Aren’t the rich and privileged allowed to be upset?

[Untailored]

Prince Harry, Brooklyn Beckham, Liz Hurley…..I could go on.

There’s an attitude on MN that seems to be if you’re rich and privileged you’re not allowed to complain about anything. You’re not allowed to be upset or angry or hurt. You’re just ‘spoiled’, ‘whining’ or ‘playing the victim’.

It’s really unpleasant and I can’t help wonder if there’s an undercurrent of jealousy behind it.

And yet BB has just thrown his mum in the bin. She’s loved him all his life. Unreal.

There is an element on Mumsnet of it not being acceptable to complain unless you have it worse than absolutely everyone else. It's not just the rich and famous, normal posters get told off for complaining by someone who has it worse than them.

It's an odd character trait that some people have. Competitive misery. I think it's the same people who complain when someone posts something frivolous because there are 'bigger things to worry about'. They seem to struggle with the idea that two things can be true at the same time e.g. you're a billionaire and your parents are shit or your neighbour keeps cooking smelly food and children are dying in Gaza. Things can co-exist.

I agree to a certain extent but sometimes people are quite obviously motivated by jealousy. We are all guilty of it! I think this is particularly true when we start making generalisations about people based on a particularly desirable characteristic such as being beautiful or rich.

So for example people suggesting that ' rich people couldn't possibly have any real problems because they are rich'. This is an obviously illogical and crap statement. Most people with half a brain can understand that lots of life's biggest problems actually don't have anything to do with money. It's just people are so blinded by envy and a desire for what someone else has that they start making silly sweeping statements.

It's usually said by people with a big chip on their shoulder.

So I tend to ignore.

Nobody has the right but naturally it's easier to feel sympathy towards people in less privileged positions.

Ofcourse, it's unpleasant. They're allowed to be upset. They're human too.

I suppose it depends on what we think ‘privilege’ is.

Quite. Do you consider Victoria Beckham privileged? If not, why not?

Or publish everything on every platform.

Exactly.

We all grew up with the privilege of privacy and anonymity for example that Brooklyn Beckham and Prince Harry never enjoyed. Can you put a price on that? Some people actively seek fame but lots of people would hate it, especially when growing up and making lots of mistakes. Getting scrutinised for how you look, what you do with your life, who you marry... Whilst also being seen as someone with unearned privilege and without any real prospect of being talented or brilliant enough to warrant the fame and money you have access to. I think it's a real poisoned chalice but basically privilege can come in lots of unexpected forms.

I really know very little about her so couldn’t say either way.

Other than people in the uk are all privileged to not live in a war zone. She’s privileged in that she can see, she can walk.

Not necessarily.
Millions sympathised with Princess Diana over the way she was treated.
Millions sympathised with her sons when she died. I think when King Charles and Catherine spoke about their cancers, only a tiny minority of idiots thought they would naturally be OK because of their privilege.

I feel real sympathy for Victoria Beckham having a son who is stabbing her in the back, just as I would for the woman down the road who is dealing with a son who is giving her grief.

I think it is jealousy, or a lack of empathy from people who think money will solve all their own problems. Which of course it doesn’t, or understand that there are different problems.

I agree though that those seek fame can’t have their cake and eat it, and seeking fame or popularity for money is a risky thing to do.

I don't know the woman personally but recognise her celebrity status confers significant and often exclusive privileges.

Victoria dropped lucky (twice) she joined a girl band despite not being a particularly talented singer 😉 came to fame and made plenty of dosh.
Met and married a highly successful footballer, who came to fame and made plenty more dosh 😇

I think a lot of the privileged people we know about are under a level of media scrutiny that must be horrendous. I have limited patience for those who deliberately court that attention, but kids born into it have no choice. I think I'd rather be struggling to make ends meet than lose not just my anonymity but that of my family.

I guess the worst of all must be living in poverty with media intrusion. On the flip side there are a lot of stupidly wealthy people who manage not to be in the public eye and I think they're the really lucky ones!

Anyone remember the Marchioness Disaster of August 1989. A Party Boat was sunk at about 2.00 am on the Thames and 50+ people died. It sank in minutes.
There were some really spiteful things written about them because they were in the main well off.

I just think go talk to a therapist or a friend. I think the same of people airing their dirty laundry on Jeremy Kyle or my cousins wife whose Facebook page is just a list everyone who has ever wronged her and how. It's trashy, narcissistic and I don't respect people who do it whether they are rich or poor.

It does make her far more likely to survive. Let’s not be naive about what money means. It isn’t only about lifestyle. The U.K. has 9 out of 10 of the poorest regions in Northern Europe despite being the richest country on paper. Do you think we should all ignore this for the sake of a small number of already extremely privileged individuals?

Are we ‘the richest country on paper’?

I think living your whole life since birth in the public eye is a different world that most of us can't relate to.

I've often thought I wouldn't swap the freedom of anonymity for any amount of money.

It makes sense to me that BB felt he needed to make that statement publicly.

I reckon the whole family must be in deep distress at the moment. Must say, I do believe him about love from his parents being conditional etc. I liked them a lot though before this.

By GDP we only recently fell behind Germany:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_and_social_rankings_of_sovereign_states_in_Europe

I’n with you on the “ban the word jealousy” train!

The current account balance of the uk is a bit sobering isn’t it? Thanks Labour 👏🏻

Also very weird how people get so passionate defending the Beckhams / Windsors and assume the children are obviously ungrateful and awful. How can we ever tell what goes on in other peoples’ families, regardless of whatever ‘loving, happy’ things they post on social media. Eg why is a stranger qualified to say Victoria Beckham must be a great mum, over and above her own son?!