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

[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.

[threatens]

I AM ALL FOR WIZARDY RELIGION STUFF because it frankly makes no sense to me that becoming a wizard would make you secular. I mean maybe like... those purebloody eight generations back wizards, but if you've got muggleborns and muggles marrying in all the time, I doubt all these people are just dropping their religion like nbd.

[riledup]

Esp those coming out of the bible belt. I DON'T THINK MAMA'S GONNA LET YOU STOP GOING TO CHURCH ON EASTER JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DO MAGIC NOW. JESUS DOESN'T CARE IF YOU CAN DO MAGIC, HE COULD TOO.

[overturn.insanejournal.com]

From what I hear (correct me if I'm wrong) Brits are just more secular in general so it makes sense-ish to me that the wizards would be there too for the most part.

[indiefolk]

Aw man I kept thinking NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR MY THOUGHTS ON CATHOLIC WIZARDS but maybe they do after all. One day I'll organize all my thoughts into something coherent. I DIDN'T GO TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR NOTHING.

[puphart]

I DO I DO! i started studied catholics by accident (and was raised like, secular protestant or something?) so i don't have the background but i an Academic Interest in this.

[gdilevi]

*CHINHANDS*

TELL ME ABOUT THEM

[riledup]

I HAVE A NON-ACADEMIC INTEREST IN THIS

[notacad.insanejournal.com]

I wonder if they resemble my thoughts on Anglican wizards?

What can I say, I was raised C of E. It's interesting to me!

[paytee.insanejournal.com]

IM SO LATE TO THIS BUT I DO

because Wes and his Catholic faith and ideas of doing the lord's work with healing through prayers to saints and rituals and YEAH I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS TOO

[gdilevi]

I WANT WIZARDY RELIGION STUFF TOO. i just know religion can be a Touchy Subject for some people so i've been casually dodging it. levi's family is jewish so i've been wondering how to even approach that.

rosh hashanah is coming up IN LESS THAN A WEEK and i'm just like "would he be allowed to leave with a staff member to go to the nearest temple with some of his family? would it even be important enough for him to want to leave? how do wizards handle religious holidays? are there religious services at the school? is there a non-denominational church/temple/general purpose Prayer Station-type thing on campus?"

but then i think that levi would use all the fucking holidays of ~reflection~ as an excuse to get out of class and get off campus. "sorry, it's Yom Kippur, i need to go to temple and atone for my sins. -- i'm sorry, i'm sorry-- okay, i said sorry three times."

[riledup]

I WAS WONDERING ABOUT PRAYER/CHURCH/RELIGION TYPE THINGS AS WELL. Nate would probably do some kind of token thing on Sundays if it was available/any other kids were doing it, but probably mostly save it for when he's home.

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.

[gdilevi]

I DON'T KNOW. but i do know that my initials are ALC and as a child, i was determined to marry a man with an F name so that my monogram could be ALF like my fav alien on TV. and i was absolutely devastated when my mom told me that my maiden name would become my middle name and i'd be ACF.

seriously, fucking everything is monogrammed. we even have monogrammed towels with somebody else's monogram on them because someone left their towel at a pool party at ben's grandma's when he was a child and it's just been circulating in their laundry ever since. and we know who the monogram belongs to but after fifteen years, they never bothered to take back their towel so we took it with us when ben moved out because nobody actually wants this towel and his parents happily dumped it on us.

THAT IS MY MONOGRAM STORY, THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.

[riledup]

My favorite part of this story is that this towel has lived a longer life than like most pets I've had.

[overturn.insanejournal.com]

....can't you decide which name to keep?

[cmdrchloe]

Okay but someone told me that the middle initial on a monogram is supposed to be your last name? So like my initials are CAT so my monogram would be CTA? Idk though.

LOL. But like, that must be a really nice towel if it's fifteen years old and it's not worn out?

I go to thrift stores all the time and I always see monogrammed shit hanging out, and like it'll still be there the next week, because wtf is someone gonna do with your monogrammed lunch box.

[notacad.insanejournal.com]

I own a monogrammed satchel in Hufflepuff yellow and it's fucking awesome XD

[cmdrchloe]

XD I mean, it's fine to have monogrammed stuff, I just don't understand why it got super popular to monogram EVERYTHING? Like, monogram jackets, lunch boxes, purses, key rings, decals on cars, everything.

[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