Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 6-10 June 2011 (1941-1945) [World War II Edition]
ChicagoTed:
--- Quote from: Platypodes on 07 Jun 2011, 02:31 ---The description that seemed to me to most fit the comic was from a University of Virginia student who wrote, "the term 'townie' comes with a stigma that often refers to a person who should be looked down upon, a person who is either uneducated or just too flat-out unmotivated to get their shit together, get out of town and go someplace 'real,'" and illustrates it with the image of "the freelancing unemployed 'poet' who hangs out on the mall all day thinking deep thoughts." -- http://www.thedeclaration.org/article/gownie-townie
Using this stereotype, the the phrase "townie drama" does fit a guy hanging around in a coffee shop being angsty about how his romantic woes are keeping him away from the other coffee shop where he used to spend copious amounts of time hanging around.
--- End quote ---
Being a UVA student in the process of becoming a townie (because Charlottesville is awesome) I have to say that view is pretty accurate for the average UVA student (White upper-middle class with a sense of privilege). I'd take the article with a grain of salt though, as many of the writers for The Dec are hipsters trying to be ironic.
But yeah, it certainly isn't an endearing term. Like "hipster" its not necessarily well defined, but it is something you DO NOT want to be called.
jwhouk:
RJE: I think the term itself is more Northeast US than anywhere else, but I could hear it being used in the city where my alma mater is located. A lot of the UW system campus cities are geared towards catering to the the college kids, but the locals tend to see the kids as only business opportunities and/or nuisances.
Of course, that doesn't mean that someone graduates from the school and tries to start a pizza place or a bar downtown. Usually, these things end in failure, unlike CoD and tSB.
Carl-E:
Well, CoD would be the exception, but Jim seems to be a townie.
And Dora's parents live nearby, so she's probably one as well!
Which brings me to Pama... using the word townie, she was probably a stuent who stayed. Butthere's another inteeresting possibility - a faculty brat. Born (or at least raised) in town by a faculty member (or two*), she's never be considered a "townie" at home, but clearly is one, and knows many, straddling both worlds.
* college towns like north Hampton, with several smaller colleges, are often the only solution to the "two-body problem". This is when two academics make a couple and both need a job. It's rare that one school has openings in both disciplines (or worse, two openings if they're the same discipline), so each getting a job at a different college is often the only answer.
I get the feeling Padma's folks are professors... making her a native, but still an outsider. When I was at Purdue in the 80's, the circles I wound up moving in were mostly professor's kids - locals, but they got a free education, and all their folks were "outsiders". Even though they went to school all their lives with the "real" townies, and had several as friends, they were still an "outsider" group that stuck together.
Society is bizarre, at best. And class systems are real, even in America.
mike837go:
--- Quote from: Carl-E on 07 Jun 2011, 08:47 ---Well, CoD would be the exception, but Jim seems to be a townie.
Which brings me to Pama... using the word townie, she was probably a stuent who stayed. Butthere's another inteeresting possibility - a faculty brat. Born (or at least raised) in town by a faculty member (or two*), she's never be considered a "townie" at home, but clearly is one, and knows many, straddling both worlds.
I get the feeling Padma's folks are professors... making her a native, but still an outsider. When I was at Purdue in the 80's, the circles I wound up moving in were mostly professor's kids - locals, but they got a free education, and all their folks were "outsiders". Even though they went to school all their lives with the "real" townies, and had several as friends, they were still an "outsider" group that stuck together.
Society is bizarre, at best. And class systems are real, even in America.
--- End quote ---
I have to totally agree with your last statment.
But, uh, where has it even been suggested that Padma's parents are anything but a complete mystery? I can't recall any of tSB's staffers mentioning any relations outside of work yet.
jacjyd:
--- Quote from: ChicagoTed on 07 Jun 2011, 07:00 ---
But yeah, it certainly isn't an endearing term. Like "hipster" its not necessarily well defined, but it is something you DO NOT want to be called.
--- End quote ---
I'd rather be called a hipster than a townie. But whenever I heard townie being used it was by college students (including myself at the time), and college students are pretty obnoxious. But our townies were sort of notorious for stealing our stuff on move in/move out day and forming bike gangs (like, bicycles) and terrorizing us overprivileged kids. So it was a condescending term, out of fear...
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