Status

 

Grey Poupon Mustard ad in a limo.

 I received an email from a friend with an article about electric bikes and status.

Something must be wrong with me because I don't care about status. 

This isn't new.

It goes back to my childhood when I realized some towns were suppose to be better than others. Ours, Reading, I was taught by my mother's circle, was better than North Reading but not as classy as Winchester. We didn't have wrong side of the tracks so much as better streets which in turn meant that some neighborhood schools had kids from better families attending them.

It made no sense then. It makes no sense to me now.

Better was hard to define. It was partially money, I guess, although number of generations in town, golf club membership, or which church one attended were important too. There was an unspoken code, although everyone seemed to know what it was even when not discussed. There's probably a lot of Ph.D dissertations in just my childhood community's social mores and rating.

Doctors, lawyers, business people were considered higher class. However, a man who was from another country even with a successful business like the shoemaker, dry cleaner, plumber and electrician, didn't have the same status. Never mind the mechanic. These people worked with their hands. Maybe working with your hands lowered one status, I guessed.

And status was not a term I thought of until I was well into my 30s when I saw people who were envious of those who had "status" or who did things to earn status.

At the time, a very successful insurance executive who hated his job would have loved to quit to follow his love of repairing televisions, didn't. He died much too young. Even as a preteen I recognized the tragedy was a life lived for other people's expectations.

It wasn't just our town or my parents' friends. I just read Hate Monger about Stephen Miller and his moving neighborhoods in California when his family had financial problems bothered him. I won't connect that event with him happily cheering when immigrant children were put in cages.

Going onto university was considered the norm among my parents' acquaintances so kids taking business courses were not considered to be good potential mates as if a movie or a dance date with one of them would lead to immediate marriage.

At a high school reunion, one of the cheerleaders said she was so mad at her mom. "All the boys she forbid me to date, have become so successful." She was right. Kids who didn't follow the norm, tended to do better outside the traditional rolls of doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief of a business.

Over the years small business in my hometown have disappeared and it seems to be the goal is to climb a corporate ladder in a national or international corporation.

That climb implies certain possessions, dress, sport, preferably with the right logo. I've been told that bowling is lower status than golf.

The status goal started in high school only it wasn't called status. The word was clique. Sport cliques were the best cliques, although there were those who joined other activities and found their own group. Nerd cliques didn't get much approval but many nerds went on to be highly successful in the tech world.

Having the right brand has become more important over my lifespan. Even more so with cars (or electric bikes), yet I know three cleaning women who have Mercedes, which I thought of as a status car. My printer, on the other hand drove a 12-year old Volvo and said he bought it because he thought it would last longer. I don't know how much longer he kept it. Louis of Boston was the place to have a business suit custom made rather than buy something off the rack. The more I think of it, the more I recognize the subtle clues.

I wonder what it is that makes people envious of other people's whatever. And even more so, do I wonder what makes people do things to match those whom they are jealous of, especially if it hurts them financially. 

Advertising does a lot toward defining status creating an image of a person who uses Brand S over all other brands.

I was greatly amused that Grey Poupon mustard as a snob mustard.

In Europe the same mustard which uses a man in a limo in America had a smurf for a spokes person. They even sold it in reusable glasses decorated with the little blue creatures.

Does that mean will I never buy something that is a "status" product? Of course not, I will, but only if I really want it not because it will make neighbor A, B or W think more highly of me or will be jealous. Will the status product make me a kinder person? Will I be a better writer? Mother? Wife? Nahhhhh!

I worked with a woman who wanted a Pierre Cardin purse. Her husband gave her one for Christmas. She left it on the top of her desk where people could see it, not in the drawer where she kept her old purse. She never went to the ladies room without carrying it. Part of me was glad she was happy. Part of me feels sorry for her that she needs cloth and leather to feel better about herself. She wasn't a bad person or cruel to others. However, she could have put more effort into doing a better job than her ho hum performance.

If you go back in history there was a time where the aristocracy could have silk and fine linen clothes but the lower classes had to be happy with woolen or cotton. There's no evidence that cave men and women measured their status by the type of skins they wore. Maybe they did gain prestige by the amount of meat they captured for their tribe.

Humans are an interesting species. Watching the dogs play when we are at l'Hostalet having a glass of wine or coffee with friends, our dogs seem to want the same toy when they are not running around. Maybe that's a canine status battle.

Meanwhile, I'm not buying an electric bike.