Does wealth equal class?

Well, today is the second day of classes... and my second day on the job at the computer lab. I picked up a shift that a friend needed off and I really should be studying, but, big surprise, I'm not. Anyway, I was hanging out in the cafeteria getting a bite before I had to work at 6.

At the next table was this girl and her friend. The two were pretty decent-looking girls, sophomores, probably, one was a blonde, and one was a brunette with highlights. The brunette seemed pretty cute at first glance, but as Raymond Chandler has written, “from 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.” Her makeup was pretty adolescent. You know when you're in 6th grade and all you want to do is wear blue eyeshadow and eyeliner and pink lipgloss with sparkles and shimmer? That's what she was wearing. It was so over-the-top and a sad attempt at looking elegant. You could tell that this girl was trying to fit in with her friend. She was wearing a pretty decent outfit --black pants and shirt with a pink shrug and black heels. However, it was so tight on her that it gave her that perfect Jersey girl image. She looked less sophisticated than the blonde, even though the blonde was wearing sweats and a sweatshirt (And for those of you who know me, you know I am biased for brunettes in general). You could also tell by the way the brunette was holding her tableware that she was less sophisticated than her friend. She held her fork the way a Viking would hold his turkey leg, and she was swigging from her bottle of water like an Irish sailor while her friend was taking small, polite sips. Finally, Brunette's posture and attitude was a little resentful when her friend would look away or when Blonde Girl went to get a fork for herself.

Now, I don't know if it'll come as a surprise to any of you, but I noticed Blondie's purse and shoes when they rose to walk away. She was wearing Uggs (fairly expensive, about $135 for the pair she was wearing) and was carrying a shearling Coach purse (worth probably about 200-240 dollars). I thought to myself "No wonder!" as I looked at Brunette's Jersey girl outfit --but I stopped myself. I know that money doesn't immediately constitute class and lack of money doesn't always constitute vulgarity.

Let's take some examples: I know these two chicks. One is wealthy (let's call her A) and one isn't (let's call her Z). A is always flaunting her cash and acting like she buys things for preposterous amounts of money (even though she doesn't). A isn't unclassy (is that a word?) because of the way she acts about money, but the way she acts in general. Class is more than being a certain stereotype. Class is grace under pressure. It's control in chaos. It's saying "No" when someone wants to do something underhanded. It's knowing how to act in every situation in which you are placed.

Z is always treating those around her as if she had money, and is generous and never flaunting of the expensive things she may buy once in a while. Z is actually more classy in general. The way she speaks, walks, carries herself, it all exudes refinement, even though she may not have the access to fine things like A does.

So where does our stereotype about class come from? According to Doug Robarchek, “money is related to class only in the minds of people who have too much of the former, too little of the latter or none of either.” I guess I can agree with him. Because if Ann Landers is correct ("Class is the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life"), and so is Harvey Mackay (“When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience winds up with the money and the person with the money winds up with the experience”), then I would rather be poor and classy than rich and swindled.