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A sociologist would tell you that there is no such thing as a lifestyle which isn't a performance of one's status.


There are but it's considered a personality disorder.

There are folks that are genuinely uninterested in social status, and it usually goes along with being uninterested in social relationships. Think of autistic/Asperger's individuals; certain psychopaths & sociopaths; people with schizoid, schizotypal, avoidant, or antisocial personality disorders; et al. No relationships = no status = no need to worry about social status and social signaling.

It's much like how where there's people, there's politics. Where there's social, there's status. Take away the social and you take away both the performance and the status.


I think there are some people who are fine with exhibiting themselves (and their status) as they are without it being performative.


Saying more about their frameworks/models/worldview than reality.


Sure, this is vacuously true in the sense that if you are studying peoples behavior then any lifestyle option is a data point that can be correlated across other metrics, and hence we can call any lifestyle “a performance of one’s status” for the sake of study status and lifestyles.

But that’s not really relevant. From an individuals perspective there’s a big difference between keeping up with the joneses and focusing on what makes you happy.

Even if it turns out that what makes you happy is actually still correlated to your status and you’re not really a unique snowflake.


Reason 5,434 why sociology is a not a science.




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