Very Important People, Ashley Mears
Very Important People, Ashley Mears
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Very Important People
Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit

Author: Ashley Mears

Narrator: Mia Barron

Unabridged: 10 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 05/26/2020


Synopsis

A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of "models and bottles" to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men

Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on the French Riviera, and $40,000 bottles of champagne. In today's New Gilded Age, the world's moneyed classes have taken conspicuous consumption to new extremes. In Very Important People, sociologist, author, and former fashion model Ashley Mears takes readers inside the exclusive global nightclub and party circuit?from New York City and the Hamptons to Miami and Saint-Tropez?to reveal the intricate economy of beauty, status, and money that lies behind these spectacular displays of wealth and leisure.

Mears spent eighteen months in this world of "models and bottles" to write this captivating, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking narrative. She describes how clubs and restaurants pay promoters to recruit beautiful young women to their venues in order to attract men and get them to spend huge sums in the ritual of bottle service. These "girls" enhance the status of the men and enrich club owners, exchanging their bodily capital for as little as free drinks and a chance to party with men who are rich or aspire to be. Though they are priceless assets in the party circuit, these women are regarded as worthless as long-term relationship prospects, and their bodies are constantly assessed against men's money.

A story of extreme gender inequality in a seductive world, Very Important People unveils troubling realities behind moneyed leisure in an age of record economic disparity.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rick on July 07, 2020

How do popular clubs fill their capacity with beautiful women and men who will spend outrageous amounts on bottle service and overpriced drinks? This book attempts to answer that question. What emerges is a somewhat one note but still mostly interesting ethnography on the “high class party scene” and......more

Goodreads review by Shane on June 08, 2020

"Free things are a clear marker of status in the VIP world. Free entry, drinks, and dinners signal recognition of a person’s social worth. “I always said, in nightlife it’s not what you spend, it’s what you get for free. That’s real power,” said Malcolm, the promoter I followed in New York and Miami......more

Goodreads review by Peter on September 15, 2023

Here is a description of a trendy nightclub (in New York or Los Angeles, say) from someone who has never been in a trendy nightclub: Outside the door, a line of 30 people waiting to get in. Inside, a dance floor swept by strobe lights, and a bar where the sweaty hoi polloi jostle one another for the......more

Goodreads review by Laura on July 03, 2020

First things first, I am exceptionally glad somebody is writing about this. Nightlife might seem like a niche arena, but really we're talking about at best extremely gendered and at worst highly misogynistic and exploitative attitudes and practices amongst some of the world's most powerful men (yes,......more

Goodreads review by Vicki on August 15, 2020

This book is a must-read if you want to understand status, power, women’s emotional labor, how economic classes work in the United States, and, just importantly, because it’s a super interesting topic. Also, now I want some champagne.......more