How Much Fun Was It for You to Be in These Clubs?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Lake says she wishes she had met the promoters when she was 18. The high heels are very high, like the expectations that women wear these really high. Is reasly physically hard to keep up an bein these paces. For for a young person, it's hard to convey that kind of fun. And it was hard, hard for me, me a being, like a sober thirty year old to soi feel it now....

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 Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.