4 ms·
McMansion 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 a
by mjb 3y ago
McMansion 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.
- jonnycomputer 3y agoYes. But I think there is something problematic about that, in of itself. Old money isn't any more acceptable just because they (supposedly) have better aesthetics. In fact, on the face of it, there is a lot to congratulate the nouveau rich, relative to old money, don't you think? In most cases, they worked for it.