Week 8 Discussion Board - Assignment Example

Week 8 Discussion Board Reflect on one of the assigned readings from this week (other than the lecture) inat least 5 sentences.The suburban whirl is a story based in the suburbs. I think that the women from the book are judgmental and nosey (Cutting, 1907). Conversely, their husbands are hard working and in most cases concern themselves with own work. The women dress well and attend many social gatherings. They like inviting people to their homes to show off the expensive stuff they have. All the houses are nice although people who own houses look down on people who rent.2) How do architectural features and design elements today relate in terms of gender, class and race to those in the Victorian suburb?

The suburb buildings today are modernization of the old suburb buildings, in this case the Victorian suburb. Today, in the US, many non-natives still live in the congested apartment projects while the wealthy, both native and non- natives, live in villas, mansions and terraced houses. This is similar to the Victorian suburb where the wealthy natives lived together in huge mansions, although racism was worse in the past. Both today and in the Victorian suburb, people from higher social class have better houses from those from low social class. 3) What do the suburbs (current and historically) mean in terms of privilege and power?

What does it mean to live in the suburbs? People, who live in the suburbs, both current and in the historically, are wealthy and powerful. Historically, one had to be introduced by people you know in the suburbs to the society otherwise you were not welcomed. They did not allow average people to their society not unless one belonged to the same social class. Most people who lived in the suburbs were old money. Historically, living in the suburbs meant one had to keep up with the rest of the suburbia residents.

You had to dress in a certain way, belong to specific membership clubs and attend specific social gatherings. If one did not do the things that came with the social status, you did not “belong” and people said that you were not “living”. One had to have a lot of money to cater for all the social activities that came with the status (Cutting, 1907). Currently, anyone who can afford to buy a house in the suburbs is free to do so. People live their lives without being concerned with the way their neighbors live.

Neighbors might even be strangers and they keep different company. ReferenceCutting, M. S. (1907). The suburban whirl: And other stories of married life. New York: The McClure company