WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Bourgeoisie 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:06.360 Hello, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.239 there's chalk and Jerry's sitting in for Dave. So it's 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.639 short stuff. You basic person. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:16.280 You calling me bougie? 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.160 Yeah, no not. I wouldn't do that. I think it's 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:21.960 kind of a mean thing to say to somebody, at 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.920 least in America. In France, they're like, yes, you're right, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.560 thank you. In America, it's a bit of a put down. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.040 That's right. And that's what we're talking about today, where 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:36.080 you're talking about a word bourgeois. B oh you r 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:42.800 G E O I s. Yeah, not to be confused 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:44.320 with bourgeoisie. 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:49.920 Correct, Well, yeah, they're very closely related. Bourgeois can mean 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.520 a It can be an adjective and a noun. Right, 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.920 If it's a nown, you're talking about one person who 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.560 is bourgeois. So that's their behavior where it's the one 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.120 person bourgeoisie as all of the people who are bourgeois. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.040 It's a noun only, okay, everybody. There's gonna be a 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.800 quiz at the end of this episode. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.320 But if you if you talk to Americans, a lot 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.000 of Americans probably hear bourgeois and they think, oh, fancy 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.279 fancy fancy, right, And that is not the case because 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.959 bourgeois refers to like you called me, basics or sort 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.360 of a middle class basic individual, yes, or group of individuals. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:33.040 Right. But there's a there's a long road between the 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.920 original version of bourgeois that we'll talk about and then 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:41.880 the American version that it has now and right, smack 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:47.160 dab in the middle are the commis, specifically Karl Marx. 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.360 I don't understand why Joseph Engles never gets his due 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.240 because he and Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto. But it's 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.000 always just Karl Marx. Karl Marx, you know, must drive 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.920 angles crazy. But in eighteen forty eight they published the 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:06.120 Communist Manifesto, and in that they adopted the word that 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.839 had formerly been middle class people. It wasn't really much 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:11.560 of a put down, it wasn't. It was just a 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.160 useful word for a while. He equated them with the 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.079 people who owned the capital that the labor was produced on, 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.600 and decided that they were exploiting the proletariat, the working class. Right, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:25.720 that's right. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.520 And he was writing in German, so of course he 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:35.480 did not say bourgeois. He said bergiar lche Gesellschaft and English. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.560 Make sureman sound beautiful, Chuck, thank. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:38.360 You, Donka. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.800 In America they may translate that as sybil society or 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.919 maybe a bourgeois society. But either way you slice it, 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.359 what he's saying is the bourgeoisie are are the bad people. 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.960 They're the one they're exploitive, They're not actually doing anything. 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.360 They just own the stuff that the people are actually 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.760 doing something or using to do the thing that they're doing. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.440 But really the bourgeoisie are the ones who are making 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:06.799 the money off the working class in their labor right. 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.079 So it was not it was not at this at 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.440 this time, it was not viewed as a very popular 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.880 or it wasn't it wasn't praise. How about that no 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.240 one ever used it for praise by this time and 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.600 when it finally crossed the Atlantic to America around the 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.600 early twentieth century, the wobbles the industrial workers of the 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:31.520 world who were I believe we talked about them before, 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.160 and they were split between communists and anarchists, and there 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.240 was a big struggle I think between the two. But 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.160 regardless of whether you're a communist or an anarchists, at 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.240 the beginning of the twentieth century. You were not a 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.280 fan of the bourgeoisie. And yeah, so the Wobbleys did 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.160 not like the bourgeoisie either, and then in fact came 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.000 up with a new slang term for him. 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:59.240 That's right. The slang word was boushois bushwa. And what's weird? 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.280 I think that was an a quote from a nineteen 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:07.400 seventy article. What's weird, though, is that that word boushwa 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:13.480 eventually was sort of morphed into a slang for bs, 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.320 like somebody's full of hot air, or bs someone you 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:18.320 know is full of bushwi. 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.680 Right, we have to thank our friends at the Grammarphobia 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:23.320 blog for digging that stuff up. 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:24.279 That's right. 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.920 And then so it also kind of morphed in a 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:33.279 new way, kind of the way that we view it today. 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.560 But a little yeah, I guess it was pretty much 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.479 the way we view it today. It first pops up 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.520 in black culture, where it kind of morphed thanks to 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.520 Gladys Knight and the Pips. They had a disco hit 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.080 in nineteen eighty called Bougie Bougie. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.440 And can we hear a snippet? 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.039 No, we can't, unfortunately, but if you want to hear 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:56.720 any of the song Boogie Bougie. You can find it 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.279 on YouTube or just about anywhere where you can listen 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.200 to it free and clear. But it's a great song 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.400 and I strongly recommend people go listen to it. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.720 Yeah, and that would be be o u r g 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:10.080 I E comma b o u r g i. 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.839 E right, and the whole the whole point of the 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.520 song is it's about somebody who comes from the working 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.599 class or a poorer background but started to make money 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:21.920 and now they're flaunting it. They have like a new 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.120 car with the sun roof, they have new clothes, and 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.839 it was a it was a commentary on them, but 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.360 also kind of like a snide one too, like like 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.040 these these people are being tacky in a way and 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.159 forgetting who they are where they come from. 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.840 I guess yeah, it's kind of like that that new 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:40.680 money old money thing, which is just so. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.240 You know, yeah, I say we take a break, chuck. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:45.400 Yes, I was. 0:05:45.360 --> 0:06:14.160 About to say that nice. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:05.920 Softly, jaw. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:10.160 Soft. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.200 So if you want to go back to the original bougie, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.839 if you want to go back to France. The original 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.800 meaning is from a French word b o u r g, 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:26.839 which I guess would that be Bourg. 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.920 Yeah, kind of like berg on the end of a town. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.160 Okay, and that's like a small town or a small 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:37.440 market in the Middle Ages. The people that live there 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.120 sort of adopted that name for themselves, so it kind 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:41.960 of this this word is just morphing and morphing all 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.000 over the place over the years. They were one step 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.280 up from like a farming peasant, so they were sort 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:48.400 of the middle class of the. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.000 Time, right, which is just the way that it was. 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.000 Again I said, it was like a useful word. It 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.359 wasn't like a put down. It wasn't like a compliment. 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.360 It was like you are bourgeois. That's that's that descriptor right, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.680 very nice. And it wasn't until the seventeenth century, specifically, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.160 I think in sixteen seventy when Moliere, the French playwright, 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:12.559 came up with a musical comedy he was hilarious called 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:19.520 Le Bourgeois gentle Gentleumes or the bourgeois Gentleman. And this 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.880 is when it takes bourgeois and makes fun of it. 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.040 It's Moliere was punching down to the middle class and 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.400 essentially doing the exact same thing that Gladys Knight and 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.360 the Pips are doing with bougie bougie they he was 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.880 basically making fun of some middle class social climber who 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:43.480 was trying to make a name for himself in French society. 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:46.360 That's right, and that would be the definition that is 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:48.640 most sort of thought of today in the twenty first 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:55.000 century when someone says bougie. Another modern musical example is 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.960 Atlanta's own from the atl Migos. You ever listen to Migos, Oh, yeah, 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.480 it's good stuff. They have a song called bad and 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.880 Bougie in this case spelled b o u j e, 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.080 and it sort of leans back on that what the 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:13.080 Pips we're talking about? Sort of a new fancy lifestyle. 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:18.800 Yes, but two things were different. One the Migos made 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.600 their money cooking crack in a crock pot, which is 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.680 a proprietary eponym, and usually there was a oozy in 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.000 the same room too. And two they were proud of 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.960 being bougie and all the new money and tacky like 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.520 ways that they threw it around like that was the thing. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:35.760 It wasn't. It wasn't a put down. They were like, yeah, 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.720 I'm bougie. You should have seen the money I had before, 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:39.760 and now look what I got. 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:40.960 Yeah, yeah, totally. 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:46.560 It is a great song. Yeah, okay, so that's where 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.400 we are today. Bougie it's it's essentially a put down, 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.640 depending on whether you've claimed it yourself. If most of 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.120 the time, if you're calling someone bougie in America, you're 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.000 basically saying, like you said at the outset, they're basic, 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.040 They're They're lifestyle in their life is just kind of 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.199 boring and pedestrian, the middle of the road and what's 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:10.959 the point kind of thing. Usually it's from somebody who well, 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.480 they're just being mean essentially, right, Yeah, but in France 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:15.400 it's not the case. 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:21.840 Yeah, in modern France, it does not mean pedestrian. It's 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:27.560 a little more like good, well mannered, well educated. There's 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:32.599 there's like three levels supposedly of a Parisian bourgeois, the 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.280 nobility or people that are kind of close to nobility, 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.600 or the rich or the crime de la creme. You 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:43.040 have the bourgeois de provence, doctors, attorneys, middle class types, 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:48.160 and then the petite bourgeois who are you know, shopkeepers, artists, 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.520 you know, kind of self starting, self employed people. 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:54.200 Yeah, and even though there seems to be a bit 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.880 of a hierarchy, to it. They all are. They're behaving 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.880 the same way. I think it just depends on how 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.360 much money you have, is what it's really kind of 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:08.920 carved out between. But the bourgeois in France is exactly 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:13.240 what Americans who don't know what bourgeois means think of. 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.680 They're correct, but they're just thinking specifically of the French bourgeois. 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.640 Yeah and yeah, I guess that's about it for being 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.080 bougie and bourgeois and bourgeoisie and Karl Marx and Joseph 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.600 Engels and Migo's and Gladys Knight and the whole lot 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:28.840 of it. 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.280 Chuck, Well, we'll follow up in ten years and see 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:33.640 if the definition's changed again. 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:40.880 Great idea. In the meantime, Short Stuff is out. Stuff 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:42.880 You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.560 For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.679 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.