26-03-2023, 06:08 PM
"The biggest takeaway I got from the piece was the reminder of how we link wealth to respect."
Absolutely. I remarked on my memory of being an impoverished student, but there was no shame in poverty in those circumstances, it was regarded as a rite of passage. Our ill-paid part time jobs (I was a factory tea lady, most of my male friends worked at the freezing works on the gut board) were respected because we were working towards "bettering" ourselves. It was bearable because we all knew it wasn't permanent and we weren't derided.
The shame would have arrived if I had stayed being a tea lady, counting my pay into jam jars for rent and electricity. Yet I would have been the same person.
Absolutely. I remarked on my memory of being an impoverished student, but there was no shame in poverty in those circumstances, it was regarded as a rite of passage. Our ill-paid part time jobs (I was a factory tea lady, most of my male friends worked at the freezing works on the gut board) were respected because we were working towards "bettering" ourselves. It was bearable because we all knew it wasn't permanent and we weren't derided.
The shame would have arrived if I had stayed being a tea lady, counting my pay into jam jars for rent and electricity. Yet I would have been the same person.