🏳️‍🌈Spencer🖖🏻

The jeans problem was the favorite lecture one of my philosophy professors in college gave about the history of jeans and how it ties into capitalism/mainstream culture absorbing and monetizing any counterculture it encounters. So prior to the 1950s jeans were mostly an item of work-wear that you wore on the job as a farmer or factory worker or miner because they were cheap, durable, and hard-wearing. If you were off the job you'd wear what we'd call now dress pants or slacks. This changes in the 1950s when youth culture start wearing jeans as regular clothing, again because they're cheap, durable, and hard-wearing. But then jeans get absorbed by the culture and we start getting designer jeans, acid-washed jeans, pre-ripped jeans, and now we got people shelling out hundreds of dollars for "povertycore" aesthetic. And now jeans aren't even cheap, durable, and hard-wearing.

Paid service with no ads: Well, if they're not funding it with ad revenue, they need to charge us something.

Paid service with ads: Well that's bullshit.

To which I nodded solemnly, both out of agreement, surprise and also a healthy amount of awkward fear. He nodded and went, “You get it.”

I thought that would be the end of it.

Except ten minutes later he came back and told me he found out (she’s bi) and that both of us have a shot. I said “You more than me.” because he’s attractive and popular. 

My math teacher was trying to fix the rolling whiteboard and he just offhand said “This would be easier with a wrench”

My mom told me stories about her childhood where my grandma would take her to a hotdog stand and they would buy a hotdog to split, and that was their meal for the day. My mom said grandma never complained in front of her and always made everything seem so fun, she never realized they were poor until she grew up.

My nana met the man who raised my mom with her some years later. He’s always been the one I called grandpa, but we were never that close. My mom described how my grandma still saved every penny she could even after marrying my grandpa who made plenty of money. She went to work events with my grandpa while wearing second hand dresses she repaired herself, while the other women wore dresses worth thousands of dollars. My nana suddenly started voting conservative like my grandpa, but she never actually participated in political conversations or defended right wing politicians. She stayed silent, and acted constantly liberal in her every day life. My grandma suddenly became very depressed after my grandpa started staying much later at work and traveling for work more. The doctor said she needed more vitamin b. My mom once said she wondered if my grandma really was deficient, or if that grandpa cheated on my grandma like the first one did. Either way, she still smiled. She still kept the kids happy. She still spent all her time teaching kids in schools or volunteering at women’s shelters.

Her and my grandpa always got along, and I’m sure my grandpa loved her based on how he reacted after she passed. And I would feel wrong to assume my grandma changed herself for or just stayed in a marriage out of financial need without any proof. But the truth is- I’ve thought about it. I’m not sure. The truth is it would have been reasonable, it would have made sense. The truth is she lived in a world where that wouldn’t be rare at all and there’s no way to know for sure. She lived in a world where that’s just as likely, if not more, than staying with someone because you love them.

Because of will shenanigan my mom didn’t get all the inheritance my grandma saved up for her, but she got a fair chunk. My mom owns her own house, she’s financially stable and can soon get her teachers pension. She’ll be okay for the rest of her life even if her husband doesn’t support her. That’s something my grandma never had. She has it now because of my grandmas work and planning for that for my mother’s entire life until my grandma passed.