Wealth porn woes

But 'Bella Hadid can'

Hello!

If this feels like I’ve ripped Emily Sundberg’s ‘selfie at the beginning of every letter’ idea – it’s because I have.

Late letter today. Because… it’s been a week. A pmdd-fatigue kind of week (literally the worst kind). If any of you have the displeasure of experiencing pmdd like me, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I never really knew how bad living with pmdd was until I moved in with my boyfriend. “So, like, two weeks of the month you’re just like fatigued, and depressed, and exhausted – all the time?” Basically, yes. It’s fab.

But onwards and upwards!

I was going to write a letter today about a few topics (the usual format for the Weekly WIP). But as I wrote and wrote and wrote about the first topic, I realised I actually had a lot to say. So, field notes on Ozempic and being culturally cool as a brand will have to wait until next week. (Something to look forward to!)

Agenda for today:

1.     Wealth porn woes

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Wealth porn woes

Why are we so obsessed with ‘wealth porn’ influencer content

• This week, I was delighted when I opened my inbox to see Kate Lancaster’s latest newsletter on influencers, wealth, and relatability

  • (Kate’s heavenly Substack, The Vanity, is a highly recommended read)

• I was delighted because this is something I have been mulling over for a while

  • It’s one of the primary reasons I don’t like – and am not on – TikTok

  • And was one of the core drivers behind my social media detox for the first half of this year

• Returning to social media in June, after many months away, had crystallised an odd phenomenon that many of us just accept as normal

• Which is, the proliferation and normalisation of social media content that can only be described as… wealth porn

Wealth porn content, in action

• In the echo-chambers of our algorithms, you would be forgiven if you assumed that every person in the world:

  • Had a wardrobe of luxury handbags (will it be the Chanel, the Miu Miu, or the Prada today?)

  • Owned a stack of Cartier bracelets

  • Bought diamonds just cause

  • Holidayed in hotels whose day rate cost more than a months’ rent

  • Wore daily fits totalling $10k +

• Now, this is absolutely no shade on the influencers (and people) who live like this

• I have no judgement whatsoever on how people choose to spend their money

• In fact, I staunchly oppose people needing to – or feeling like they need to – apologise for their wealth and lifestyle

  • (I’d far prefer this to the dreaded ‘cos-playing as poor’ phenomenon)

• In saying this, however, there are elements of this social media behaviour that are absolutely worth interrogating

• The primary being how certain influencers use wealth as an aesthetic, and how we, the consumers, so desperately and sycophantically lap it up