Kinsi asks if you’re a “pop-UU,” a Unitarian who watches American Idol and Jerry Springer. Be not afraid, lowbrow Unitarians. You are not alone.
Not to turn this into a discussion about eyebrows—I’ll let Peacebang get that one—but let’s turn this into a conversation about eyebrows. Well, brows, anyhow. Whatever a non-eye brow is.
There are three non-eyebrow brows to know. Highbrow and lowbrow, of course. But also the oft forgotten middlebrow.
What’s middlebrow? Saying things like “oft forgotten,” for starters. If lowbrow is Idol and Springer and highbrow is season tickets to the opera and membership to the modern art museum, then middlebrow is NPR and the Sopranos. And talking about going to the opera and the modern art museum. Or, as one Urban Dictionarista puts it, “conspicuous consumption of Starbucks coffee or The New York Times.”
To put it in bookstore terms, lowbrow is Books-A-Million. Middlebrow is Borders and Barnes & Noble. Highbrow is some musty specialty bookshop in Harvard Square. (Next to Herrells, the highest browest of ice creams.)
There are two problems with middlebrow: Its identity is all about being not-lowbrow. (Egads! You watch commercial tv?!?) And it thinks it’s highbrow.
I’ll throw in a third problem for free. To quote a highbrow dictionary—the OED, no less—“it consists of people who are hoping that some day they will get used to the stuff that they ought to like.” To use a highbrow word, it’s bourgeois. Nouveau riche, even.
We Unitarians are a steadfastly middlebrow bunch. And that makes it a rough go for Pop-UUs.
(For bonus points, add in your own low/middle/highbrow example. An example. Highbrow: Herodotus. Middlebrow: the Grece sections of Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation. Lowbrow: 300. Or, Highbrow: the Modern Skirts. Middlebrow: The Best of Randy Newman. Lowbrow: The Best of Billy Joel.)
((For super bonus points, answer this: what brow was this post?))
Here’s another shot. Highbrow: Your local specialty ice cream store. Middlebrow: Ben & Jerry’s or Haagendaz (sp?). Lowbrow: Whatever’s on sale.
Good post Chuts. I really like about your point about middlebrow and their identity being wrapped up in not being lowbrow.
My turn for movies-
High- Lenmark Art Cinema
Middle- Regal and AMC
Low- 1.50 and Blockbuster
I wanted to add one extra comment – it’s interesting to note the semantics and language here. Just calling it lo, middle and high brow comes off that theres a certain hierarchy of goodness implied, and that those of us lobrow are inferioir to those of us highbrow. I know its not intended…its just an observation. I even used “high brow” in one of my posts over there.
And, by the way, that post certainly came off highbrow :-D
Okay, but here’s a fly in the vaseline. What about the camp sensibility? Coming from highbrow-type people (art school types) but embracing the lowbrow? Like John Waters movies. Because as an art school survivor, I see camp as being a very important driving aesthetic for “highbrow” people who occasionally behave in a “lowbrow” manner, or embrace “lowbrow” things (like reality TV and buying t-shirts at walgreen’s).
Okay, so I admit it. I’m really a UU “hipster”. Who only drinks Starbuck’s at Target.
Love it! A highbrow embrace of the lowbrow!
But do you berate yourself for the Starbucks and wish you were at a local hole in the wall coffee shop instead? Because that’s the true mark of a UU hipster. ;-)
But of course! I only go because my kids like it. Can’t you tell that I think it’s so lame and boring and I’m rolling my eyes like I’m a teenager again?
So what does it say when my kids, under the age of ten, think that anyone living in the suburbs is living a horrible life of identical houses and horrible traffic? Snarks? Or future highbrows? (They do like art openings and sushi…)
And we also love our Spice Girls action figures.
Maybe it’s just in the interest of being well-rounded. Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
Oh, but wait! Chris wonders if middlebrow disdain of pop culture is a generational thing.
But: what if our Gen XY ironybrow is just the new middlebrow?
I feel like Slavoj Zizek. (How’s that for ironybrow?)
That Gen XY label always makes me think of some genetic disorder.
[…] have the nerve to call the CFO of the international not-for-profit on being a classist lout? Chutney talks about classism much better than I ever […]
Oh dear! what brow are you if you love the ballet but hate the opera?
[…] there is a wry and ironic bent to people roughly my age that most churches don’t seem to get. Chutney refers to ironybrow, as an alternative to high-, middle- and lowbrow culture. I think he’s on to something and […]
I would also like to add a category that crosses all of those categories –
the Unitarian who is concerned about these different kinds of brows and wants to reach out across all brows –
the elusive Unibrow
As long as those brows are neat and groomed, everyone.
Agreed, PeaceBang! No unibrows allowed. Yes, Tom Cruise, I’m talking to you.
Don’t you think unibrows get a bad rap? I’m sure the time of the Unibrow is coming.
Just watch – in 20 years the unibrow will be retro and hip and we’ll all be lamenting how we electrolozied away.
“But do you berate yourself for the Starbucks and wish you were at a local hole in the wall coffee shop instead? Because that’s the true mark of a UU hipster. ”
Oh god, I’m SO middlebrow…
and the post script: you will see me frequenting Decatur’s favorite independent coffee shop (Java Monkey, duh!), but not in the mornings because I had an indignant way-too-adult moment when I realized their morning staff was obnoxious, and at 7 a.m., I’d rather be greeted by, “Danielle, your grande iced caramel macchiato, extra caramel, is ready!” So sue me.
And my actual brows are lovely, thanks.
No Unibrows! Ever! (In my best Faye Dunaway does Joan Crawford voice.)
But I guess if they come back, I’ll quit waxing. But until then, I’ll be seeing Christiana every month to keep everything in line {:-) (my unibrow emoticon is cute, no?)
Now, really. Would Bert be Bert without a unibrow anymore than he’d be Bert without Ernie? I think not!
Danielle, surely you know the only thing Decaturites think is still hip about Decatur are all their strollers.
But having obnoxious staff is so cool! If you’d have asked them staff about that, I’m sure they would have told you…
At least they don’t let strollers upstairs at the Brickstore.
And here’s a quandary – how could Bert possibly be gay AND have a unibrow?
Uh, yeah. Exhibit one: Kinsi.
*sniffle* I do not have a unibrow you big bully.
And Bert and Ernie are clearly gay. I *loved* watching them grow up, and since I turned out gay, I obviously learned it from them. I always expected Bert to offer to play with Ernie’s rubber ducky. Rawr.
Or should that be squeak?
So Chuts – get the feeling these comments have been hijacked yet?
High-brow: original works of art
Middle-brow: framed, matted prints of art
Low-brow: posters
—–
High-brow: standing monthly full-body massage appointment
Middle-brow: scheduling a yearly 1/2 hour massage
Low-brow: using massaging chairs at the mall
—–
High-brow: Banana Republic
Middle-brow: Gap
Low-brow: Old Navy
(these are all owned by the same parent company, btw)
—–
High-brow: Antique, one-of-a-kind furniture
Middle-brow: wooden furniture from Ikea
Low-brow: wooden-veneer, particle-board furniture or Target
This is fun!
Camp?
Making camp is highbrow.
Watching camp is middlebrow.
ooooh, look… thin ice!
Living camp is lowbrow.
(I’ll file my remark under Chutney’s call for snark.)
Don’t mind me, I’m just browsing.