High brow or low brow?

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

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

"vegetable TV" – chuckle!

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

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 course).

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.

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

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

But Jeni people only say that about posh people

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

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

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

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

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?

Grannybug I like your style!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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

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.

Because I am truly highbrow!

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

Why not?

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 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'!!

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!

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.