bluebloods wining and dining and whining and ... dhining........

[puphart]

hey there upper east siders!

a few of us have characters that live that in Wizarding Country Club Life (ex. new england) and/or Urban Wizarding High-Society Life (ex. manhattan). because kurt is involved in both of those via his parents, i am being selfish this morning and seeing if anybody would like to collaborate on what that actually means. what is it like for our students to go home and attend stupid holiday parties? what is it like when the parents sequester the kids into a different room? or when they're, god forbid, allowed to mingle?

if you have any ideas, post them here! i'll also try to edit this post with a running list of things from the comments. i'm posting this now, but pledge that this evening i will watch at least one episode of gossip girl, and at least one of gilmore girls, to help my brain contribute. i am also not trying to steamroll anybody's ideas of what either of these lifestyles is like; i thought it might be cool to have something common to pull from, but this (a) DOES NOT need to be gooseberry canon in any way! (b) is also a place where, if you have deviating ideas about it, you should absolutely share!, and (c) don't ever feel like you need to live by the things set out in this post.

also begging for way catchier names for them than the aforementioned WCCL & UWH-SL (which are 99% not the serious choices.) the works-in-progress so far include...

THIS GOT PRETTY BIG ALREADY. i'm going to condense it into a google document later instead of constantly updating this post. UPDATES TO COME.

edit: okay, i stuck everything onto a google doc! here's a link. with that you can comment but not edit; if you'd like to edit, you can request it and i'll add you in!

Comments

[threatens]

omg i can't believe you've given me a legitimate reason to properly rewatch gossip girls

for research

[puphart]

in the spring i presented a paper about daredevil at a conference and totally got to claim that busting through netflix's season 2 powered by wine was "research." it was *the best.*

[indiefolk]

THIS IS LOVELY AND I WISH MY CHARACTERS WERE RITZY ENOUGH FOR THIS. I guess Diego probably has made rare appearances at big events, since his mom travels into big cities to sell very cool, very expensive art to all the wizarding elite so they can feel smart and artsy. But while the Morales line is super pure, they're also super obviously outsiders, so I doubt they've ever been considered part of the scene.

Western high society I imagined as those massive leisure ranches where no actual ranching happens. They're just mansions made out of rustic logs, with lots of antlers and rugs on the walls. There's probably less of a tight knit community because of all that damn space, but individual families may have close ties through business, marriage, or location.

(Also, things Still Totally Suck For Squibs in the ~land of opportunity~ so you're on the right track, haha.)

[indiefolk]

Okay, more thoughts on rural western wealthy and pureblood wizards. (The city folk probably have more in common with Marin's west coast culture, minus the L.A. celebrity stuff.)

There's probably a big focus on the aesthetics of what you own, and being in touch with nature... but in a way that's still convenient and isn't actually that rustic. Everything looks old and worn and homey, but is probably stupendously expensive. Less-than-sincere attempts to appear humble and down to earth. You have the massive "ranches", and the "cabins" (also just mansions made of logs) placed in these incredibly difficult to access locations with all of the best amenities. With Apparation and Floo, this is probably even more pronounced, and you can have these exclusive little mountain communities that you would risk your life trying to access by car. Or in Diego's case, a home almost literally in the middle of nowhere, where you can't even see your neighbors. Veeeeery isolationist, very don't tell me what to do in/with my home, not keen on the government getting involved in anything. I think it'd be difficult to break into because the families would, on the whole, be a lot older, and more inclined to be idle wealthy. You marry into it, and that's that.

Actual focus on community is probably a lot lower than on either of the coasts. There are no debutante balls or big social gatherings. Kids probably do get together to do outdoorsy things, though. Skiing is probably big??? WOULD WIZARDS SKI??? Horseback riding, camping, hiking, etc.

[magitechnically]

Essie would ski, SO YES.

[threatens]

OK MORE SERIOUS COMMENT i like this, i like all of this, it all sounds good to me. Additional thought is that while it's likely things ARE separated by region and there's an urban vs. country divide (just bc the U.S. is so damn big), it may be possible for there to be a lot more crossover between characters of different regions just bc of Floo, Apparition, etc. Like even if you're the only person in your state, possibly rich kids in, say, the same time zone have had reason to meet at ritzy social parties OR DEBUTANTE BALLS

The Stokers are California City Life, which I imagine as being distinct from New York City Life in that they are EVEN MORE tackily wealthy and image-obsessed, and there's def intense bro culture going on, lol. (Sy is very much a product of his upbringing ;;) A definite emphasis on GOING OUT and BEING SEEN doing things for the community. Turning up their noses at country and New York for being "out of touch." Lots of nouveau riche types, probably a scene of... whatever passes for celebrities in the wizarding world. Not movies, apparently???? idk i'm just spitballing

I think you're dead-on about city society being easier to break into than country society for non-purebloods. The snobbishness is still THERE, but if you've got the money and influence, you can pass better. The key is still to marry into pureblood families, tho. The way I'd imagined American purebloods is like... the actual status and behaviour of the family counts for more than how far back you can trace your family tree, but connections still go a long way. By their standards, the Weasleys would've passed out of being "pureblood" generations ago, but offshoots of snooty Sacred 28 families who mixed with half-bloods would still be considered pureblood, so long as those half-bloods "assimilated" and they're still moving in the pureblood circles.

[riledup]

SoCal socialite wizard life's gotta be image conscious as fuck. Like I'm sure there are all sorts of magic face lifts and tummy tucks and botox you can get.

[gdilevi]

ok, but really rich people are just constantly judging each other. i hear so much gossip at the salon over the pettiest shit and i love it. (idk who barbara is but tell me all about this perceived slight)

they're also not fantastic tippers (there's a huge gap between rich women who tip $5 on a $200 service and rich women who tip $50 or more, and generous tippers are rare) but they'll buy a small $30 bottle of shampoo without flinching and one lady bought a $120 hair straighter she was uncertain about, and i assured her that she could return it or exchange it if she didn't like it, but she shrugged and said if she didn't like it, she could just throw it away.

iiiiii am an outsider looking in on Suburban Southern Country Club culture and i've only been to a few of their parties as a +1, but some of the things i witness are absolutely surreal.

SO, LIKE, NONE OF MY CHARACTERS ARE PART OF THE SOUTHERN CULTURE but maybe i can offer some input based on my observations?

Southern Pureblood/Country Club Culture

Horseback riding is still totally a thing, yes. Owning a horse = status because they're so gd expensive to buy, stable, and maintain. Maybe they have "magical" breeds that they spout as Purebred Such-and-Such but they're all breeds that were originally created from normal Muggle horses mixed with magical horse-like creatures and given a pedigree. So they have a bit of thestral/unicorn/hippogriff/pegasus/whatever blood in them, but they're essentially just very intelligent horses with very fancy names. These might be favored around areas that have a Muggle population close by because the horses blend in?

Winged horse racing's gotta be a thing. Maybe they go to very rural areas to race them and Purebloods that live in those rural areas with ACRES UPON ACRES OF LAND have these because they don't have to worry about Muggles.

There's always a fundraiser for something. Always. I think this is a pretty universal Pure thing, but Southern functions have a lot of "Bless their heart"-s and "We'll keep them in our prayers" (idk how much you guys want to touch on religion in Wizarding society, though, but know that we're always prayin' for you)

DEBUTANTE BALLS. Maybe they're used as a way to bring their young adult (15-18) high society children together to let other families know that they're becoming eligible. Maybe the tradition is starting to fall out of favor from the modern social climate or maybe older Pures keep hounding for it and it's an expected social obligation for teen Pures? Don't wanna disappoint Mawmaw, WHO HAS BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS SINCE THE DAY YOU WERE BORN BECAUSE FOR SOME REASON OLD PEOPLE ARE REALLY INVESTED IN YOUR ROMANTIC FUTURE. What do you guys think?

Monograms. Monograms on everything. It's a staple in Southern culture. It's gotta roll over to Pure society.

Probably are more willing to let the rich-but-not-Pure families in on their functions, for the sake of appearing Friendly and Inclusive but we're experts on passive-aggression and making people feel excluded while being included so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't play a Pure or a Southerner so pls don't take my input as The Way Things Are. It's not part of my characters' backstories so plsplsplspls add or change anything that fits you.

[puphart]

i want to get into wizardy religion so hard! buuut i'm naturally a dork in that area because i'm working toward my phd in the anthropolgy of religion. so uh... maybe nobody else does. but that's okay because my mom tells me i'm cool. 👌

omg now i'm thinking about the connection between marian shrines and magic and i should be doing my own work but this is too exciting~~

[riledup]

I WANT WIZARDY RELIGION STUFF. JUST BECAUSE. I ALWAYS AVOIDED WIZARDY RELIGION IN REGULAR HP, bc I always felt like British wizards were mostly secular. But like WE LOVE OUR RELIGION OVER HERE.

i'm going to be replying in parts as i try to also get work done. but also, thank you! this is so aw

[puphart]

SO MUCH YES TO THE DEBUTANTE BALLS!!! maybe they're for the ones who turn the legal magicking age, which i think is 16?

-ESOME. who knew there was a character limit on comment titles?

[puphart]

 

[cmdrchloe]

srsly though what the fuck is up with all the monograms everyone monograms the shit out of everything and I don't understand at all. like, I know my initials? I don't need a reminder? and I don't care if anyone else knows my initials?

also, the founder of Thirty-One is apparently from here and an alum of my school so w/e. Your monogrammed shit is still dumb.

[cmdrchloe]

... aaand I guess we just played an accidental round of Don't Get Me Started.

I didn't even know I had strong feelings about monograms until rn.

[addytives]

As a Southern character with ties to Society family even though they are not pure this is exactly what I have been imagining so omg thank you for writing it into pretty words<3!
Which means Addy probably had a debutante thing at least suggested last year l o l o l

[gdilevi]

Also, I absolutely love the idea of Squibs being used as groundskeepers, house keepers, whatever-keepers. Because Squibs are like Muggles and have no power, but they're still privy to Wizarding secrets so the Wizards don't have to hide anything and they can also pat themselves on the back and feel like they've done a Good Deed by hiring an otherwise unemployable Squib that would otherwise have to work in a... Muggle occupation ;^(((((

[cecaelian]

I just needed to quickly join in and say HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS OMG. It is totally time to rewatch some Gossip Girl. Even though Ursula is West Coast like the Stokers. (I guess this calls for the OC????) Yes debutante balls.

[threatens]

LMAO YES I WAS JUST CRYING TO MYSELF THAT THE OC ISN'T ON NETFLIX

[riledup]

I’M JUST GOING TO TACK ONTO CALIFORNIA CULTURE. Because I’m a northern Californian who lived in southern California for two whole years and that was enough time to form opinions and judge and no one can tell me they’re wrong.

1. Can we shoehorn some celebrities into being secret wizards? Can I say Tim Burton is a wizard? CAN I SAY SNOOP DOGG IS A WIZARD?

2. The perfect weather in San Diego is a result of magic. Also the fact that San Diego is able to sustain itself as a city when the economy is basically just “hey LA, send some rich people down here to buy houses.” Secret wizard economy.

3. Speaking of San Diego (can you tell that’s where I lived?), there’s a lot of military stuff there AKA SECRET WIZARD STUFF RIGHT?

4. The parties have got to be insane. Most southern Californians live WAY BEYOND THEIR MEANS, I doubt the rich ones even know how to look at their bank accounts. Just add MAGIC to the equation and, like, even if Snoop Dogg wasn’t a wizard I feel like he would find his way to their lavish af throw downs.

5. AND RANDOM CALIFORNIA KNOWLEDGE: Southern Californians are terrified of Oakland. They think the whole city is one big gang war. Anyone who has ever been to Oakland and not had the tires stolen off their car knows it’s JUST A DAMN CITY THAT ACTUALLY HAS SOME COOL STUFF OK. It’s not like it’s Stockton.

Ok alex needs to work for like the next 45 minutes bye now

[gdilevi]

SNOOP DOG WIZARD YES, I JUST CHOKED ON MY SPIT FROM INHALING SO SHARPLY

[gdilevi]

SNOOP CRUPP

[puphart]

also that explains so hard why the weather was so amazing that week i visited you. i thought i was just being canadian + november + going to california that made it seem spectacular, but now i know: it was MAGIC!!!

[notacad.insanejournal.com]

Tabitha is definite Philly Pureblood Fancypants material so bring it on! She's also involved with the New York scene as the daughter of a MACUSA member :)

None of this clashes with my headcanons!

[reehobbs.insanejournal.com]

Hmmm Regan is from Maine and her family isn't ~pureblood~ but they're pretty well-off so IDK if I can contribute to this or not BUT I LOVE IT BASICALLY.

[overturn.insanejournal.com]

blast I need to read this when I have a moment but for my pureblood character that I'm apping I made up a wizarding city that's basically like new york