Look, I'm poor! - Meet the new pretenders
Wealthy people are masquerading as 'poorgeoisie' in order to fit in with the masses who are feeling the pinch, writes Maria Sweeney
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Thursday Jul 2 2009
The term 'bourgeoisie' has been around long enough for us all to know who it describes. Those who rest on the middle or upper rungs of society's ladder, referred to by Marxists as the 'capitalist' class, who connote materialism and a striving concern for status and high regard.
Who, though, has heard of the 'poorgeoisie'?
A relatively new social stratum, the term is hot off the press from Brooklyn and Portland where June's issue of America's Details magazine has charted how scruffy beards, vintage denim and tattered flannel shirts are the order of the day -- provided you paid in excess of $300 for your 'worn look' jeans and had your shirt imported from an organic cotton farm in Ghana, that is.
Any old Walmart (think Cherokee from Tesco) garment won't do, even if it does achieve the same desired effect at a fraction of the price. If you think you can pull off the look the old fashioned way then think again.
With these credit-crunch times we see more and more of those who are still flush trying to adopt this poorgeoisie persona, affluent entrepreneurs and executives who prefer to look like starving artists in the hope they will go unnoticed amongst the rest of us peasants.
Typical culprits can be found sitting outside a trendy (but not obviously so, you understand) eco-friendly coffee shop with a shot of wheatgrass, the latest Blackberry model tucked between their ear and shoulder while typing their Twitter status update into the micro-sized Netbook that nestles on the table next to their spelt flour brownie and bill for €10.95.
They can also be seen through the windows of their Georgian houses, preparing vegetables and fruit sourced from the most expensive Farmers market they can find, for their luncheon salad, having over analysed conversations with each other about the latest exhibit at IMMA, their speech peppered with contrived French phrases such as 'soi-disant,' and 'bien pensant' in the belief that it makes them sound more intelligent.
There will be big talk of growing their own vegetables in an allotment in the countryside which will of course warrant a compulsory shopping trip to the garden department of Meadows & Byrne, or some other such supplier with an '&' in the middle which seems to allude to the upper class, for some distressed-look outdoor furniture that will fit in with its surroundings and show that they are at one with the zen-like rhythm of nature.
Typically creative types, they will often be self-employed and sport unconventional job titles such as 'Corporate Jester' and other such made-up positions. They may also be found roller-blading to their office in a converted loft.
The poorgeoisie are a breed who are one part millionaire, one part scruffy vagrant; constantly trying to perfect the 'just rolled out of bed' look while at the same time hoping their effort does not go unnoticed by their equally wealthy FairTrade cappuccino-sipping counterparts.
A complex species (or so they would have us think), they are keen to create the illusion that being wealthy and embracing the conspicuous consumer spending lifestyle of the last decade is like, so vulgar, however they will go to great lengths and expense to do just that.
Preferring to go about their business of 'inconspicuous consumption' they are hypocrites of the highest order.
Thomas Frank, an American author and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, has written about alternative marketing in his book The Conquest of Cool and about modern conservatism in The Wrecking Crew.
"If people find the culture loathsome, they solve the problem by just buying different stuff," says Frank.
From his studies he claims that products have always been sold as a way of dealing with the anomie of consumer society. "There will always be consumerism as a form of rebellion against consumerism."
You see, as Details magazine pointed out, it's OK to be a capitalist pig so long as you're the sort who roots around in your organic garden for truffles.
So are the poorgeoisie just a more environmentally friendly version of the Bourgeoisie Bohemian? And are they here to stay or just a passing fad?
I sincerely hope the answer is the latter, even the gaudy nouveau-riche types are less irritating, though they seem to be a permanent feature at this stage and we are perhaps more numb to them.
