The Cut released an article titled “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl.” The subheading for the article states “A new generation has transformed the neighborhood — and reshaped the fantasy of New York City living.”
Online response to this piece has varied between people agreeing with it, complaining about said West Village girls, and others claiming these kinds of articles are sexist. As a New York transplant who has been here for the last 11 years, I have a lot to say on the matter of this piece and none of my thoughts are kind to the girls in the West Village.
It isn’t an issue rooted in sexism but instead it is an issue that many New Yorkers have with this new kind of transplant. The “West Village girl” described in the piece are here to find themselves and have no real personality traits of their own. Levis, white shirts, Chelsea boots, and pilates do not make a New Yorker. But worse than the lack of originality is the idea that the West Village is a place for people like this.
The West Village and Greenwich Village are two areas of Manhattan that used to bring creatives to the city. Poets, musicians, and artists thrived in the few blocks of lower Manhattan. Now, it is only the rich and privileged who can thrive there. I’d love to live among creatives, be a part of the West Village as artists I’d admired were. But I am not wealthy and I do not have my parents footing my bill.
That’s not to say that’s the case with all of the “West Village girls” but it does bring up an important topic of conversation: The place of a New York City transplant.
Move here with respect for the city
A lot of this article is set up as showing how these types of transplants don’t plan on staying here. They move here, want the city to adapt to them, and plan on moving out to have a family at some point down the line. To me, those transplants give the rest of us a bad name. You don’t move here expecting New York City to bend to your will.
I have never wanted to leave New York. I moved here when I was 23 years old, tried my best to be as respectful and open as possible to New Yorkers because this is their city, and let the city change me. That’s the beauty of New York. But those who come here and just want to say they’ve lived in New York are altering what makes this city wonderful.
It’s creative, weird, loud, and a melting pot. There are so many different cultures on every street corner and that’s how the West Village used to be. Now, it is just a bunch of young people who want to party and then move away when they need to “grow up.” So the anger that this piece has caused for those of us who live here is frankly warranted.
But I’ll take it one step further. As a transplant myself, people like those featured in this article make it harder on the rest of us, who move here with respect and openness and I don’t like that they’re becoming the “face” of New York City transplants.
(featured image: HBO)
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