It's a rocky transition coming from the experience of being denied access to luxury goods by salespeople, but I believe she's talking about working in the ivory tower.
She's aping the life of the mind, aka mimicking the life of privileged men in academia, a space traditionally held by white males. I understood this to be comparing her infiltration of that world, both by working there and by wearing the garb expected of that role (she is a professor).
I recently read Adjustment Day by Palahniuk and he had this whole scene where they laid out the wood-paneled luxury library apartments of tenured professors at certain schools. This reminded me of that scene.
I had no idea how privileged I have been until I was in my 30s, about 20 years ago. Then I started to pay attention to the world around me. I try to understand the realities of life now and try not to make things worse.
Well-written and hits hard, a good read about status signaling and how it plays out for many people.
What does this mean:
It's an anchor sentence at a high point of the piece, but I don't get it. Thoughts?
Excellent piece, regardless.
It's a rocky transition coming from the experience of being denied access to luxury goods by salespeople, but I believe she's talking about working in the ivory tower.
She's aping the life of the mind, aka mimicking the life of privileged men in academia, a space traditionally held by white males. I understood this to be comparing her infiltration of that world, both by working there and by wearing the garb expected of that role (she is a professor).
I recently read Adjustment Day by Palahniuk and he had this whole scene where they laid out the wood-paneled luxury library apartments of tenured professors at certain schools. This reminded me of that scene.
A good reminder of what is required to succeed when you are part of a marginalised group.
Yup. Good reminder, indeed. It's so terribly unfair what some people have to go through, day in and day out.
I had no idea how privileged I have been until I was in my 30s, about 20 years ago. Then I started to pay attention to the world around me. I try to understand the realities of life now and try not to make things worse.