#SJM couldn't even bother to google some reports on how people who grew up poor navigate life

[lainalit]

Today's Subject: How You Can Tell That SJM Didn't Grow Up Poor

A quick Google search tells you that Sarah grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan. In a small comparison, in 2021, the Upper West Side had an average income of $130,000 per household as opposed to the entire US, which had an average income of $76,000 per household. With that being said, I think we can establish that SJM grew up in the upper middle class.

So with that in mind, we go over the conversation between Feyre and Lucien during Acofas.

“You could come live here, is all I’m saying,” I pushed. “Truly live here, stay in Velaris for longer than a few days at a time. We could get you nicer quarters—” Lucien got to his feet. “I don’t need your charity.”

So feyre says to lucien that instead of staying with vassa and jurian in Graysens Manor, he can stay in one of her manors, which on the surface seems nice, but as someone who grew up poor, just like Feyre, i can confidently say that no poor person gives a shit if one manor looks nicer than the other. As long as it's a decent house, it's warm, and you have food and water, nobody gives a flying f*ck how it looks.

Lucien's reaction, on the other hand, makes sense because, like Sarah, he grew up in a wealthy household because he himself thinks that Graysens Manor is worth less since he can compare it to his past living situations.

“It seems like you’ve decided to fall in with two people without homes of their own as well.”

 I never in my life encountered a person, who grew up poor and shamed a friend for being homeless just because he has other friends and doesn't want to stay with them. Usually, people who come from low-income households don't like to talk about money or housing because these subjects could provide an opportunity to shame/attack them.

"I didn’t mean that,” I said. “You have a home here. If you want it.”

Feyre then goes back to offer help, but the whole conversation feyre flip flops between shaming lucien for being almost homeless and then offering to help in the next paragraph. This would be like a conservative politician who goes to food banks, but at the same time calling homeless people lazy human beings who don't want to work. 

I know that casual readers don't think about these subjects more than reading a fantasy smut book, but as someone who grew up in similar circumstances as Feyre, I think it is for an author who wants to be inclusive, so embarrassing that SJM can only write from her point of view and can't understand how others think and act, who grow up in a different upbringing than hers.