I never put Ruby down as a royalist (in the extreme sense of the word), but I suppose it's another excuse to play dress up?
Ruby Granger #8 Government checks, body checks, and yet no privilege checks
- Start date
-
- Tags
- Ruby Granger Threads Wiki
- Status
New to Tattle Life? Click "Order Thread by Most Liked Posts" button below to get an idea of what the site is about:
Of course it is, and it's ridiculous and immature. She's 21, she's not 6. It's frankly a bit worrying that she thinks this is appropriate.
Is that what it is? I just thought she was copying Holly and going for an Olive Oyl vibe.
Wha--!? So in the US you pay to apply for each college?
It's bizarre that every emotion or interest comes out of the Ruby filter as a different 'aesthetic'
bit off topic but after re-reading the erimentha summaries i once again want to bring up the question wether erimenthas and nathan's relationship and their golden child - black sheep dynamic is actually how things were between ruby and martha?
i grew up with one little brother and i've always been the least favourite child ever since he was born.
from my experience (with my brother and with friends and their siblings), i can say that these 'golden kids', the parents favourites, are always extremely confident and think that everything they do is a little wonder because their parents would hype them up for every tit. lots of these have their heads exetremely high up in the clouds and don't even realise they're being inappropriate because they were told that they're bleeping perfect and can't go wrong with anything they do (holocaust? prince philip mourning anyone?)
would also make sense that ruby doesn't really want to move out or grow up, if she really was the favourite child her childhood must have been very comfortable und she might not want it to stop already.
i've also experienced the 'black sheep' kids extremely distancing themselves from the family and especially the sibling that was always more loved than they were. yes, i'm talking about martha who seems to be polar opposite to ruby and i think i understand damn well why.
also martha if you're reading here, your hair is gorgeous <3
i grew up with one little brother and i've always been the least favourite child ever since he was born.
from my experience (with my brother and with friends and their siblings), i can say that these 'golden kids', the parents favourites, are always extremely confident and think that everything they do is a little wonder because their parents would hype them up for every tit. lots of these have their heads exetremely high up in the clouds and don't even realise they're being inappropriate because they were told that they're bleeping perfect and can't go wrong with anything they do (holocaust? prince philip mourning anyone?)
would also make sense that ruby doesn't really want to move out or grow up, if she really was the favourite child her childhood must have been very comfortable und she might not want it to stop already.
i've also experienced the 'black sheep' kids extremely distancing themselves from the family and especially the sibling that was always more loved than they were. yes, i'm talking about martha who seems to be polar opposite to ruby and i think i understand damn well why.
also martha if you're reading here, your hair is gorgeous <3
as someone who was the golden child growing up, it also messes you up. but maybe my parents did it wrong because I'm super insecure and have low self esteem hahah
Apparently so. Google says the average is about $45 dollars per application but the Ivy League colleges are apparently somewhere are $80/$100 each. Mind. Blown. And to link this (vaguely) back to Ruby, you pay to take the SAT/ACT too, I think, and you need one (or both?) of those for college? That video of Ruby’s where she took a test SAT made me laugh. I got the impression she looked up what a ‘good’ score was and decided that’s what she’d get.
My sibling & I didn't have a gold child/ black sheep dynamic exactly, but one where each of us was definitrly defined by a few very particular, often opposite traits, some of which were more favorable than others. When I was younger, I had a narrower perspective on this, but the older we both get, the more it has changed.
I think something to keep in mind is also that this dynamic impacts both children negatively (and also positively in some ways). Like - once you have the "funny and energetic but lazy" kid, the "responsible, hard-working kid" has less room to fail because of they make a poor choice what is there left for them to be? The "irresponsible kid," in turn, can't live up to the standards to which their sibling is held, anyway, so what's the point in trying to make better choices?
I think something to keep in mind is also that this dynamic impacts both children negatively (and also positively in some ways). Like - once you have the "funny and energetic but lazy" kid, the "responsible, hard-working kid" has less room to fail because of they make a poor choice what is there left for them to be? The "irresponsible kid," in turn, can't live up to the standards to which their sibling is held, anyway, so what's the point in trying to make better choices?
I hope not! However, from reading it, my best guess is that pretty much everything comes from Ruby's life as she perceived it then or wanted to perceive it, with minor changes, like "Nathan" from "Martha". There are just too many odd facts, references, and passages that do nothing in the book, even when you exclude all the ones that are there to hammer home to the reader how Smart and Responsible Erimentha is. And a lot of things line up with Ruby's past and things she does now.
Another matter is whether or not it was an accurate or - to be fairer - a complete portrayal of Ruby's home life. It's only a snapshot. The book seems written to push this image of Erimentha as the smartest and most responsible person in the room. Hence why Nathan is used, along with Erimentha's "peers", as a foil to emphasize the differences between them and her. And why there is a repeated greek chorus of people lining up to explicitly tell the reader how intelligent/responsible Erimentha is, including her own parents. So, there's a motivation for the book to over-emphasize and exaggerate the differences between Erimentha and Nathan, and exclude stuff that doesn't fit this narrative, e.g. Erimentha's parents praising Nathan as much as they do Erimentha.
I really hope that using "Nathan" as a foil in this way was confined to the book, and that Ruby didn't try to call attention to their differences and create such a dynamic in real life. It wouldn't have been kind. But then again, Erimentha never realizes how unkind she is being throughout the book, and that she is repeatedly putting down others in order to promote this image of her as a child genius. She puts others' reactions to her behaviour down to jealousy and resentment.
Yeah some universities will waive application fees for poor applicants, but some people literally spend over $1000 if they apply to lots of selective colleges. An R1 public research university (which to my understanding is roughly the equivalent of most Russell Group universities) will usually be about $60 to apply. The ACT and SAT are both paid for separately too, and some students take them many times. My high school started offering the ACT to students for free after I graduated, so I think my state started a program for that. Another issue is AP tests--those are about $90 each. If you take certain advanced high school classes and perform well on these standardized tests (that are from a private company like the SAT and ACT) you can get college credit and sometimes graduate early, so it's cheaper in the long run... the thing is that in private universities, or at least the highly prestigious ones, they usually don't give you credit for the intro classes you took the AP equivalent of, but you need good AP scores to be a competitive applicant. If I had gone to an Ivy League or other highly prestigious, small, private university, I would have had to repeat about a year of intro coursework. Some people think it's worth it for the prestige, but to me it certainly wasn't for $60,000 a year lol
I imagine she's a fan of an antiquated and *aesthetic* institution and that following the royals makes her feel more British lol
Last edited:
You know, I was just thinking about her Anne with an E obsession - I’m also a big fan of the show and if you aren’t familiar, the overall theme of the final season is the transition into adulthood and deals with topics like romantic relationships, sexual consent etc. There’s even a scene where Anne and all her friends get trashed in the park after finishing their exams lol. My point is that even her “girlhood” icons (Anne, Hermione) eventually...grow up. I wonder what her reaction is to that, because it seems like she chooses to ignore it altogether.
Re the Ruby being the golden child - I’m an only child so I know nothing about sibling relationships but I’ve never actually gotten that vibe. I know Marfa is...edgier...but I actually feel like Ruby’s mom is more of a free spirit than Ruby and interacts with both daughters differently (but with equal regard if that makes sense). She DID get that tattoo with/for Martha after all...
Re the Ruby being the golden child - I’m an only child so I know nothing about sibling relationships but I’ve never actually gotten that vibe. I know Marfa is...edgier...but I actually feel like Ruby’s mom is more of a free spirit than Ruby and interacts with both daughters differently (but with equal regard if that makes sense). She DID get that tattoo with/for Martha after all...
Last edited:
Previous recaps
Time for more Erimentha. Trigger warning again for bullying.
Time for more Erimentha. Trigger warning again for bullying.
Chapter 26
- This is actually down as a second Chapter 25. The book is full of little errors that should have been caught by proofreading. For instance, Kimberly changes back and forth repeatedly from Kimberley throughout the whole book. I wouldn't normally point this out since Ruby wrote this when she was 17, but when you put something up for sale at £7, the least that could be done is proper proofreading. But then we might have been deprived of this from earlier on in the book: "I resist the urge to correct the girls grammar, knowing that it is neither the time nor the place."
- Erimentha confronts Kimberly and asks how she could bring herself to do something as awful as that website. Has she met Kimberly?! Kimberly tells Erimentha that she deserves all this for being so mean and snobby. And in an completely unpredictable turn of events, she finds the book Erimentha has borrowed from her "only friend", the geography teacher. She takes Erimentha's highlighter and draws through the book, one page at a time, while Erimentha watches. Then Kimberly starts ripping the pages out with her friends.
- Erimentha cries. Kimberly then smashes an orange into her face hard enough for it to break apart. Erimentha asks them to tell Mr Aldridge she is ill and then leaves "with such control that my peers go silent".
- Erimentha has asked Ella over to her house, but Mum insists that Kimberly also be invited. Unsurprisingly, Erimentha is not terribly receptive to this suggestion.
- Her mum says she doesn't know what has got into Erimentha but instead of trying to find out like a decent mother (or indeed ask why her child has been so miserable these last few weeks), she launches into a guilt trip by saying how awkward Erimentha's refusal will make her relations with Kimberly's mum. She asks Erimentha to agree to invite Kimberly "for me".
- Erimentha gives in, and Kimberly is invited for an afternoon of fun and bonding. She is delighted and gives Erimentha a friendship bracelet the next morning. How could this possibly go wrong?
I may be totally wrong here but I always got the sense that Ruby *made herself* what she thought was the golden child. I think she was a deeply insecure child who was desperate to be the 'best' and I also imagine she was quite domineering/threw her toys out of the pram if she felt she was the centre of attention. There is apparently a video where she snaps at Martha for getting in the way.
i’m still super curious about this video! does anyone know which it is?
agreed, I think insecurity runs through her veins
Parents not picking up on bullying even when it seems like a fairly obvious issue is a whole thing
haha my mom was co stantly like, "I do understand why you're so withdrawn, youlike school and you like your friends" and it's super difficult, sometimes impossible, to explain things like having few or no friends, or about being the exact opposite of a "friend" to someone else. It's embarrassing and I've met more than a few people who also went out of their way to keep up the appearance of being happy and well-liked at school to their parents in particar. I think this can be part of wanting to be *perfect* for everybody. Sometimes it means hiding a lot of pain.
The personal philosphy project! Cinzia is really intelligant and the difference between her and ruby is astonding if you go back and look at cinzias older videos where she did book reviews or videos about personal development.
ugh yes, especially if the bullying is the emotional/psychological kind that takes place behind the back of the adults in the room. It's often worse than physically bullying imo, as it rarely leaves physical scars but completely destroys your self-esteem :/Parents not picking up on bullying even when it seems like a fairly obvious issue is a whole thing
I think this can be part of wanting to be *perfect* for everybody. Sometimes it means hiding a lot of pain.
This was totally my experience with bullying — I couldn’t tell anybody because it was all mind games, and tormenting me without actually doing anything that could specifically be reported. Pretending to be your friend and make conversation with you solely to laugh about it, boys asking you out as a joke, being left out of things, people clearly laughing about you, if you ignored them they wouldn’t stop, and then if you were ever upset/angered by the things that they’d say they’d find that hilarious too so there was no winning, knowing nobody wanted to be put with you for group work ... the things along them lines.
I had such an awful high school experience because of this, to the point my self confidence as a 23 year old is completely shot. I still feel unworthy of ever being loved despite really wanting to, I look in the mirror and hate myself when I’m not even ugly, and I still get so overwhelmed with anxiety over what others may think of me. Even through university it took me until my final year to break through the feeling that everyone probably hated me.
Bullying is horrific and I’ve always felt that Ruby only ever talks about it in the way you see it portrayed in children’s tv and film. Hair pulling and being beaten up in the hallways — both things that definitely happen, but they’re the sort of bullying that gets caught by teachers more or less ...
ETA: My parents never knew, and I only mentioned having a terrible high school experience to them very recently.
I'm so sorry that happened to you. It's abysmal, and it can be so hard to get the help you need! I hope you're a lot better now, and have some supportive people around youThis was totally my experience with bullying — I couldn’t tell anybody because it was all mind games, and tormenting me without actually doing anything that could specifically be reported. Pretending to be your friend and make conversation with you solely to laugh about it, boys asking you out as a joke, being left out of things, people clearly laughing about you, if you ignored them they wouldn’t stop, and then if you were ever upset/angered by the things that they’d say they’d find that hilarious too so there was no winning, knowing nobody wanted to be put with you for group work ... the things along them lines.
I had such an awful high school experience because of this, to the point my self confidence as a 23 year old is completely shot. I still feel unworthy of ever being loved despite really wanting to, I look in the mirror and hate myself when I’m not even ugly, and I still get so overwhelmed with anxiety over what others may think of me. Even through university it took me until my final year to break through the feeling that everyone probably hated me.
Bullying is horrific and I’ve always felt that Ruby only ever talks about it in the way you see it portrayed in children’s tv and film. Hair pulling and being beaten up in the hallways — both things that definitely happen, but they’re the sort of bullying that gets caught by teachers more or less ...
ETA: My parents never knew, and I only mentioned having a terrible high school experience to them very recently.
I was pretty similar, although I can acknowledge that I was kinda unlikeable/unapproachable when I was younger. People would always leave seats between me and them, comment about me when I was right in front of me, and make really nasty, searching comments about things that were clearly meant as insults, then turn them around and act as if I was crazy because I saw them for what they were. Even when I developed an ED I got called 'attention-seeking' and laughed at even more. Because of that, I get a bit touchy when people bring up certain things about the bullying Ruby probably experienced, or the way she presents herself. Nobody deserves to be bullied, and nobody who has ED tendencies should be made fun of.
The way they treated an autistic girl in my class was even worse, and I'm still mad that nobody around us actually acknowledged what was happening. This tit would be going on right in front of the teachers' eyes, and they'd refuse to do anything about it. Most bullying is like that - under-the-radar, especially when it's led by girls.
- Status