Eat the Rich: Classism in the UK Entertainment Industry, Pt. 1 [ONTD Original]

[jdnightghobhadi]

Comments

[stephaniebrown]

upper class people in the UK are just SO unbelievably out of touch, its frightening. like, they honestly and genuinely believe that their lawyer or banker or literal aristocracy mummy and daddy had absoulutely no impact on their lives whatsever, and if they did, its only because they worked super hard! as if cathy and mark living in wolverhampton with their three kids in a two bedroom house aren't trying as hard as they can to give their family a good life. as if they just need to work that little bit harder, and suddenly they too can afford to send their kids to fancy public schools and expensive camps and extracurriculars and tutors! actually fuck off

[ms_mmelissa]

as if they just need to work that little bit harder, and suddenly they too can afford to send their kids to fancy public schools and expensive camps and extracurriculars and tutors!

lol I remember this looooong argument years ago about Emma Watson where there were people arguing her family was "struggling" and other people were like "Uhhh, there are families who, no matter how hard they struggle will never be able to send their kids to boarding school because that's more than they make in a year".

[jdnightghobhadi]

Seriously. I think some of that sentiment came from an ONTD post I was looking at while writing this post. It's like people really want her to have come from nothing to fit some kind of Cinderella narrative. Really shocking to me how people are unaware how LOADED her parents are/were. Her fans straight-up deny it.

Oh, like the comments in this Tweet:

Yes she’s rich. But she wasn’t born or got married into it, like the Royal family. & she isn’t like the Karashians. & she isn’t a greedy business person like Trump. She was a girl from a middle to lower class family. & she worked/has worked (as an actor) for her money.
- Fantastic Beasts (@_potterhead7_) January 12, 2018

Her parents are LAWYERS so NOT remotely lower clas????

[quiet_storm]

Fucking yikes.

[galactoze]

This post is so awesome, thanks for your work OP. Will definitely bookmark this.

[jdnightghobhadi]

Thank you bb! I've been here since 2008 (although I may be the WORST ONTD member with my frequent lurking lol) and finally decided to post an Original (before the site goes down with the Russians).

[trainbikes]

Hey there, yes I agree, excellent and much needed post! Well done OP xx

[jdnightghobhadi]

Thank you! <3 (And your icon is fitting for that comment haha!)

[jdnightghobhadi]

Thank you, love! Was finally brave enough to post an Original.

Yeah, I felt like I had to be careful with my choice of words since class is such a sensitive topic (but my entire family grew up working-class in Mount Morris, Buffalo, Louisiana, Sicily, Germany and Ireland). Some of my relatives are white collar now, but my parents are blue collar. But IA. I think these actors take the discussion too personally b/c I suppose they feel "attacked" for not working hard? And they feel if they aren't a part of the royal family, they're not privileged? Like, nobody is saying that they don't deserve their success. They're missing the point.

Oh, I literally didn't know that about Ben and Gemma. I have to put them down as honorouable mentions for Part 2.

[fernandocolunga]

wow i had no clue about those two, thanks for letting me know
michelle dockery is another one
oh and dominic cooper and martin freeman i guess

[jdnightghobhadi]

Saving this comment for honoruable mentions in Part 2 (because who knows if I'll have time to write a Part 3; this was a shit ton of work)!

[evett]

yes
no
sous-vide
indubitably

[pumkinbutter]

"only 27 percent of actors are born working-class; 73 percent are middle-class."

None of them are upper class? I don't know if I understand the difference between classes based on English standards, but I can get on board with the middle class being considered privileged.

[snuffyqui45]

Upper class is only used for like royals and barons or shit like that.

[just444]

UK class politics are confusing

[colonel_green]

Clara Paget (properly Lady Clara Paget) from Black Sails and, of course, Kit Harington, are from that class, so there's a few of those two.