>> More to the point, only well-to-do people can afford that. <<
Not necessarily. I have talked with a few people who drive art cars; they're fundamentally artists, and that's what drives them. The commonly associated adjective, "starving", is pretty close to defining their income stream, and a lot of their tricking-out is done on the cheap via dumpster rejects and thrift-store purchases. A documentary I saw, exploring lowrider culture, reveals a similar approach. These pretty much aren't high-income people (being overwhelmingly Latino, at least around here, doesn't help much there), but they put every penny they can spare into their cars because it's something they can do to proclaim and share their identity while getting in the face of a culture that often scorns them.
I've also got a couple of friends who bought used cars and are slowly modding them to fit their needs better as income permits. So, from my perspective, there doesn't appear to be a particularly strong linkage between income and desire to modify one's ride. In fact, it often seems to go the other way: better-off people risk more by being "different", and are consequently less likely to do it.
I realized there's another factor at play here, too. If you don't own the place where you live, your ability to do things to the place is limited and not particularly under your control. Plus, your space for other things by which you might express your identity is also limited. A car you own is unconditionally yours, and a portable form of expression.
>> Most people buy used because it's all they can have. <<
*sigh* Yet another example of short-term thinking driven (or forced) by one's income being far too close to that required to cover basic needs. siderea recently wrote an excellent essay on why a $200 pair of boots that will last for twenty winters is a much better use of money than buying $20 pairs of boots that one has to replace after each winter because they have fallen apart -- and why this isn't often done.
Cars are the same way. If one can buy a new car for cash, with an eye toward having it for a long time, and treat it and maintain it well so it will last that long time, the annual cost can be quite favorable. The car I had before the one I own now I bought for cash, and lasted nearly twenty-five years before a maintenance threshold and tightening emission control standards made it uneconomical to keep roadworthy -- but also made it so that the state would buy it to get it off the road. Net purchase cost on the car, divided by years of ownership, was less than $500 per year. It was having the cash at hand that made it possible for me to do that.
>> When modifying your body costs more money than a year's pay, most people are also stuck with whatever they have -- and that's a leading cause of the high suicide rate in transfolk. <<
Yep. A couple of my trans friends endured jobs they weren't a good fit at all for, and hostility from managers and coworkers, for the sake of insurance that covered enough of the relevant surgery to make it financially possible. This is also not good.
Fortunately, there's a small but growing number of gender-aware people in the world, who understand that body shape of any sort does not determine one's gender, and that everyone has their own contextual way of expressing (or suppressing) their gender identity. Providing gender cues by behavior (free) or clothing etc. (doesn't have to cost a lot) can go a long way in such an environment.
>> It would never occur to me to judge someone by their car, because I don't connect people with cars. <<
And you aren't like very many people. No surprise there. But when I look at car advertisements, in whatever form, I am struck by how so much of it is about image. Apparently this works well, or there would be more advertising focusing on other things. So there's a whole lot of people in the world who buy their cars based on image, and expect that other people are doing the same thing. And if their image of who would own a vehicle like one they see isn't one they care for, will share that with others. I've been around conversations like that.
Nowadays, when I see someone driving something out of context, I just cue Rich Fantasy Lives, and don't spend much time harshing on them for maybe being a poseur.
Re: Experience vs Performance
Not necessarily. I have talked with a few people who drive art cars; they're fundamentally artists, and that's what drives them. The commonly associated adjective, "starving", is pretty close to defining their income stream, and a lot of their tricking-out is done on the cheap via dumpster rejects and thrift-store purchases. A documentary I saw, exploring lowrider culture, reveals a similar approach. These pretty much aren't high-income people (being overwhelmingly Latino, at least around here, doesn't help much there), but they put every penny they can spare into their cars because it's something they can do to proclaim and share their identity while getting in the face of a culture that often scorns them.
I've also got a couple of friends who bought used cars and are slowly modding them to fit their needs better as income permits. So, from my perspective, there doesn't appear to be a particularly strong linkage between income and desire to modify one's ride. In fact, it often seems to go the other way: better-off people risk more by being "different", and are consequently less likely to do it.
I realized there's another factor at play here, too. If you don't own the place where you live, your ability to do things to the place is limited and not particularly under your control. Plus, your space for other things by which you might express your identity is also limited. A car you own is unconditionally yours, and a portable form of expression.
>> Most people buy used because it's all they can have. <<
*sigh* Yet another example of short-term thinking driven (or forced) by one's income being far too close to that required to cover basic needs.
Cars are the same way. If one can buy a new car for cash, with an eye toward having it for a long time, and treat it and maintain it well so it will last that long time, the annual cost can be quite favorable. The car I had before the one I own now I bought for cash, and lasted nearly twenty-five years before a maintenance threshold and tightening emission control standards made it uneconomical to keep roadworthy -- but also made it so that the state would buy it to get it off the road. Net purchase cost on the car, divided by years of ownership, was less than $500 per year. It was having the cash at hand that made it possible for me to do that.
>> When modifying your body costs more money than a year's pay, most people are also stuck with whatever they have -- and that's a leading cause of the high suicide rate in transfolk. <<
Yep. A couple of my trans friends endured jobs they weren't a good fit at all for, and hostility from managers and coworkers, for the sake of insurance that covered enough of the relevant surgery to make it financially possible. This is also not good.
Fortunately, there's a small but growing number of gender-aware people in the world, who understand that body shape of any sort does not determine one's gender, and that everyone has their own contextual way of expressing (or suppressing) their gender identity. Providing gender cues by behavior (free) or clothing etc. (doesn't have to cost a lot) can go a long way in such an environment.
>> It would never occur to me to judge someone by their car, because I don't connect people with cars. <<
And you aren't like very many people. No surprise there. But when I look at car advertisements, in whatever form, I am struck by how so much of it is about image. Apparently this works well, or there would be more advertising focusing on other things. So there's a whole lot of people in the world who buy their cars based on image, and expect that other people are doing the same thing. And if their image of who would own a vehicle like one they see isn't one they care for, will share that with others. I've been around conversations like that.
Nowadays, when I see someone driving something out of context, I just cue Rich Fantasy Lives, and don't spend much time harshing on them for maybe being a poseur.