4 ms·
I viscerally dislike McMansion Hell. It's so mean-spirited and snobbish. People build themselves homes in the suburbs for their families to live comfortably and
by mjb 3y ago
I viscerally dislike McMansion Hell. It's so mean-spirited and snobbish. People build themselves homes in the suburbs for their families to live comfortably and safely, and some jerks on the internet act all superior about how they have better taste. It sucks.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- post-it 3y agoI'm just trying provide a safe and comfortable home for my family, me, and my dozen baluster cherub statues.
- bamfly 3y agoThe parts that make them bad are mostly about trying to make the houses look (even) bigger than they are, and making them look fancier than they are as cheaply as possible. That kind of inept, absurd pretension is a recipe for comedy.
- leephillips 3y agoI love McMansion Hell. It’s hilarious and I’ve learned from it. People with atrocious taste and enough money to impose it on the world should be exposed to ridicule.
- glonq 3y agoThe British seem to have a well-established culture of "taking the piss" out of one's superiors, whereas the US seems to have zero tolerance for biting the hands of the corporate overlords who feed us. I'm saying that as a Canadian who is exposed to both cultures. Also sorry.
- mjb 3y agoMcMansion Hell isn't about taking the piss out of one's superiors, it's about looking down on the lower classes without the refined architectural taste of the author and audience. It's punching down.
- astura 3y agoSounds like you've never seen the website you are commenting on.
- leephillips 3y agoI don’t see how you could describe it that way. He’s not ridiculing poor people. His target houses are usually fantastically opulent, selling for well over a million dollars. It’s the same genre as publishing pictures of Donald Trump’s gold plated bathrooms. In fact, the article you posted here traffics to a large extent, with either implied or explicit ridicule, in the attempts of what look like struggling and desperate people to sell their neglected properties. One should not laugh at people with bad taste. It’s bad taste combined with power and money (Trump: a convenient example) where the lack of taste makes the world uglier, because it’s jammed into the public eye.
- glonq 3y agoHave you actually visited the McMansion Hell website? It is literally the exact opposite of what you are describing. It's looking down on people with >million-dollar, ten-thousand square foot homes that are also designed and decorated in an ugly and/or antiquated manner. And the author is never shy to admit her own low-key low-brow style preferences; I don't sense any refined/pretentious vibes at all.
- jonnycomputer 3y agoPossibly. But I also tend to think that the idea is to mock the tastelessness of new money, but not, the more educated and refined tastes of old money families.
- OkayPhysicist 3y agoWell, yeah. The nouveau riche are targets, because they're scorned by both the people without money, and by people with money. Combined with a combination of insecurity about their newfound wealth, and a lack of the cultural norms and social ties that old money has, and hilarity ensues.
- astura 3y agoMost suburban homes aren't McMansions.
- ansible 3y ago> ... or their families to live comfortably and safely, ... Well, it is safe-ish, in that street crime is usually not too high. But living in car-centric suburbs, with a lack of common, public spaces and physical and social isolation isn't really comfortable, or that good for your mental and emotional health.
- glonq 3y agoI immensely enjoy McMansion Hell! Kate Wagner does a fanastic job of distilling the history and language and sensibilities of architecture down into something that anybody can appreciate. And quite the opposite of snobbish, she presents her critiques in a raw, geeky, low-brow format that would probably feel at home on 4chan or SomethingAwful. She is not knocking down regular suburban homes and families -- she critiques the top few percent who live in ostentatiously monstrous homes. Kate is a treasure and her site is a pleasure.
- kashunstva 3y ago> to live comfortably and safely... If the design goals for the houses presented on McMansion Hell were simply that - comfort and safety - I'd have to agree with your assessment. But houses appear there because they seemingly have one over-arching design goal which is to appear impressive and thereby signal the owner's wealth. Most of the content points to the sheer purposelessness of certain architectural features, highlighting the owner's need for recognition over utility.
- OkayPhysicist 3y agoMcMansions are a symptom of wanting to appear rich, they're expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as something built with an architect aiming for taste.