“‘Tiny House Hunters’ and the Shrinking American Dream” (Curbed, 1704 words)

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(This has been sitting in a Google doc since literally February. Sorry. Ah.)

Roxane Gay contributed here to Curbed, a publication owned by the Vox Media group, in a piece denoting the experience of watching HGTV’s Tiny House Hunters (a program that I happen to love) and becoming increasingly frustrated not just with the repeated demands and the American obsession with the McMansion but then also laments the same sort of issue I have when I watch those shows: why are you looking for a tiny house when you want a lot of space? Now, it’s recently sort of occurred to me that “tiny homes” are like gentrified mobile homes, and the shrinking of the American Dream that Gay points out here is rather evident. These are people who are clearly looking for some beautiful thing to own, but the budget just isn’t there. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world to buy the kinds of houses our grandparents bought 60 years ago.

What I really love about this piece, other than how fun it is to read, is that Gay takes this very personal experience of when you are absolutely supposed to be doing something else, and your laptop is kind of halfway open sitting next to you, but you’re really sucked into whatever television program you’ve put on as background noise (I’m looking at you, Gilmore Girls for the 10th time) and suddenly you can’t think about anything else. She integrates the very personal experience of what seems like a casual viewing of a television show in your home to how that show might relate to something much bigger.
Another thing I really admire here is how it’s done in not a lot of words. I love longform work, but I can appreciate how much is said here in less than 2,000 words as well. She brings together the idea that, suddenly, the American Dream is literally to have a house - to be able to buy your own house for you and your family - and the experience of watching people do it in the highly faked House Hunters franchise. If you are a fan, don’t look that up because it will ruin your day. That is pretty much what I’d steal from this - the weaving together of personal experience and the worldwide idea of the American Dream. I love this piece, and I’m glad I read it.

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