Was Mr. Big Upper Class or New Money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

[Anonymous]

Not only the .I'm but the church they attended was trying to portray UC

We also meet his brother in AJLT and he could possibly be in that category - though he doesn't say anything to make it obvious, if I recall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

Y’all are obsessed with such weird things. There are people with old money parents descended from people who came over on the mayflower who act like trash. And there are plenty of upper middle class or even lower class people who “come across” as “patrician.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

Lol enlighten us, fancy person. What do they say?

[Anonymous]

I agree with a PP who said Big was supposed to be old money but the actor isn't, so the character ended up somewhere in the middle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

The question to ask is how was the show attempting to portray Big and his family of origin. The answer is a wealthy family of origin and not new money. This played a part in him selecting Natasha over Carrie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

The question to ask is how was the show attempting to portray Big and his family of origin. The answer is a wealthy family of origin and not new money. This played a part in him selecting Natasha over Carrie.

Agree. He chose the kind of woman he was expected to--who made his life white, beige, elegant, and restrained. Not what he actually wanted, but took him time to realize that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

Lol enlighten us, fancy person. What do they say?

They say “s’up, homie”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a good question! He married Natasha
— but was unhappy, was that the type of woman he thought he should marry? His ex wife I think was successful but not much info. I remember he took Carrie to an old money upper East side party ( she was uncomfortable there and after he told her he loved her). So perhaps he’s not old money but wanted to be part of that set?

I see him as a poseur who wanted to be a part of the old money set, as well. It still doesn’t solve the puzzle of his patrician-seeming mother.

Poseur doesn’t fall far from the tree?

[Anonymous]

Well the pp's who explained the basics of the finance bros in that era got it right: The real Mr. Big, ie. Ron Galotti was a loudmouth Trump type who Candace Bushnell named Big because he had a big personality and you knew when he entered the room...meaning he was loud and popular. Ironically he left the city to reside in Maine in the early 2000's and has a lovely house in the country which has been featured in numerous magazines. But I get no sense at all that he was old money, that obviously was created by the writers of the show, not based on the book. Here's a sample of what he was likehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/jul/18/features.magazine17

[Anonymous]

Link did not work, here's another
https://www.newsun.com/ron.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

Lol enlighten us, fancy person. What do they say?

Your tone betrays your insecurity.

They say "How do you do?" or a more contemporary "Hello! How are you?"

Not "It's nice to meet you" or any variation on that. "It's so nice to meet you" is something everyone just says nowadays, but when "How do you do?" was the typical greeting, "It's nice to meet you" was only said under circumstances where you had been waiting to meet a well known person -- for example, if you are Joe Blow and meet Marilyn Monroe, you might say "It's nice to meet you" because it is -- it is nice to meet Marilyn Monroe, it is an exciting privilege to get to meet her; most people want to, but Joe Blow is getting the chance. It is a "nice" thing happening. The same thing was often the case for the rich society families of NYC. People would want to meet, oh, say Babe Paley, because she had power and was a bit of a celebrity. People would be angling to get an invitation to something just so they could meet her. They would say "It's nice to meet you." Babe Paley wouldn't say it back, because, well, it wasn't "nice" to meet the person she is meeting. Not that she wasn't happy to meet the person, not that the person isn't wonderful, not that she thinks she is so much better than than this person -- but because it wouldn't make sense for her to say "Nice to meet you" when she hadn't been anticipating meeting the person. "It's so nice to meet you" is disingenuous if you haven't been the one seeking the introduction. So -- it is "How do you do?"

And then eventually it just kind of morphed into an UC signal. Everyone else was saying "Nice to meet you," but not saying that was an IYKYK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a good question! He married Natasha
— but was unhappy, was that the type of woman he thought he should marry? His ex wife I think was successful but not much info. I remember he took Carrie to an old money upper East side party ( she was uncomfortable there and after he told her he loved her). So perhaps he’s not old money but wanted to be part of that set?

I see him as a poseur who wanted to be a part of the old money set, as well. It still doesn’t solve the puzzle of his patrician-seeming mother.

Poseur doesn’t fall far from the tree?

What examples made him seem like a poseur? I think the show did t want to reveal too much about his character bc he was supposed to seem like N out-of-rwach mystery man, like he was to Carrie.

Looking back on the show, one could argue that the characters are rather one-dimensional. Still enjoyed it at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think his family was probably upper middle class, not old money rich like the MacDougals, but wealthy. Big probably went to an NYC prep school and had good connections, and got very rich in finance.

But would a regular UMC woman come across as patrician as his mother did?

No. Her voice and manner of speech in this episode portrayed her as UC, and her clothes made her seem possibly a little eccentric but also conservative. "Lovely to meet you."

Yeah, upper-class people don’t say this. At least the ones of her generation didn’t IYKYK.

Lol enlighten us, fancy person. What do they say?

They say “s’up, homie”

lol