Charles Gross: Bankrupt in the Wallet and the Mind (Chapter 11)

[randomMcRandom]

There's absolutely no point in continuing his louboutinboy account if he's not going to put any effort in.

He's taking a dump in one of the shots. I know gay dudes like to do it up the butt but come on is he actually suggesting that men will be turned on by him squeezing out diarrhea on the shitter???

[screamqueen007]

It's been a little over three months since I've checked Charles' YouTube or GG. Until recently, it looks like things have been pretty dead. Those lengthy "Live" call-in features are quite a departure for him. Has he talked about why he's doing them? Even though I've got lots of time on my hands lately, I wouldn't waste two or three hours listening to Charles. I did skip through the three "Live" programs and, in two of them, he talked again about not having any concrete plans for the future. This seems to be a sensitive subject with him, as sensitive as his claims to being rich. I think it's only in not planning for the future and claiming to be rich that he gets truly animated. Not just animated, but downright strident. Deep down, he must know that he has no potential in anything worthwhile, hence having no future-oriented plans. In the last "Live" he talked at length about the folly of having a five- or ten-year plan. He spoke as if having goals was the same as being strait-jacketed. Additionally, he said planning for the future was futile since you couldn't know what future events might be. This sort of thinking is another example of his intellectual limitations. It's sad that his (presumed) mainly teenage audience listens to this kind of destructive thinking and could be influenced by it.

Charles is still blocking me under my two user names on YouTube and one user name on Instagram. In each case, I had made just one critical comment challenging his being rich. I'd supported each assertion with facts about his family, their finances, and where they live. This is simply intolerable to him. He will not block users who make caustic comments about his looks, taste, or opinions but questioning his bank account is unforgivable. A couple of days ago, someone on Charles' Instagram stated Charles wasn't rich and gave supporting data for the assertion. Several of Charles' fans had commented negatively on this. A short while later, I noticed the original critical comment and fans' responses had been deleted. I guess he's blocked another non-fan. By the way, the critical comment was made by someone with a lengthy user name, part of which I remember being "lesfleursdumal." That caught my eye since Les Fleurs du Mal is a book of poems by Charles Baudelaire. My father was a professor of French literature, and he was an authority on the Symbolist poets, of whom Baudelaire was one of the most famous. Is anyone of you the person who left the comment? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

Bravo to you because I rarely if ever see people questioning his "wealth" - I have always felt it was all an act and I have left comments here and there on his YT throughout the years. It's always been clear to me that he is one of those kids who fantasizes about living in that Gossip Girl and NYC Prep type life - but that's not even close to the kind of money his family may have. At most, he's upper middle class. Not that this is a bad thing at all! Just that we know what he tries so hard to portrait... The apartment he's in isn't modernly modeled because his family isn't of those means - that specific building has apartments in it for rent/sale and the photos are very upper NY looking. His isn't that way because his parents just happened to luck out when property boomed. A while back I read an online article about this, discussing the bohemians living there who came to find themselves in a great place when the market exploded - I remember one or both of his parents are also quoted in the article. You may have seen that article.

[Hollanderfan]

It's been a little over three months since I've checked Charles' YouTube or GG. Until recently, it looks like things have been pretty dead. Those lengthy "Live" call-in features are quite a departure for him. Has he talked about why he's doing them? Even though I've got lots of time on my hands lately, I wouldn't waste two or three hours listening to Charles. I did skip through the three "Live" programs and, in two of them, he talked again about not having any concrete plans for the future. This seems to be a sensitive subject with him, as sensitive as his claims to being rich. I think it's only in not planning for the future and claiming to be rich that he gets truly animated. Not just animated, but downright strident. Deep down, he must know that he has no potential in anything worthwhile, hence having no future-oriented plans. In the last "Live" he talked at length about the folly of having a five- or ten-year plan. He spoke as if having goals was the same as being strait-jacketed. Additionally, he said planning for the future was futile since you couldn't know what future events might be. This sort of thinking is another example of his intellectual limitations. It's sad that his (presumed) mainly teenage audience listens to this kind of destructive thinking and could be influenced by it.

Charles is still blocking me under my two user names on YouTube and one user name on Instagram. In each case, I had made just one critical comment challenging his being rich. I'd supported each assertion with facts about his family, their finances, and where they live. This is simply intolerable to him. He will not block users who make caustic comments about his looks, taste, or opinions but questioning his bank account is unforgivable. A couple of days ago, someone on Charles' Instagram stated Charles wasn't rich and gave supporting data for the assertion. Several of Charles' fans had commented negatively on this. A short while later, I noticed the original critical comment and fans' responses had been deleted. I guess he's blocked another non-fan. By the way, the critical comment was made by someone with a lengthy user name, part of which I remember being "lesfleursdumal." That caught my eye since Les Fleurs du Mal is a book of poems by Charles Baudelaire. My father was a professor of French literature, and he was an authority on the Symbolist poets, of whom Baudelaire was one of the most famous. Is anyone of you the person who left the comment? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

Bravo to you because I rarely if ever see people questioning his "wealth" - I have always felt it was all an act and I have left comments here and there on his YT throughout the years. It's always been clear to me that he is one of those kids who fantasizes about living in that Gossip Girl and NYC Prep type life - but that's not even close to the kind of money his family may have. At most, he's upper middle class. Not that this is a bad thing at all! Just that we know what he tries so hard to portrait... The apartment he's in isn't modernly modeled because his family isn't of those means - that specific building has apartments in it for rent/sale and the photos are very upper NY looking. His isn't that way because his parents just happened to luck out when property boomed. A while back I read an online article about this, discussing the bohemians living there who came to find themselves in a great place when the market exploded - I remember one or both of his parents are also quoted in the article. You may have seen that article.

In the 2+ months since I last checked GG, I see there's hardly been any commentary, reflecting the lack of much activity on Charles' YouTube and Instagram accounts. The most activity has been on Instagram, where Charles continues to parade his sexual confusion. There's always been a lot of controversy in the gay community about the acceptability of feminine and effeminate behavior. Personally, I'm neither emotionally nor intellectually sympathetic to effeminate men, but I try to maintain a live-and-let-live attitude. Charles' latest Instagram posts carry feminine iconography to an extreme and, frankly, Charles looks utterly ridiculous. With his scrawny body and stick-like limbs, he reminds me of nothing so much as an effeminate insect. I'm generally only prompted to leave comments here when Charles makes references to his "wealth," social standing, and sophistication. These are areas where I have knowledge due to my occupation in finance, family history in the historical development of New York (city and state), proximity to upper social and income levels, and education.

As a categorical construct, social class formerly included education, occupation, social sophistication, and wealth. Nowadays, social class is generally just reduced to income level. Neither of Charles' parents had an elite education, although his father is a graduate of Cooper Union. At that school, all students receive a scholarship for 100% of their tuition, something that was important for someone of his father's working-class background. That his father was able to gain admittance to Cooper Union is admirable. Professionally, however, his career has been lackluster and he was laid off from his last job in January, 2019 when the small architectural firm he worked for unexpectedly closed. Charles' mother has had more professional success than his father. She is the design director of a small textile firm. His parents' former and current occupations place them solidly within the middle class. As for Charles' own education, things could not be worse. His parents sacrificed to send him to a good private school, but he performed poorly. The main thing he learned at school was social inferiority. This caused behavioral problems that led him to be removed from his first school and placed in a second one. Charles then attended Baruch College for a few weeks, dropping out in his first semester. He is unemployed. In terms of education and occupation, neither the Gross family nor Charles qualify for anything more than middle-class status.

As for social sophistication, Charles and his family come across as lower-class. Family conversation around the dinner table, both in subject matter and expressive form, could not be more mundane. Sometimes, it's even coarse and crude. Some of the funniest moments on Charles' YouTube is listening to him and his family mispronounce foreign words. Charles' and his parents' mangling of French is legendary, and nothing can top their pronunciation of Proust as "PROWst." Both of my parents were academics in the field of literature, and French literature was my American father's specialty. My mother was a French national. Hearing Charles talk about Marcel PROWst was a high-point in hilarity for me.

In terms of income, my occupation in finance gives me tools to easily investigate a person's economic level. This thread is about Charles, not his parents, so I don't want to unnecessarily intrude into their lives, but it's required to a certain degree since his parents' wealth is the basis for his claims to being "rich." There's a geographic dimension to wealth, and Charles' family might be considered wealthy in remote parts of the country. However, within the socio-economic world of Manhattan, they most definitely are not. His father's income level (when he was employed) and his mother's income level are squarely within the middle-income category. Their principal source of family wealth is in real estate and other investments. They own several apartment units in their building, and live in two of them. One unit was inherited from Charles' maternal grandmother and the others were purchased when prices were truly rock-bottom. They have benefited from the Manhattan real estate market as their neighborhood has gentrified and real estate values have escalated. This, coupled with his parents' other astute investments, will eventually be a windfall for Jamie and Charles. But the complete Gross family investment portfolio is at a level that is very middling by Manhattan standards. Assuming Charles inherits one-half of his parents' worth, it will be interesting to see how he can service the monthly maintenance charges on the apartments.

[Hollanderfan]

I just looked at Charles' latest Instagram post. He's in high heels, a corset, and some sort of thingy that conceals his "endowment" (rather than endowment, a more accurate term might be "deficit"). He's awfully flat-chested. I can anticipate his next pronouncement: "Breast implants aren't masculine of feminine. It all depends on how you style them." Acknowledgement to Delet_This who made a similar observation some time ago.

[Lolokwow]

I just looked at Charles' latest Instagram post. He's in high heels, a corset, and some sort of thingy that conceals his "endowment" (rather than endowment, a more accurate term might be "deficit"). He's awfully flat-chested. I can anticipate his next pronouncement: "Breast implants aren't masculine of feminine. It all depends on how you style them." Acknowledgement to Delet_This who made a similar observation some time ago.

sorry double post

[Lolokwow]

I just looked at Charles' latest Instagram post. He's in high heels, a corset, and some sort of thingy that conceals his "endowment" (rather than endowment, a more accurate term might be "deficit"). He's awfully flat-chested. I can anticipate his next pronouncement: "Breast implants aren't masculine of feminine. It all depends on how you style them." Acknowledgement to Delet_This who made a similar observation some time ago.

I actually like some of his newer IG posts. it's incredible how actually having a professional photographer can completely transform an image instead of those DIY shoots he would take on a tripod and try to pass off as "professional." If only he had actually capitalized on this HF model-esque vibe while his youtube channel was at its peak... not saying he would've become a YSL model or anything, but then again Louis Vuitton did make Emma Chamberlain and the Dolan Twins the faces of a campaign and Celine is currently employing tik tokers. And let's not forget that season when dolce and gabbana hired every influencer and child celebrity over 100k followers to walk in their shows, so maybe even Charles would've had a shot.

[Hollanderfan]

I just looked at Charles' latest Instagram post. He's in high heels, a corset, and some sort of thingy that conceals his "endowment" (rather than endowment, a more accurate term might be "deficit"). He's awfully flat-chested. I can anticipate his next pronouncement: "Breast implants aren't masculine of feminine. It all depends on how you style them." Acknowledgement to Delet_This who made a similar observation some time ago.

I actually like some of his newer IG posts. it's incredible how actually having a professional photographer can completely transform an image instead of those DIY shoots he would take on a tripod and try to pass off as "professional."

I agree that some of the more recent Instagram photos are more polished-looking than previous ones. Somebody has an artistic eye, but I don't think it's Charles. The thumbnail that he's currently using on YouTube, showing him from behind and ascending a staircase, is quite sophisticated. I'd bet it's Jamie's work. The thumbnail seems to be based on Oskar Schlemmer's "Bauhaus Stairway" painting in the Museum of Modern Art. Years ago, I did an investment consultation at the Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills. Their headquarters were an impressive I. M. Pei-designed building. In the lobby, there was a gigantic Roy Lichtenstein mural based on the Schlemmer stairway painting. Yep, Charles' YouTube thumbnail must be the work of Jamie or some other knowledgeable person. It's too sophisticated to be anything Charles could come up with.

[Livingetc]

Clearly Charlene is someone more in need of understanding, care and a big hug than opprobrium, but JESUS CHRIST, I cannot believe that anyone is falling for his latest 'she's a model and she's looking good' crap. I'm sorry, but I'm calling bullshit on this latest escapade. With his sister gone and living alone during a pandemic, I imagine he's pretty much free-falling though life at the moment, desperately trying to cling on to the last vestiges of whatever relevance he thinks he might possess. It's like a modern day version of 'Sunset Boulevard' except we're never EVER going to be ready for his close-up. Has anyone clicked on any of the credits of the 'talented team' who put the latest shots he's got on his Insta? You'd be expecting a photographer, a makeup artist, a hairdresser, a stylist maybe, right? Well, I'm afraid you'd be wrong. No commercial photographer would allow anyone to use their pictures without a proper credit. 'Petro' is named on one of them. Apparently 'Petro' doesn't use social media. The one link that did raise my eyebrow was for @profotoglobal - a page that teaches the interested amateur how to use lighting effectively in photography. It doesn't take Jessica Fletcher to work out that every single background in those shots is the same, the clip of video of him 'modelling' in his last video was ENTIRELY faked and this latest fantasy of a career during which he can decide when he works and when he doesn't is just that - a fantasy. In that video the camera filming him is on a tripod, perfectly placed behind the light. This isn't documentary footage. This is clearly a set-up shot. Why? There's a light and a light reflector. He's holding the light reflector himself - you can see it moving - and then remotely clicking the light on and off while he's off on his Linda Evangelista trip. Anyone can buy a light and he's perfectly capable of doing the hair and makeup and creating the images himself. It's really not that hard and I'll give him one thing - he does have the retouching skills. Then you've got to add in all that other nonsense he was coming out with just as his sister fled for less manically crazy climes - the reality show he was asked to go on, the book he was asked to write about his 'struggles', the celebrities that just kept flocking to his page... I mean, really people? Have we learned nothing about this odd little man? There's maybe one shot that someone else took - the one with him on the white bed that some wag on his comments said made him look like Toni Braxton. Otherwise - I can guarantee you he worked on the rest himself. Just like everything else we've witnessed him do and say over the years - it's all fake.

[Hollanderfan]

...It's like a modern day version of 'Sunset Boulevard' except we're never EVER going to be ready for his close-up. Has anyone clicked on any of the credits of the 'talented team' who put the latest shots he's got on his Insta? You'd be expecting a photographer, a makeup artist, a hairdresser, a stylist maybe, right? Well, I'm afraid you'd be wrong. No commercial photographer would allow anyone to use their pictures without a proper credit. 'Petro' is named on one of them. Apparently 'Petro' doesn't use social media. The one link that did raise my eyebrow was for @profotoglobal - a page that teaches the interested amateur how to use lighting effectively in photography...

The analogy to "Sunset Boulevard" is accurate to the extent that Charles is living in a fantasy world, but in the movie, the Norma Desmond character had a genuinely glamorous life in her youth, and built her fantasies on that. Charles likes to pretend that he is rich, beautiful, sophisticated, talented, and desired, but he has never been any of these things. His artistic, social, and class pretensions are both clueless and laughable. His interests, thoughts, and mannerisms have gotten so extreme that he's turning into the Stepin Fetchit of urban faggots. The real Stepin Fetchit, however, used his clownish persona to mock and subvert the white world he had to live in. For Charles, his life of make-believe is the only reality he knows.

It's true his photo "credits" are just more IG sites that reflect the lives of people who seem to be about as deluded as he is. Some aren't even valid anymore and simply lead to "Sorry, this page isn't available" messages. What class!

[Livingetc]

It was always fairly obvious that his sister was his link to the outside world and her friends instantly became his 'friends'. Without that, I'm guessing he's spending a great deal more time in that apartment on his own, staring at his own reflection and mincing around in his floaty bits of Alexander McQueen. You're quite right about the reference to 'Sunset Boulevard' - it's more like Ryan Murphy doing a remake of Polanski's 'Repulsion'. He could call it 'Repulsive'. I can't wait for him to start seeing arms coming out of the walls...

[Livingetc]

Oh, my...

https://www.charlesbgross.com/about

'He has been a modeling for 3 years'.

I mean, just HOWLS of derisive laughter now.

[Hollanderfan]

Oh, my...

https://www.charlesbgross.com/about

'He has been a modeling for 3 years'.

I mean, just HOWLS of derisive laughter now.

Thank you. I haven't had such a heartfelt laugh in a long time.

[Chit_Chat]

"Digitals - not edited or retouched"

Who believes that???

[Obskewer_Reference]

I think he is trying to get Marc Jacobs attention, because he (Marc Jacobs) seems to be doing an androgynous aesthetic.

[Haakon]

https://www.charlesbgross.com/about

What a freak. He reminds me of a little girl playing dress-up with Mommy's clothes. My roommate says a lot of these pix are copied from old photos of Audrey Hepburn.

[Haakon]

He's strapped for cash again, so he's put more stuff on Depop.

[Lolokwow]

Oooh messy messy Charles trying to be relevant again by getting involved in big youtuber drama? Charles honey it’s over. Your internet career is dead. For context: Trisha Paytas has recently ended her friendship with longtime bestie Shane Dawson after he continued to befriend Jeffree Star and his team who were mean/bullies to her. I’m sure Charles couldn’t wait to share these voice notes w Trisha as a way of stirring the pot.

[noqueadanada]

Did anyone notice he deleted like a shit ton of questionable content? Almost all of his 2019 videos.. Does anyone have a drive or something? I want to rewatch the insanity

[7abiib_azzubb]

Did anyone notice he deleted like a shit ton of questionable content? Almost all of his 2019 videos.. Does anyone have a drive or something? I want to rewatch the insanity

i just came on to see if anyone posted what the deal was on that.

[Pinklime]

Hey, longtime lurker here. I’m pretty sure the reason why he deleted a bunch of his old content, mainly the controversial, is because he’s doing an image revamp. He has a Tik Tok (@/charlesgross) and he’s pretty popular on there, with just over 400k followers. Those Tik Tok kids do not play when it comes to cancelling people and he knows he will be cancelled with quickness if they find his old content. He’s trying to portray himself as some rich kid who is a luxury expert, so basically the same character he tried to play on YouTube, but gave up on when his cracks started to show. Those kids have no clue about his past and are eating up everything he’s saying even though it’s not like he’s saying anything revolutionary or anything that isn’t already common knowledge/common sense.