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Answer by Jay Wacker

There are lots of sources of the widespread outrage and mockery surrounding Black Friday, and I don’t think you can cleanly classify it as arising exclusively or even predominantly from classism.

I don’t come from a wealthy family, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, during the pre-modern era of Black Friday, my family would go through the newspapers and go out early (read: 9 a.m.) to shop, particularly for the hot-item toys that were always hard to find. There was no lining up beforehand. The deals were pretty good — frequently 20 to 30 percent off some items. It was generally a way of kicking off the holiday season, and it was a busy time where people would run into each other and families would go out together.

In the late 1990s the feeling began to change. Stores started opening up at 6 a.m., and there were more door-busters with bigger deals. By the early 2000s we were getting 4 a.m. openings and a lot more media coverage of Black Friday (usually lazy local TV reporters looking for local-interest stories — these nuts out on the street on Thanksgiving night made for good TV). You started getting more aggressive people in line, and injuries started occurring.

People saw this, and there was a certain set of people who wanted their 15 seconds of fame on the local news, and the story became about the event more than even the deals. Stores realized that they could get free publicity by increasing the sizes of discounts. You started getting unbelievable deals of 90 percent off big-ticket items. Now the lines became even more aggressive as a secondary market started to develop around Black Friday, where people would line up days beforehand to grab the door-buster deals and then resell them. Black Friday was no longer about shopping for Christmas; instead it was abound a mini secondary market economy. After all, if you can get a $1,000 TV for $600 and resell it on eBay or Craigslist for $800 and do this for several big-ticket items, that’s real money. But this definitely brings out a different set of people with a different set of motives than what I was familiar with in the consumerist era of Black Friday that I grew up with.

I think there are definitely elements of Black Friday that can be criticized without being classist. I don’t think it’s right to mock people for trying to get their kids some good toys or even getting a new TV for themselves. But if people are going to treat Black Friday as a job and throw people to the ground so that they can make a quick buck, sneering and snarling all the way out the door, people are entitled to criticize Black Friday without being called classist.

I think 2014 is the beginning of a new phase of Black Friday. We see many retailers offering “Black Friday” deals well in advance of Black Friday (some up to a week before). These deals are not nearly as steep as the ones from a couple of years ago, and the best deals are “only” 65 percent off, and many electronic retailers (whose items have the easiest resale potential) offer only 40 percent off, which will likely severely curtail the profit potential of the secondary market. This could signal the end of the true extravagances of Black Friday, and we could be looking back at the absurdity of the 2000s and early 2010s Black Friday in the near future.

“Is the outrage/mockery of Black Friday and Thanksgiving day shopping a form of classism?” originally appeared on Quora, the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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When my daughter was eight days old, her great-grandparents came to visit.

My brain was nothing but mush, and to be honest, I shouldn’t have agreed to having visitors over so soon. My birth experience was traumatic to say the least — I’d hemorrhaged half of my blood volume immediately postpartum — and in hindsight, I should have been tucked up in bed, thinking of nothing and nobody but my precious baby girl.

But I was a first-time mom, living in a world that places meeting external expectations and keeping busy above healing, bonding and finding peace.

So when my grandmother asked me, “Are you doing your exercises?”, my mind turned from mush to purée. Had I missed some vital postpartum exercise information in the midst of my near-death birth experience? I’m not talking pelvic floor here — I was clued up on the importance of that, particularly after naturally delivering a 9-pound, 8-ounce baby. My mind was racing to the Worst Case Scenario, panicking that a magical exercise routine should be followed to ensure no further hemorrhaging, to aid recovery from anemia, or at the very least to help me remain upright without nearly collapsing.

Whilst my legs could barely stand, my mind raced… was I missing out on a program of self-care that all other women, of all generations, instinctively knew about to ensure maternal safety postpartum?

A finger-jab to my tummy brought me back down to reality. My grandma sat staring at my stomach: “You know, exercises to get rid of that belly.”

It was eight days postpartum… eight days since I had first seen my gorgeous baby’s face… eight days since my hemorrhage… eight days since I saw white amidst a room full of diligent-yet-worried doctors… that belly was hardly at the forefront of my mind.

Why should I have been thinking about ridding myself of that belly? That belly, with the map of carefully interweaving lines, detailing my daughter’s every kick and stretch. That belly, which was the first home my daughter ever knew. That belly, which kept her safe, content and protected for 42 (long) weeks. That belly, which nurtured my growing child and in so doing, nurtured my own sense of self… because by default, that belly kept me safe, content and protected as well. I grew as a person with every inner hiccup and every swollen, uncomfortable moment.

You see, I felt like bowing down to that belly. I felt like celebrating it and thanking it for what it had carried — for whom it had carried. And yet there is so much pressure placed on mothers to rid ourselves of every reminder that we ever once carried a child, and that pressure is even bigger than that belly.

We are put high on our pregnancy pedestal for nine months, only to take a drastic fall from grace once our babies are in our arms. I hear so very often of mothers “doing so well” because they are “back at the gym so soon,” yet I rarely hear of a mother being praised and congratulated for spending those first weeks and months doing nothing but snuggling with her newborn and putting two fingers up to the socially acceptable image of early motherhood.

Because it is always an image. We are told that only images have significance — that only an image can sell, can seduce, can influence. Because pictures are power. Yet for a new mother, the smell of baby’s head, the touch of baby’s skin and the sound of her gurglings are true power. For a new mother, staring into the deep, pool-like eyes of her newborn is nothing short of life-changing: power in its purest form.

As mothers, as women, we have all the time in the world for our bodies to slowly and carefully change after pregnancy. In time, they will deflate. Our maps will become less visible, the bright reminders of our maternity softening and dulling, but thankfully, never truly disappearing. Because these are the symbols of the truest love story a person could ever be a part of; they are signs of the greatest and most fulfilling journey imaginable.

And hey, on this journey of motherhood, I’ll bring that belly along for the ride.

You can find Mama Bean on Facebook and Twitter.

This post originally appeared on Mama Bean Parenting.

Read more on HuffPost Parents:
10 True Things About The First Year Of Parenthood
Dear Parent: About THAT Kid
20 Baby Names Headed For Major Popularity

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It is Black Friday for Lenovo, and if you have been on the lookout for some computing deals from the computer manufacturer, then now would be a good time to check it out. Released to the market just in October this year, the 13” Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows comes with an innovative design alongside a battery cylinder and kickstand that doubles up as its handle, where it can offer up to a quartet of modes for one to make use of the tablet – including Hold, Tilt, Stand, and Hang. It will also sport a 15 hour battery life, an 8w sound system with subwoofer, an ultra hi-def display, and its detachable keyboard. It will be priced at $699.99 a pop, where shoppers will receive $100.00 off from Monday (11/24) with a special Black Friday price of $599.99.

With the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, this model comes with a 360-degree flip-and-fold Design, makin it a PC as and when required, transforming magically into a tablet when you want it to be so. There is a customized software which will react accordingly to each mode that it is used in, in addition to a 9 hour battery life, and Lenovo motion and voice control. Going for $1399.99 originally, shoppers will receive a 32% discount or $450 off for a Black Friday sale price of $929.00

As for the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 14, this machine was made for productivity and extremely fast processing power with an adaptable four mode option. It will feature enhanced NVIDIA discrete graphics options, massive storage space and will be interactive thanks to its 10-point multi-touch display. Originally carrying a webprice of $1,199.99, interested shoppers will receive $100.99 off with a special Lenovo.com price of $1,099.00. Happy hunting!

You can check out the Lenovo laptops, tablets, and desktop deals out.

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