The average median UK salary is apparently £30k (pre-tax, I assume) so £38k (post tax) is pretty good, especially for a 21 year-old who isn’t exactly working 9-5. I don’t know what that would be pre-tax, easily £50k I should think, which is a pretty good wage.
Very subtle way to dodge the question lmaoo
I agree with what you say but I still think Ruby is a bit naïve and that’s why she seems to suffer from an endless case of foot-in-mouth. I think she does ‘mean well’, in her head, but she’s incredibly sheltered and she comes from a background of privilege that she’s totally blind to. I also think that she comes from a world where it’s second nature to take money when it’s offered - just thinking of her parents, you just don’t end up with that kind of house and lifestyle by ever turning money down or questioning the ethics of what’s being offered, whether that’s taking a job or exploiting a tax loophole.
That's it, she's not making insane amounts of money but for someone who's 21 and studying it's massive. I'm a student and I know most of us have jobs to be able to afford a roof over our heads, never mind earning that much.
Yeah this is it and it would really explain the Holocaust ad thing. It probably didn't even occur to her that it might not be right to take that money - she must have thought "oh well they're offering it so why shouldn't I accept it".
There’s also the attitude of taking money ‘because I’m worth it’ - of course they’re paying me because I’m a well-known brand with all of these followers and so on, and of course everything I have to say has value. For all the meek and mild persona Ruby does seem to come from a background where she’s had a lot of (perhaps too much ...) praise and encouragement, and I do wonder if that’s why she struggles so much when she isn’t successful. It’s pretty much been a given in her life and I think that’s why the Oxford rejection hit her so very hard.
And the thing with Ruby is that, okay, she studies a lot. She works hard in university. Good for her.
Absolutely. I think the problem lies in the fact that people, including their followers, have repeatedly pointed out their privilege. And yet, instead of taking time to examine why people are upset and validly calling them out, they consistently brush it off with that very mentality that you mention. They think that because they "mean well" other people are just acting out of jealousy or hatred. There comes a point where it stops being a case of tone-deafness and naivete and it becomes a manipulative pattern. They claim to be intelligent and capable of deep introspection. Surely, the UK education system has not failed them completely and has offered courses on poverty, racism, intersectionality, and wealth disparities? They're adults, not children. They have to be held accountable as such because, unfortunately, privilege and willing blindness to social issues, breeds more generations of inequality and exploitation. These are the type of people who end up holding positions of power and making big decisions in the world. This is very dangerous because there are so many inequalities already at play in education, but the face of this community is made up of wealthy (mostly white) individuals who push skewed narratives of "hard work" and "grind" culture. I really wish I could write a paper about this. Lol.
I sincerely doubt it has. I went to a private school which I suspect was much like Ruby’s, and we didn’t really have any classes like that. This is mostly due to the national curriculum, which all schools have to follow, rather than a school specific policy, but I think it’s highly unlikely they had any formal education on any of this. Add to that the fact that private schools are typically incredibly un-diverse in terms of student population, they’ll all have likely spent most of their time around people exactly like them, which makes it very easy to pretend issues like racism and the wealth divide don’t really exist. You’d hope that someone like Ruby, who claims to be a bookworm, would have sought to increase her understanding of the world around her through literature, which is a great way to start to think about some of the real world issues she’ll have been sheltered from, but as we all know she favours children’s books and Victorian romanticisation to the real world.
The only social issues Ruby seems to read about is stuff that could realistically happen to her as well: eating disorders, bullying, potentially LGBT discrimination?
I genuinely can’t see a school like Ruby’s offering any kind of teaching on poverty and wealth disparities. Trying to teach that at a single-sex, independent school in the Tory heartlands would be akin to a teacher handing in their resignation. Can you imagine the outcry when Octavia and Persephone go home and start wondering aloud if perhaps daddy might not be right when he says that the poor are poor because just because they’re not working hard enough, and it might not be the case that they spend all of their benefits on drugs and tattoos?
If she were just naive, she would learn and grow overtime. Instead, she gets defensive and dismissive when people confront her about her mistakes. She’s chooses to stay in her doting little world and has clearly regressed in the past year. Her privilege (young, white, rich, traditionally feminine, etc.) is giving her a pass to be “naive”. But she’s not. She’s willfully ignorant.
Omg, it’ll be a while until we have a new thread but PLEASE let’s not forget about this oneRuby Granger #5: giant collars and lots of dollars ?
exactly, and shes a grown woman, claims shes smart, 'studies' basically all day, says she reads the news, reads many books, is at a uni, and shes active on social media so she would see stuff.
Completely agree. There are definitely problems with the education system in the UK, in particular regarding the curriculum, but that shouldn’t be used to excuse her ignorance. I went to a predominately rich, white private school, and I’ve worked hard both while there and throughout my time at uni to go beyond what was taught in school and by my parents, and to try to further my understanding and awareness of the issues I’ve been lucky enough to have been relatively unaffected by in my life. I know there are limits to what I can learn (I can’t ever truly understand what it is to experience racism for instance), but that doesn’t mean i don’t have a responsibility to try, and to listen to those with more experience than me. Of course education should play a role, but Ruby also has a personal responsibility to better herself.
Yep, the school probably played a part, but at the end of the day shes been an adult and at uni a couple of years now, she should’ve become a lil bit less ignorant in my opinion. Then again she does go exeter which is known for having a lot of rich white students, so tbh I’m not really sure shes been exposed to the real world yet anyway
