Ashley Mears on Status and Beauty
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2020
⏱️ 62 minutes
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Summary
Ashley Mears is a former fashion model turned academic sociologist, and her book Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit is one of Tyler's favorites of the year. The book, the result of eighteen months of field research, describes how young women exchange "bodily capital" for free drinks and access to glamorous events, boosting the status of the big-spending men they accompany.
Ashley joined Tyler to discuss her book and experience as a model, including the economics of bottle service, which kinds of men seek the club experience (and which can't get in), why Tyler is right to be suspicious of restaurants filled with beautiful women, why club music is so loud, the surprising reason party girls don't want to be paid, what it's like to be scouted, why fashion models don't smile, the truths contained in Zoolander, how her own beauty and glamour have influenced her academic career, how Barbara Ehrenreich inspired her work, her unique tip for staying focused while writing, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded May 8th, 2020
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:08.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. |
| 0:12.6 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com. |
| 0:28.1 | Hello everyone. Today I am chatting with Ashley Mears, who is professor of sociology at Boston University. |
| 0:35.1 | And this year she is publishing one of my very favorite books of the year. |
| 0:39.7 | It is called Very Important People, Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit, |
| 0:45.6 | Publication Date, May 26th. I'm also a big fan of her earlier book called Pricing Beauty, |
| 0:51.9 | the Making of a Fashion Model. Ashley, welcome. |
| 0:55.4 | Hi Tyler, thank you. Thanks for having me. |
| 0:58.2 | Let's just jump right in. When wealthy men are in clubs, why do they want other wealthy men |
| 1:04.2 | to see them surrounded by beautiful women? |
| 1:06.8 | Okay, well, I feel like you don't really need a sociologist to answer that question. |
| 1:12.5 | I mean, beautiful women are a sign of status, of high status. |
| 1:17.1 | And so wealthy men like to surround themselves in the same way that you would see a kind of curated |
| 1:24.2 | entourage in lots of different historical forms. |
| 1:28.7 | But yeah, so beautiful women in the VIP clubland are a sign of status. |
| 1:34.0 | And it's a certain kind of beauty. I mean, that's the interesting thing about beauty, right? |
| 1:38.5 | It's always in the eye of the beholder. |
| 1:40.6 | But in the VIP world, which caters to these rich men, the kind of beauty is the kind that's defined |
| 1:49.3 | as very rare according to the fashion modeling industry. |
... |
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