we lose is priceless, impossible to get back in the same way. There are so many other towns, so many other people, that feel the same as us. The thousands of people in each of those towns are not murderers. They're the fucking victims. So shut the fuck up if you're going to be a bitch who's butthurt because you have the fucking privelege to beat the evil out of the dark types you meet.

We would kill the houndoom for going for our wooloo instead of all of the sawsbuck, but we aren't allowed to. Everyone wants small towns to suffer. They don't care when your community is poor. They just tell us to go through the right avenues to relocate them, then never come and take them away, so the houbdoom keep taking away our food and our pets and breaking our fences. Every wooloo taken is money the farmer never makes, people that don't get to eat, fleece never turned into wool, someone that never gets clothed. Every herdier that fights for them is mourned. Every fence costs money to replace. Every dark type hurts us, steals what little we have, and everyone cares more about the dark types than they care about us. They always will. They did when the crawdaunt chased everything out of the river, and they'll do it when the houndoom decide that we're basically wooloo too. We're not evil. We're not murderers. We care more about our community than any of you do, so shut the fuck up.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

dream fans: call me a freak for writing canon compliant exile

also dream fans: literally write a fic about a real life person being abused in a weirdly incredibly sexually charged manner like why r u bringing up the dick size it’s only relevant if you’re writing freak shit that also blatantly mocks homelessness and portrays it as a Just Punishment because that is very leftist now.

[moonglowmuses]

"you know better, but you can’t stop." ( gi-hun & dewey )

gi-hun lowered his head, processing the other's words slowly and methodically. "what do i know better, hm?" there were so many things that could apply to dewey's sentiment. "i keep stewing. that's the truth. i can't stop my mind from spinning. and all that i think about is what i lost." gi-hun used to be a piece of work, and he still was. he'd taken advantage of people. he cheated. he thought that he'd won, but he was down on his luck. now? he'd lost his happy-go-lucky attitude, because he saw what the rich and powerful people could influence.

@fcdcdmcmories

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Yeah like a note to Kat's followers on this whole thing: I'm a very thorough person, and I don't fuck around with the mental, physical and legal well-being of my friends.

Kat is physically and legally safe. The threat right now is to her mental well-being. And one of the ways this plays out is through anxiety about whether she is in fact physically and legally safe.

So it would be extremely helpful for y'all to trust us on the safety question here. We have taken precautions and we have made judgements based in the full picture of the situation, much of which should not be shared here in a public forum.

Kat is safe, the only way left for this guy to hurt her and cause trouble is through how this is triggering her own anxiety and potentially paranoia. And obviously through the loss of what seemed like a potentially good long term relationship.

So while I'm sure any advice about legal and physical safety comes from a place of care, please trust that we in Kat's immediate support network have made sure that she is not in any danger beyond the emotional ramifications.

Also fuck this guy. "Communist" my ass. Didn't take long before he started threatening about how his dad's millions in the bank meant he could buy any lawyer and win and ruin his disabled working class girlfriend's life. First off, that's not even fucking something he can do, but he sure can use it to threaten a less privileged person, and the 'rich kid throwing a tantrum' vibe is strong. Pathetic. I'm so happy my other friend asked this guy "so how does it work to be a nepotism baby AND a communist??"

Turns out, at least for this guy, it doesn't. It's all just fancy words. What a loser.

This is my best friend Quinn who I'm currently staying with. Please listen to him, because telling me how I'm in serious danger and how you think I should deal with it isn't helpful.

[anendtopursuit]

dare i say that a lot of the time when ppl make fun of other countries' food they just end up making fun of like. poor people food. that the working class eat. like that's gotta feel weird to somebody else too right

[kingproteus]

Guy who is going to quit without notice in two minutes: surely I can tough it out and not actually go insane with the level of social and systemic classism towards the unhoused in the city I live in. Surely I will not start crying and quit instantly. Surely.

[moved-to-civic-hub]

anonymous  asked:

⚡Marsha,  do  you  have  any  secret  you've  never  told  anyone?

[  ☆  ]  ❝A  few  days  before  I  ran  away…Chase  found  out  about  me  and  Veronica.  He…uh…He  confronted  me  about  it…he  was  angry  about  it…the  thing…the  thing  you  should  know  is  that  Veronica…she's  from  a  lower  class.  Meanwhile…me  and  Chase  were  of  a  higher  class  so…he  had  problems  with  me  being  with  Veronica.  A  lot  of  slurs  regarding  Veronica  were  used.  He  told  me  that  he  would  tell  my  dad…but  would  look  the  other  way  if  I  stopped  talking  to  her.  I  never  told  anyone  what  he  did…not  even  Sarah.❞

send  ⚡  and  a  question  and  my  muse  will  answer  honestly  //  open  &  accepting

[familyxxdutyxxhonor]

@starsallalight gets some semi-plotted angst

Maurice had nearly fallen into the chair as he broke down in tears after his late wife's parents left. He knew they had always looked down on him for being of a lower social class, never approved of his and Colette's marriage.

They could think what they wanted of him, even after all these years. But now they seemed to take such disdain to such an extent as to try to force his daughters into arranged marriages. Claiming it was time to 'fix their mother's mistake and marry properly wealthy men'. Not to mention their comments about their own grandchildren, especially Henri and Brigitte...

Maurice had staunchly defended his children, as ever, refusing to allow them to marry his daughters off. The girls--as well as their brothers--would marry whoever they wanted for love. Just as their mother would want for them.

Then the unhealthy dose of guilt-tripping started, along with the threats. The girls' dowries would be gone. He and his children would be ruined, lucky if they managed to keep a roof over their heads. He felt like a failure.

How his beloved, fearless Colette came from those people, Maurice would never know.

At the light sound of footsteps approaching, quickly wiped the few last tears from his eyes and tried to compose himself. "I'm sorry," he uttered hoarsely as he turned in his chair to see his daughter Belle. The look in her eyes made it clear that she had seen and heard enough. "I"m so sorry."

[moonglowmuses]

"what we went through…this shit stays." ( lucas & phineas )

"i... can't disagree with you," lucas confessed, biting on his lower lip for a second before he relaxed. "what is the shit that stays for you? are there particular events that happened that you can't let go of?" lucas could pinpoint every moment that felt wrong, but he'd persevered because he could not believe that such evil existed. the foundation had proved him wrong. rich people would always prey upon people who had fewer resources. people who were desperate. lucas only hoped, in his heart of hearts, that his sisters were alive.

@fcdcdmcmories

[srslylini]

do you remember that show, the one that was praised for its narrative and tight knit story, the one that was said to have one of, if not the best, portrayal of: mental health/illness, classism, women, character development, characters in general and show not tell? that one??

well it killed its 3 suicidal characters, sidelined the women in favor of a "bigger story" that forgot its central theme of classism

BY KILLING THE OPPRESSED IN THE CLOTHES OF THE PEOPLE THAT OPPRESSED THEM.

It brought together a lesbian couple in a cell in a prison one of the lesbians was tortured in and depicted it as her kneeling infront of the rich woman because the show loves its show not tell. It brought in new characters and killed them off, they had no overarching purpose in the story.

Yeah that show.

[fatefought]

where: the outside patio of a brewery in the capitol

when: a cold winter's night soon after the whitvale wedding

who: cecelia & haymitch (@ceceliaknowsbest)

a winter in the city feels like the spring in twelve. though since the second quell, his home is heated similarly to the residences of the capitol. he'll admit he feels like an imposter or a poser when he discusses the struggle of his home district - much less the seam - when he's rolling in shit and money not too different from an average cappie. but bitterness still eats away at him and he holds onto his seam upbringing like a security blanket. and to those in the city, he's still a dumb, drunkard hick anyways. eight is regarded similarly, though the title seems to slide off cecelia like she's slick with grease.

her wedding was the talk. he cannot believe coriolanus fuckin' snow let her get wed off with a man who is every bit a cowboy. no judgement ! he likes the bark of sterling, from what haymitch has seen. but with the shine of the bride, abernathy assumed she would have been courted by some money bags with generational wealth and capitol citizenship. who would have thunk ? not haymitch. though he doesn't expect to see her eventually join him out here.

he's bumming a cigarette from an expensive pack that was a gift from a dream-filled cappie who thought a present would make him present. jokes on the dumb fuck, he doesn't smoke often. haymitch had ignored the pack, until conversating in the pub got too daunting. the thought of having one while several drinks in sounded nice. he pulls the bundle out with a lighter and places it on the ledge in front of cece. it's an unspoken offer. " 'em cigs kill, " he merely states, thick chuckle barely breaths out. haymitch thinks he's funny. he isn't. they did have an alliance for their tributes last arena. " may the odds be in ya'r favor. " for abernathy, if the odds were - they would do just that ; he wonders what would be the case for cecelia.

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Earlier the family group chat evolved into a discussion about classism because my mom casually referred to herself as middle class and I was just like "mom, you're kidding yourself" and then me, my dad and my mom argued about the definition of social classes until my little sister finally interrupted us with the words "this is literally the most boring conversation ever. Stop it"

[anqueerism]

I think it's about time that we put away the "chewsday" and "bo'ol o' wa'ah" jokes.

It's frankly quite an overused and tired joke, but not only that, it's incredibly classist.

In the UK, accents are and always have been very heavily entwined with the country's class system. There is an extremely long and storied history of certain accents (such as the popularly-mocked cockney) being brutally ridiculed, suppressed in the public sector, and even banned from media and broadcasting while others like RP were promoted and even required.

This has lessened over time, but it still holds pretty true: Your accent is one of the main indicators of your class and your breeding, and will directly impact the way that people treat you.

These are historically marginalised and oppressed accents in the UK, so when you mock them— especially as someone who does not live in the UK— you are, in fact, directly mocking those people to whom the accent belongs.

Personally, I have a very sensitive history surrounding my accent. I was born into a working-class family, but my father was a social climber and intensely embarrassed about his own status. Because of this, he had an intense fixation with ensuring that I fit every classist mould of an upper-class child. I was heavily abused by my teachers as a child into speaking in a Received Pronunciation accent (which they regarded as the "proper" way to speak), and was physically beaten into learning to write in an "educated style."

It took me until I was about sixteen or seventeen to even begin feeling comfortable to speak in my natural accent in the comfort of my own home. When in groups or in front of crowds, I still revert to a softer RP accent. I still have chronic pain in my hands from the beatings I received, and I still refuse to write on paper because it causes PTSD flashbacks.

All this to say: As an American, or generally anyone from outside of the UK, you do not have the right to mock historically marginalised British accents. It is not funny. You are pressing on a bruise that is not yours to press on, and then mocking people when they tell you that you pressing on that bruise hurts.

If you want to mock an English accent, mock RP. Traditional, Broadcasting, Aristocratic, or Modern. Those are historically upper-class accents, which (for most people) have no heavy history attached to them. I would say it's fair game.

But when you mock the accents of the poor working class who have been unequivocally brutalised in this country for centuries and then go on to mock us when we try to tell you why we don't like you doing it, you just sound like a complete and utter asshole.