Gransnet forums

Chat

High brow or low brow?

(110 Posts)
petallus Thu 26-Jul-12 13:15:45

Are you high brown or low brow?

Do you have to be one or the other or is it possible to be both at the same time?

I like Coronation Street on the tele and heavy stuff at the threatre.

Wondered what others thought.

petallus Fri 27-Jul-12 12:32:54

Hey, I didn't go to a convent school either; so that makes two of us grin

absentgrana of course it doesn't matter in the great scheme of things; just fun to think about.

Bags Fri 27-Jul-12 12:10:16

"vegetable TV" – chuckle!

AlisonMA Fri 27-Jul-12 11:13:49

I didn't go to a convent school so don't feel qualfied to join in!

vampirequeen Fri 27-Jul-12 11:09:18

I'm a mixture. I hate soaps but I love vegetable TV like Four in a Bed, Come Dine with Me and.....should I admit this .......Snog, Marry, Avoid. I try to catch Jeremy Kyle most days because it makes me realise that no matter how bad my life might seem I don't live nextdoor to the people who appear on the show.

I also love documentaries, political programming and need my regular news fix (BBC News of coursesmile).

I listen to Radio 2 and Radio 4. I enjoy music that ranges from plain song to arctic monkeys.

I think high brow and low brow is a form of snobbery or inverted snobbery. If you only allow yourself to be interested in one form or the other for whatever reason you miss out on so much.

absentgrana Fri 27-Jul-12 10:39:09

I've never really considered the height (or depth) of my cultural brow. Does it matter?

Anagram Thu 26-Jul-12 23:19:37

petallus - you would have been a scarlet woman! shock
Thank goodness you went for navy!

petallus Thu 26-Jul-12 22:43:12

But Jeni people only say that about posh people grin

petallus Thu 26-Jul-12 22:42:08

Oh no, Ariadne, I've just bought a rather expensive navy blue coat!

I nearly bought it in red. Is red a common colour?

grin but I'm sort of serious. Surely red is more common than navy blue, especially in hats!

jeni Thu 26-Jul-12 22:25:14

So did mine!
The biggest compliment I have ever been paid is "there's no side to me".

Ariadne Thu 26-Jul-12 21:44:17

So do I Grannybug!

But it takes confidence not to give a damn, doesn't it? So glas I finally found that confidence.

But when it comes down to what is "common", my mother had an endless list, and I have spent years trying to fathom some items, for example navy blue as a clothing colour. Where did that come from?

Ella46 Thu 26-Jul-12 21:35:44

Grannybug I like your style! smile

Grannybug Thu 26-Jul-12 20:20:25

Never give anything I watch or do a label! I enjoy literature music dance and theatre and like what I like! 'Frankly my dear(s) I don't give a damn!smile

baNANA Thu 26-Jul-12 19:13:15

I should add that they didn't actually give us any useful information regarding sex only to say that it was for "married people only" but they didn't point out whether those married people had to be married to each other or whether they could practice sex with any random married person they took a fancy to! How were we supposed to work that out we were only aged 11 to 16!

baNANA Thu 26-Jul-12 19:05:47

Ditto Greatnan the nuns at my convent were totally obsessed about sex, even though my friends and I being late developers didn't really give it a second thought, until they the nuns burst into our class, on what seemed like a daily basis to give us talks on the subject and always pointed out that should we embark on a sexual relationship before marriage it would only end in a gradual descent into madness, made me wonder what they were up to when we went home because they all seemed pretty mad to me!

Greatnan Thu 26-Jul-12 18:58:49

Our nuns were strange - we had to wear thick lisle stockings at first, but when they became fashionable they were banned.
We were told not to sit next to our brothers going home on the bus, in case people did not think we were related. They were absolutely obsessed by sex - but not to the point of giving us any information, even about menstruation!

baNANA Thu 26-Jul-12 18:35:06

At my convent school our order of nuns considered it common to be seen without one's white gloves and eating chips out of newspaper would have been on a par with lying in the gutter swigging out of a bottle of gin! The full name of my convent was Convent of The Sacred Hearts and Perpetual Adoration, but somehow or other we were known throughout my home town as Convent of the Naked Tarts and Perpetual Abortion! I know not why, it was nothing to do with me, although I will admit to not wearing my white gloves on my way home as they were an impediment to eating chips!

Greatnan Thu 26-Jul-12 18:04:47

One of the benefits of living in a foreign country is that people can't put you in a particular social class from your accent.

petallus Thu 26-Jul-12 18:04:46

And being common was linked to doubtful sexual morals as well.

petallus Thu 26-Jul-12 18:04:17

Being thought common was the dread of many women in those days, including those from the respectable working class.

Incidentally, does anyone remember the term ever being applied to men? I seemt to remember only women could be common.

Grannylin Thu 26-Jul-12 18:03:38

Because I am truly highbrow!

Anagram Thu 26-Jul-12 18:00:24

My post was in response to Grannylin's, I hasten to point out!

Anagram Thu 26-Jul-12 17:59:11

Why not? confused

nanaej Thu 26-Jul-12 17:57:31

Class really does pervade every aspect of life! I remember being at boarding school and hearing girls 'boast' that their mothers would not allow them to wear stockings until they were at least 16! Any younger and they would have been thought very common! For some bizarre reason it was also considered a bit common to start wearing a bra before you had begun menstruating confused I had no idea what my mother's views would be on all this so just kept quiet! Eating in the street, not wearing a hat when going out, chewing gum, pierced ears there was an endless list of how to spot a 'common' person! It was all strange to me as mum was from a working class family and dad was a 'bloody foreigner'!!

Grannylin Thu 26-Jul-12 17:46:12

I remember, a few years ago, a friend (who definitely would class herself highbrow in Hyancinth Bucket way) asked me to feed her cat while she was on holiday.When she came back she complained, laughingly, that I had retuned her radio to, horror of horrors, Radio 2 (then on long wave) instead of her usual R4. I didn't like to point out to her that I had actually been listening to the news on a French radio station!

baNANA Thu 26-Jul-12 17:41:00

Greatnan you've just triggered a memory from the deep recesses of my brain, I remember the sounds of Palm Court Orchestra floating upstairs on Sunday evenings when I was trying to get to sleep.