You Are Being Unreasonable - 085 - In which we stockpile cotton buds to create a speakeasy of banned hygiene products

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

"The vast spectrum from Coldplay to Ed Sheeran." We all love music, rummaging in our ears for wax, and accumulating cultural capital so we discuss those and other issues of the day. This week, we cover the suggested age ranges of the various BBC Radio stations and what age you should be to enjoy BBC Radio 1, the avant-garde radio plays that Liza Tarbuck puts on on BBC Radio 2, a boss telling his employee excessively and loudly about his DARLING WIFE, stockpiling plastic cotton buds to "rummage in the ear for wax, some new charitable campaigns and the podcast-in-a-podcast, Simon's Tweet Review.

Hello, driving on drugs feels better when they're prescription. All I know, the world looks beautiful, the world looks so damn beautiful. I feel fantastic, and I never felt as good as how I do right now, except for maybe when I think about I felt that day, when I felt the way that I do right now, right now. I feel fantastic, and I never felt as good as how I do right now, except for maybe when I think about I felt that day, when I felt the way that I do right now.

Hello. Hello, welcome to your being. The Podcast About People Being Unreasonable on Mumsnet.com. With me, Hells. And me, Simon. So, I want to pitch you the Mumsnet TV show. Yeah, go on. I don't have any details so far.

Okay. It's Mumsnet and the TV show. It's on ITV. Of course. Just because that feels right. Yeah. But I don't know what it is. Is it an anthology show?

Well... About one thread? Is it a continuing drama? Is it just midsummer most? How would it be an anthology show about one thread? I imagine it being an anthology show about... Sorry, one thread a week. Yeah.

And you might get some... Overlapping posters. Yeah. More likely, though, it's just loose women, isn't it? We already have that. I TV already got that format nailed. It is just loose women. There's people being really unpleasant.

We keep coming across Steff's Packed Lunch as well. Maybe it's just Steff's Packed Lunch. The adverts for Steff's Packed Lunch make that seem like quite a nice, gentle, fun show, whereas Loose Women is just a pit of people being unpleasant from what I understand. A litany of hate. Yeah, didn't they get a load of complaints because they were being horrible about Chrissy Teague the other day? That's not very nice

She's been through enough I think they were saying Well we didn't need to know Ignore it then Yeah I don't see how you broadcasting it on television It's going to help with that No I think Mumsnet the TV show is loose women Yeah we shouldn't pitch

I mean pitch it's not us to pitch We don't own Mumsnet No they're very clear about how unhappy we are about How unhappy they are about us using their website To make a podcast Uh oh So unhappy that they just went and did it themselves I wonder what else we could trick Mumsnet HQ

into doing. Like, we'll do it so then they have to. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Should we do a speed round? Yeah. Am I being unreasonable to be disappointed? He didn't buy me an iPad. Disappointing. It's disappointing. Is disappointing. Am I being unreasonable? Perceptions of the UK from mum's letters abroad abroad people. Yeah. Tells you a lot about the mum's letters in the UK, doesn't it? Yeah. Am I being unreasonable to complain to my boss about her decision? No. She'd always complain to management when they up. Sure. And am I being unreasonable to leave the house not entirely spotless. Just one little bit of grime just to see if they can tell. Just to see if they see it. Just a spot. Yeah. Just like Lady Macbeth except with an Airbnb. Tiny spot of blood. One spot of blood and a knife just

floating in the corridor. Yeah, that's the Airbnb dream, isn't it? Shall we do some threads? Yeah. Am I being unreasonable? Boss loudly and excited. excessively telling me about his darling wife. Bit of a weird work from home one. I think my boss's wife is listening to our calls. I work closely with boss in a tiny team in a big institution. We get on very well and chat, etc. in office hours, but not outside it. And I've never met up socially, etc.

We've worked from home almost exclusively in the last seven months. In the last couple of weeks, he started getting quite weird, loudly telling me last Friday that we wouldn't be speaking over the weekend. Neither of us have ever called each other on the weekend. and excessively and loudly talking about his darling wife, literally crowbarred into conversation as much as possible. Background to this is that two weeks ago, I told my boss that a male client had mentioned wanking twice,

and the same client had been difficult in a meeting. Boss said nothing about the wanking thing, but said that I had misread the meeting. It has been weird since then, especially these calls. I've seen him once in real life, which was normal, but went back to weird as soon as working from home again. So my question is, Should I do something about this?

I feel hugely uncomfortable being told excessively about his darling wife. I very rarely mention my DH, by the way. Until recently, we had a great working relationship, and I don't want to disrupt that. However, I think the thing of me discussing wanking may have caused him and his wife some boundary issues. He is also very good friends with this client. Can you get me the report on Monday? I won't follow up over the weekend, because I'll be spending it with my wife, my darling wife, and my children. There's no mention of children here.

Who am I love! And he's looking off the webcam this whole time. Haunted looking his eyes. Staring into what looks like the corner of the room. Being held hostage by his darling wife. Yeah, I mean, working from home, the implication is that his wife is next to him, just out of shot on the webcam.

She's standing just behind the webcam, so he's looking just slightly above the screen because she's standing there, just mouthing horrible things about this poster. It's a dolly. aren't I darling don't see this bitch at the weekend tell her when I was looking for the threads for this week

I found this and I misread it and I thought that she'd said that a client had been wanking in a meeting twice and the boss had said nothing and I was like wow different even working from home it's crossing a line I mean yeah

that's my take wow I think that's crossing a line my darling husband has spoken It was only reading it aloud for this, the recording that I realised that nobody had actually been wanking in a meeting and I feel a bit deflated by the thread now, I'm honest. He just mentioned the idea of wanking, the platonic ideal, the concept, very concept. More of a conceptual wank. Maybe she works in banking and he was just using some friendly rhyming slang.

It would be weird for bankers to be talking about wankers. Oh, or maybe she just interpreted it as rhyming slang. Is that what you meant? like, oh yeah, I'm banking. And she was like, oh, my, why would you share that? But he's just literally doing some banking. Yeah, some internet banking. Going into his study to do some banking.

With his laptop. Yes, with his darling wife. No, the client's someone different than the client doesn't have a darling wife. Oh. We assume. Who knows? Who knows? But yeah, if I'm bringing up wanking to your bus is always weird.

Yeah, but if you're saying that you had a client who has overstepped boundaries by talking about wanking, and you're like, I want to make you aware of this as an issue around boundaries. Oh yeah, obviously. That's really different. He should be doing something about it. It's not like your boss saying, I won't speak to you over the weekend, I'll be with my darling wife. What will you be doing? You say, wanking.

That's different. That's worse. Yeah. The boundary here is between you and the client, and you want the boss to intervene to re-establish those boundaries. But the boss is busy. But the boss, his wife, has now taken it as a. boundary that you've crossed. The bus's wife, if that is the case, seems baffling. Darling wife. Darling wife, seems very strange. I can't imagine that that's what's actually happened, though,

because... Just darling, though. Nobody is that weird, surely. You don't think she's standing in the corner. I work in a public-facing type job, not really, quite a select group of the public, but the public, nonetheless. And if one of them had started talking at me about wanking, and then I'd talk to you about it, I would like to think you wouldn't be mad, jealous and start interrupting all my video calls. No, no, that seems very controlling, coercive control kind of way. Yeah, it does. This is abusive behaviour. It is abusive and in no way, darling.

Not at all darling. This is not darling behaviour from the wife. Abuse is not darling our new campaign. The spokesperson for the campaign is Alistair Darling. He's back. He's back. He's back. I'm just darling, but you know what's not darling? Domestic abuse. Great. Thanks, Alyssa, darling.

Yeah, so a couple of people who have said, like, how is this relevant to the workplace? But I think the O.P. knows that, which is why she's bringing it up. Yeah, that's the problem. What's relevant to the workplace is that the boss hasn't dealt with this complaint against the client. And said, you misread the meeting. You misread the meeting. It was actually a wank meeting. We were all talking about wanking. It wasn't a meeting at all. It was a simple circle jerk. Oh. It was very uncomfortable when you started presenting slides about financial projections. Everyone was trying to have a wank. It helps. Yeah?

Wanking from home. Great. I mean, she does say WHF all the times I said working from home. So maybe she has been talking about wanking from home. Maybe that's the job. That's the job. Well, she's just a cam girl and her boss... It's a can man. And his darling wife. A can boy and his darling wife.

Cam boy. Oh, weird. I don't know why cam girl doesn't seem weird. Cam woman. Cam woman. Cam woman, exactly. This is my feminism. This is Jess Phillips' feminism. No, Jess Phillips would believe

that all Cam girls have been abused. But yeah, the problem is that the boss hasn't dealt with this adequately. And now has some weird thing about his darling wife. I would look for another job if I was being perfectly honest. I know it's not that easy at the moment, is it? But no harm in looking. We can all agree that the darling wife is Moira Rose, right? Moira Rose wouldn't give a fuck, though.

Myra Rose would just... She wouldn't be listening to someone else's call. Yeah. She wouldn't be listening to a call that she was supposed to be on. You only think that because I keep saying, darling wife, in such a weird voice that you're like, that could only be Moira Rose. It's true.

It's just the voice. It's just your voice. It's just your natural Moira, isn't it? I do think I'm more of a Moira than anyone else in Shits Creek. Lots of people who like Schitts Creek say, even though they loved it to the end, they never really got Moira. And I feel personally affronted.

Wow. That's a friend of mine. Why are you telling me that you find Moira a bit much? Affine O'Hara did not suffer and die for this. Catherine O'Hara nearly didn't agree to do Shits Creek. We were lucky. You don't know how blessed we are. So lucky.

I saw a good tweet the other day. It's just Simon's tweet review. Great. In a podcast in a podcast. Yep. I saw a good tweet to the effect of Eugene Levy finally feels empowered enough to turn down an American Pie movie because he's been in every American Pie movie since the original.

And this year one's coming out that he's not in. Oh, I'm glad that him and his son banded together to come up with opportunities that were not American Pie. him out of these American Pie movies. Oh, good. But it's nice that you don't have to do that anymore. Go. Go, Eugene. Run. So someone said, is he giving you the heads up that his crazy wife is listening in? So please don't talk about wanking game or she will lose it. Again, you're just talking about what the subtext of the OP is. People think they're being, I don't think that's relevant. I think maybe he's like, that's what the poster has said. Yeah. We all know that. Oh, dear. Oh, although actually, the poster came back and responded to that person stating the obvious by

saying that hadn't occurred to me. Oh, I guess it does connecting the dots. Yeah, okay, so now I have no idea why this person posted any of this. And that's a good place to move on. Thread. Less clear than when we started. As ever with this podcast and this forum. Am I being unreasonable to think I'm not old just because I think the music on Radio 1 is garbage? I had to run an errand with a colleague today. The radio in the car was set to Radio 1 and I immediately turned it over to Radio 2. I commented that I can't stand listening to Radio 1 anymore because I don't like most of the current music they play. Most of the time I have no idea what the song is about or I can't understand what they're singing or rapping about. For example, anything by Stormsy and that song

by Rams singing about his ting from barking? I mean, what does that even mean? Colleague then keeps me of being old because I don't like modern music. I am 33. He is 21. I enjoy a wide and varied range of music from the 60s through to the present day in lots of different genres. Just not most of the rubbish which is played on Radio 1 nowadays. Am I being unreasonable to think I'm not old just because I think that music is garbage? When I was a kid, let me tell you a story from my youth. Please do. When I was a kid, I thought the numbers of the BBC radio stations corresponded to the number at the start of your age. So you'd listen to Radio 1 from 10 to 19, then Radio 2, 20 to 29, then Radio 3, then Radio 4, then Radio 5. They didn't have

sick music back there. Oh. Why did you think that? I don't know. Really, it wants for young people, so that's, you know, 10 to 19. Did you think that if you were under... Radio 2, you're a little older, in your 20s. You're in your 20s, so you want a bit of Leaser, a little bit of Leaser on a Saturday night. Bit Leaser, Paul O'Grady, don't mind if I do. Steve writes Sunday love songs. That's what all the hip 21-year-olds are listening to. Hung over to all hell, because you've been out at de club. Well, I was younger than 21, so I thought this is what you were. be into when you're 21. That's quite cute. Steve Rice and they love sucks.

Okay, and then when you're in your 50s, you're just a band of music and all you want is bad opinions. So by this reasoning, this 33-year-old poster, let age to Christ, should be listening to Radio Free. Yeah, okay, and... Radio Free's a classical station for

people not in the UK, not familiar with the BBC radios. Yeah, I mean, if you're not familiar with the BBC Radio, as I was talking about Leaser, it's not going to mean anything to you. Leaser is Leza Tarbuck. She's a magical treasure. She hosts a show by herself, and she always seems a bit like she's gone mad with loneliness. She talks to a mouse, which just makes a little squeaking sound.

She's very odd, and I have a lot of time for her. Great. Institution. She is an institution. I don't think this person's helped themselves at all. They say, I don't like most of the current music, and then has said, I don't like modern music. And then they're saying that they do like music, including music from the present day. You've just said twice that you don't.

This might also not be a universal experience, but when she says, I enjoy a wide and varied range of music, but does not name any artists. Oh, yeah. It's very like, when you get asked in the playground to what kind of music you're like, and you're either too embarrassed or don't know.

Or it's people's online dating profiles that are like, I love music, I like a bit of everything. I just love music of all kinds, when what they mean is they like Mumford and Sons. And Cole play. But also, Ed Shearron. Great. The vast spectrum from call play to a tune.

Sometimes they'd actually listen to a bit of Lewis Capaldi because they do like music from the present day. Got to mix it up. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. My favourite ever one of those, this person obviously doesn't like music,

was someone saying they liked the cooks, Rihanna, etc. What is the exceptra between the cooks and Rihanna? That sounds like you've picked one particular top 40 for about 2007, and those are the songs you like. Mm-hmm. I like naive. I like umbrella.

I like anything else that was in the top 40 that week in 2007. Formative age. You know, it was sort of, it was May 2007, and it was just the really, et cetera. It was just a good week, you remember, the Coupes, Rihanna. Et cetera. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think this person likes music at all. I mean, I think I don't know the song by Ram's singing about his thing from barking,

but that means his thing from barking, like maybe a person that he's dating in barking. Yeah. Like, I work that out from context in a few seconds. I mean, this is a big leap, but it's a leap that I'm not afraid to make. This person's a racist. Wow. This person is solidly a racist. Why do you think that?

Is it because the only artists they've named a black? Well, I think anyone who's like, I don't like this stormsy nonsense, is racist. They've only mentioned black artists, and I'm sure Radio 1 doesn't exclusively play black artists, so why didn't you mention anyone else? The only exposure I've had to the spectra of the radio stations, because I really just put on six music, or sometimes Radio 2 to listen to Lisa Tarbuck, but it's not for the music. The music she plays is rubbish.

I just really like listening to a woman talking to herself about what other people are having for dinner. Sure. It's like some sort of abstract radio play. Mostly, if I've got the radio on, have six music on. But my main exposure to other stations is early in lockdown, listening to that thing made it on a Thursday morning where all the radio stations came together to pick a song.

Yeah, they all came to, like, it was like Radio 2 would call up Radio 1 and say, what song are we having? Yeah, and they'd like... And they'd like... Asia Network and... And what I was going to say from that is potentially this person's thinking of one extra

because as a racist, they probably don't like Radio One Extra and they probably would be fine with Radio One because I'm sure you could fill your boots with Lewis Capaldi on Radio One. I'm sure there's plenty of Lewis Capaldi on Radio One. I don't listen to Radio One, but I also don't complain about it online. No, so maybe they're thinking of One Extra and that's their problem because they're a racist. A lot of black music, right?

Yeah. Or maybe they should branch out and try some other stations. For example, during the shout out where they did the thing where you pass over the song dedication from station to station, the BBC Asian Network chose Boom Shackalak for our hardworking nurses. Hell yeah. So I think I would pick the BBC Asian Network. That would be my station of choice because they have the same sense of humour as I do.

I'm not able to do anything meaningful for our hardworking nurses, so let's just dedicate Boom Shackalak to them. I think any time you are 33-year-old getting a car with your 21-year-old colleague, there's going to be some differences because you are different ages, and indeed different generations, probably. Also, you do need to remember that when you're 21, 33 does seem old, and just because you don't feel old now, 21-year-olds are well within their rights to find that old.

Yeah, there's 21-year-olds looking at you thinking, she's as old as Jesus Christ was when he died. Exactly, that's what 21-year-olds think. Yeah. I went to a party for a friend's, I don't know, 24th or something, last year so I would have been 29 at the time but then she was slightly older than a lot of the other people there so I think they managed to get their head around the fact that some people are 24

and that's what we're celebrating today but beyond that they were lost and I was talking to one person and she was like oh yeah so what do you study and I said oh no I graduated seven years ago she was like wow when did you go to uni and I was like what no I'm oh I'm older than you and she was like oh okay oh no and then I told her how old I was and she just looked really uncomfortable Like a conversation that had been really free flowing She suddenly was like, I don't know what to make of this It's not unreasonable for the 21 year old

To think that she's old More than half his life again It's big It is big Should we see what the thread says I hope the thread is just people being like A bit you're racist though Radio 1 was only ever any good for the chart on Sundays

But if the chart is all new music played on Radio 1 then why is it good If you don't like the music in the chart Why do you want to know what the chart is? They're not just replaying that chart from May 2007 with the Cooke's Rihanna, etc. No. The Ops come back and said,

maybe I am old. I do rather enjoy Popmaster for morning and then a good old debate on the Jeremy Vine show. So let's close this, because if you enjoy the Jeremy Vine show, there's no hoping. It's no helping you.

Look, we all enjoy Popmaster at 10.30 on a morning. Popmaster. Exactly. We all enjoy Popmaster with Ken Bruce. But Jeremy Vine, we all turn off at Jeremy Vine because it's full of right-wing nuttubs. It's full of racists, slightly OB.

The Jeremy Vine Show is just debate people debating whether or not they're old, because they hate Stormzy. Am I being unreasonable to stockpile cotton buds? Nothing makes me happier than a little rummage in the ear for wax, plus a gazillion other uses, mainly cleaning. Given they are now banned alongside plastic straws, so me blowing them will not lead to the manufacturer of more, despite creating demand.

Am I being unreasonable to stock up on a lifetime supply, if I see any still for sale in corner shops, etc. I reckon a lifetime supply is about 100 pots. I mean the ones that have been made already will still need disposing of, even if not bought and used. I'd like to do, if you'll indulge me, a close reading of this post. Please, please do.

Please read it out and I'll interrupt you. Nothing makes me happier. Nothing makes you happier. Nothing in this world. Then, go on. A little rummage in the ear for wax. Nothing makes you happier. than a little rummage in the air for wax.

It's not, that's not a good, a good lie. Have you considered jogging? Yeah. It's a good endorphin release. I would try jogging. Stop rummaging in the air for wax. It's weird, isn't it? That yesterday was mental health day.

And no one in any of the dross suggestions of how to look after your mental health suggested a little rummage in the air. A little rummage in the air for wax. Yeah. That's carrying on. Plus a gazillion other uses, mainly cleaning. What, apart from cleaning? Mainly, cleaning. Yes, but what are these gazillion other uses? I'm sure you can come up with

some others besides cleaning. You could draw tiny faces on them and make the world's smallest puppet theatre. Yes, you could tape five together and make a tiny hand. Yeah, that sounds satisfying. You could tape loads of them together long ways and then you've got a poking stick that you can use to poke people with. Yeah, if you don't have any cutlery, you could stab them into pieces of food to try and eat them. You could give them to Barbie dolls to hold, so they're like those sticks they had on gladiators? Yeah, that's a good one. I think that the proportions wouldn't work.

I think we're talking Lego mini figures. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. You had rummaging someone else, his ears for wax. That seems like an affront. That's a crime. That's a sex crime.

Given they are now banned alongside plastic straws. Is that true? Um, are we going to fax check it? Have we got the live fax checker on the go? Like, this is a presidential debate. So Leon, we need a fact check. Yeah, cotton buds and stirers are banned in England from 10 days ago. Oh, okay. Well, great. We fact-checked it and it stacks up.

Yeah. You live to fight another day, O.P. Sorry, you'll have to find something that does make you happy, like rumming in your ear for wax. Yeah, given they're now banned alongside plastic straw, so me buying them will not lead to the manufacturer of more despite creating demand. Am I being unreasonable to stock up on a lifetime supply if I see any for sale in corner shops, etc? Yeah. A good understanding of supply and demand.

solid economics. Yeah, which is unusual for moms there. Yeah, I just want you to highlight that really. Well done. I reckon a lifetime supply is about 100 pots. Is it? Because nothing makes you happier than a rubbish in you wear for wax. I think you get 100 to a pot. Yeah. So that's 10,000? Yeah. So maybe 10,000 days. So what's 10,000 days divided by 365? So that gives you 27 and a half years thereabouts. It's quite a few years. It is. We don't know how old the OPEs. So that could go up to

the average life expectancy. Yeah, it could do. I mean, they're double-ended, so maybe they reuse them. Maybe they use one end on the first day and then the other end on the second day, so that doubles it. So 20,000 uses. Yeah? Yeah, we're up to possibly a lifetime supply.

55. And 100 pots can't take it that much room. No, just a cupboard where you keep your earwax stirers. Sure. I mean, if nothing makes you happier, this seems like a solid investment. Yeah. You can't put a price on happiness. Overall, I think this reads, like, a cry for help. Oh, absolutely. But economically, I can't fault the reasoning.

You should stockpiles gone, but going up. What would you stockpile? But if the ban is on them being sold as of 10 days ago, maybe you could get all of the excess stock donated to you. They can't sell it, but if places need to get rid of it, Yeah. You could dress up and pretend that you're there to take away the excess stock. Like, hello, here if you're illegal cotton buds.

A little moustache. Yeah, little moustache, and on the back of the hive is, and on the back of the hive is, it just says cotton buds removal. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And you just go from shop to shop. Cotton bud. The name is bud. Your only name is cotton.

I'm cotton budd. Cotton buddies. Cotton buddies is the cotton budd is the cotton buddud removal firm. Cotton buddies is the name of the speakee's it. You have cotton buds and people can come in and rummaging their ears, even though it's illegal now. That is not a speakeasy I ever want to go to. That's disgusting. That's as bad as people who, like, do that on the train.

You have to go into, it doesn't look like a pharmacist, but it says pharmacist outside. You go in and say, I need something for my ear into the back so. And in the back, you know, scantily clad women with cotton buds ready to poke in your ear. Why are there scantily clad women there? Nothing about this needs a scantily. Time man at a piano. The cotton bug by itself makes her happy and anything else. So having scantily clad women doesn't add anything at all to the experience.

All you've done is create a weirdly exploitative setup. Like the economy's tanking. It's probably going to hit women's jobs hardest. Now you're saying they've got to clean up people's ears with cotton buds. They don't have to. It's just the booming care sector that we've heard about. But I'm offering employment for those that want to. It didn't say it was a care sector.

Booming care sector. I described it as a speakey's it. Part of the care sector. Then why are these women here with cotton buds? For the gentlemen. Welcome to cotton buddies. I hate it. You can still buy eco-cotton buds.

They have bamboo stems rather than plastic ones. That seems the same. Yeah, and then the next person says, Little Cell bamboo ones, and then the person after that says buy the non-plastic ones. Right. This isn't the emergency that I thought it was and that the poster made it out to be.

Yeah, so... Because there's alternatives, it turns out. Yeah. Superdrug have a pack with 200 with paper. paper sticks for a quid. Right. So it's just the plastic ones. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if that adds, like maybe this is their kink, maybe it needs to be the plastic ones. Maybe nothing makes them happier than rummaging in their ear while thinking about how much they hate the oceans. I don't know. Well, never mind then. That's, that's hard told. So they've gone to the board and

said, I really love cotton buds out in themselves as some kind of weirdo. Yeah. For nothing. Absolutely now. Because you can still get non-plastic cotton buds. All for nout. You also shouldn't be putting things in your ears. It's really dangerous to put things in your ears. I heard that cotton buds are actually bad for your ears because it pushes the wax further in. Yeah. You're not supposed to poke around in your ears. No, go get a, what's it called? A string. Yeah. Get your ears stringed. But I suppose... Get a water pick. We're coming at it from the approach of what's good for your ears rather than what elicit's joy in your cold, cold heart. It's good for the ears. It's good for the gander. Let's do another thread. That's another name for the speak user. One more thread.

read. Am I being unreasonable? Cultural Capital. What do you do in your household? We have a huge range of books, frequent theatre visits, although these have been online in recent times, visits to art galleries and exhibitions, support with learning languages. What's anyone else up to? It's fun that someone's learned the phrase cultural capital. Yeah, it is. I mean, the first ever sociology GCSE essay I wrote, I'm pretty sure I used the phrase cultural capital because I was 15. I wanted people to know I was clever, but as an adult, I have enough cultural capital to know that bandying around terms from GTSE sociology does not bring the cachet that you so crave. No, no. I don't think this is what Pierre Boudou saw the term being used for. No. Not on this kind of forum. Cultural capital,

what do you do in your house? Like, I love going to the theatre and I love going to galleries, and sometimes I love reading, but sometimes not interested. That's fine. I wouldn't say any of these things of cultural capital. If you're like, oh, what are you up to this evening hells? I wouldn't say, oh, some simple cultural capital. Just accumulating some cultural capital. Sorry, I'm just going to go watch a show. It's intended as a term of critique because it's about social status things that give confer power or domination in a kind of hierarchy. The obvious parallel being to economic capital. Yes. So when I go to work, I don't describe myself as accumulating capital and it's weird to do so with culture yeah it's weird to frame your

it's weird to frame your actions through an anti-capitalist lens but as a positive as a positive yeah as yes i am accumulating cultural capital through my books huge range of books a huge range of books and again it's it's back to the i like music thing of you haven't actually named any books or theatre productions or exhibitions? No. I also... Or languages that you learn. I'm going to play the OPs game here. This is not what I genuinely believe, but I do think the O.P. is coming out this from a very snobby perspective. And I think the O.P. needs something pointing out, which is you can have a huge range of books, but if they're all by Dan Brown, you have acquired shit-all cultural capital. And you can go on a range of theatre visits, but if you only go

and see Wicked, you're not doing yourself any favours on the cultural capital front. So what you're saying is not only bad and a complete misunderstanding of basic sociology, but also, like, it's meaningless. It's entirely meaningless. You need to tell us what the books are. But please don't. I don't actually want you to list all of your many books. You have a huge range, and I would like to eat dinner at some point,

so I don't need a list of all your books. Tell us you're reading Tolstoy. Are you reading Tolstoy? Are you reading Simone de Beauvoir, or are you reading Dan Brown? Which is fine if you are. Like, you're very much allowed to enjoy what you enjoy. It's just if you're someone who frames things through the lens of cultural capital, you're not really actually allowed to enjoy what you enjoy. Because it sounds like you don't know what joy is.

It's weird to frame things through the idea of cultural capital. Yeah, I hate it. I think it's fine if you're working in sociology or an academic working in kind of cultural studies. Yeah. But not to refer to yourself and to ask other people what cultural capital are accumulating. What are you up to? Like, what does that mean? Cultural capital, what are you up to?

Just making a podcast count? Is this cultural capital? Oh yeah, that's why we make it. Oh, yeah. All the cultural capital, all the clicks, all the downloads. Oh. Should we see what everyone else is up to? Yeah.

Does Netflix count? Well, yes, because Netflix has certain prestige. Yes. Like the Irishman, Netflix produced that. Yes. That was a big prestige film that got Oscar interest. So yes. Someone has said,

I suspect that consciously trying to build cultural capital would lead to bored children and adults, better to just do and talk about what you enjoy and share that enthusiasm with the small people around you. Small people. Yeah, the small people. The people who use cotton buds as gladiator things. Yeah. The OP came back and said that someone was being snarky. I don't see anything wrong with what I've mentioned we do. We value these things and we believe they're interests that take you through to adulthood. That's fine. You haven't mentioned any interest. You said I like reading. No, you haven't said you like reading, though. You've just said that you have many books.

You haven't even said you read them. I acquire books for cultural capital. This is nonsense. This is absolute nonsense. And regular capital, because books can be sold back. That's true, but not for the same amount you bought them for, probably. No, no. But I think it's important to think, to see what's going on with all the people's accumulation of capital.

I have a good cultural versus economic capital thing about books. So as a very small child, when the first Harry Potter book came out, I read a chapter of it, and I was like, don't like this, not reading it, so I didn't. But because we bought it so early on, it was a really early edition. So when my dad put it up on the internet to sell, they'd loads more than we ever paid for it. So there were some economic capital to be gained there, but no cultural capital,

because those are references I still don't understand. There's a whole episode of Hell's Not Understanding Harry Potter, if you look through the feed. There is. A little bonus episode. A little bonus. People are just being very snarky, which is good. I like this one that says, what's the point of your thread?

Yeah, I mean, what is the point of this thread? Like if you just want to talk about what's going on, what you're reading, I'm sure there's a Mum's Net Forum for that, isn't there? That's not here. Yeah. Like, someone has said, I read books, the D.C. hate reading books. I go to the theatre in normal times, a couple of times a year, usually. Usually without D.C.

We sometimes go to a museum. Not this year, however. It's also weird to talk about your children in relation to cultural capital. Yeah, trying to instill... Trying to give them cultural capital. It's really interesting, actually. I've had conversations with friends about how there's a lot of things, because we grew up in London, a lot of things that are free

are things that you end up doing that maybe do build cultural capital that you do if you're from a household with less economic capital. Yeah, if you're from London, you can go to the tape. So like I... Like look at the permanent exhibitions. Yeah, I remember... Whereas if you're from Manchester like me, you'd have to get a train and that's a whole day to go to the tape.

Yeah, so there's that point. So there's like the cultural capital based on where you live anyway. But there's also, like, I remember going to... like the National Gallery or whatever with my mum because it was a train journey that was cheap and it was a free day out once you were there whatever and I've had friends who have very similar experiences going to a lot of galleries because it was a free day out

and people who were from families that probably had more economic capital had season tickets for Thought Park instead. Yeah. And it's like it's not a cultural capital thing to be like yeah I ain't paying hundreds upon hundreds of pounds to go to Thought Park we are getting on a train and we're going to a gallery

and so there's so much interplay here that the O.P. is missing because they're just terrible. Yeah, because they have picked the term cultural capital out of its sociological foundations and are just using it to talk about books and stuff. Yeah. Rather than to fit it into a framework of sort of Marxism, anti-capitalism, you know, class discussions like you were talking about, race, gentrification, the whole rich tapestry of sociology and cultural studies.

Yeah, I mean, everyone is just rounding on. the OP, which is great. Someone said, this is too complicated for me. Do you mean writing yogurt instead of yogurt? Yogurt being in all caps the first time. And in lower case, the second, very funny. And then someone else has said, my house is full of drama. It's like something that Lower Palmer would whisper in Dale Cooper's dream. My house is full of drama. Except backwards. And then someone has responded to the person asking if Netflix counts saying yes, because cultural capital is also about fitting into various social situations. When I was in primary school, my parents started letting me watch neighbours because all the other kids did, and I couldn't join in conversations

about it. Not knowing about Scott and Charlene's wedding was a serious lack of cultural capital in that context. Stop bringing context into this. Contextless. Best context. Never use context. We're talking about cultural capital. Full stop. We're talking about things that you might be picked on for in the playground. People might say that you're some sort of nerd or a posho. Just come up with the vague things that children actually tease you about and say, we do those in my house. We're talking about class, but not acknowledging that we're talking about class. Obviously. This has made me very annoyed.

Let's end it. Let's go home. Let's all go home. Should we do one more speed round before we go home? Yeah. Am I being unreasonable? Kids snacks at school, white carbs twice before lunch. Great.

Sounds like my kind of meal. Am I being unreasonable to share the stupidest thing I've ever heard? No, no, I wish we could hear it. Is it about cultural capital? We simply do not know. Am I being unreasonable? What is going on? What's going on?

What's going on? What's going on? Final one, am I being unreasonable pubs versus schools. Pubs v schools? Grudge match. Yeah. Yeah, finally. Let's settle the question.

Finally. Right, 45 minutes now on pubs versus schools. The old firm. Yeah. I'll be put. Ubi schools. Great, because I've got loads of cultural capital. I am a pub.

Thank you for listening. Thank you. The BFI London Film Festival is running at the moment, and I am covering it for take one cinema.net. And for cultural capital. And to take in all that sweet cultural capital. So please do check out my reviews on take one cinema.net. I've reviewed so far a relic, which is a women-led horror film

that's coming out later this month, Wolf Walkers, which is a lovely animation from cartoon saloon at an Irish animation studio Honeymood which is an Israeli romantic comedy and Dick Johnson is dead which is on Netflix and he's not part of London Film Festival but I reviewed it anyway because it was lovely great that sounds lovely so check those out and check out the podcast check out the old episodes yeah thank you for listening thank you bye

fantastic and I never felt as good as how I do right now except for maybe when I think of how I felt that day when I felt the way that I do right Right now, right now, right now.