They are all in various different genres. But if Ford keeps getting in Bill’s personal space, witnesses will switch from thinking it's "50 Shades of Gray" to thinking it's basically the classic "pizza boy porno."
Ford has no clue the class dynamics at play protecting him currently. He's gone from the outcast loner freak from a lower-to-mid middle class Jewish background to basically being the shape equivalent of a super rich white guy who ended up in charge of a company because of nepotism. It's a huge change.
It's not quite the same as when he ended up in the dimension where people were obsessed with fingers. But since Ford was briefly made king of it until a 7-fingered being showed up and took his status, so it might be in the ballpark.
Yessssss that's a good comparison!! It's also made extra stark (although of course Ford has yet to notice because he's tunnel-visioned and oblivious) because he's hanging around strictly "lowerclass" neighborhoods- triangles, squares, trapezoids, etc. If he were to spend time among "higherclass" shapes like himself he would get caught out a lot faster for not understanding the social rules.
If he was around higherclass shapes more, he would get seriously judged for slumming it like that. Maybe they scorn him for his extremely "flirty" behavior towards a low class polygon. Or maybe it's expected of hexagons and stuff to "make use" of a lower shape occasionally (with all the unfortunate implications of how the power dynamics would make consent questionable). Lots of ways for them to view the situation.
But yes, Ford absolutely tunnelvisions. We know that he tends to obsess and gets focused. It will take time to figure out what he's stumbled into.
I think in "polite society" it's assumed that upperclass shapes would never deign to "lower themselves" by pursuing a relationship with a lowerclass shape, but behind the scenes there's definitely a culture of, to use your words, "making use" of lower polygons. Ford's still gonna get a lot of weird looks because 1. he is, in their minds, being waaaayyy too open about his pursuit and 2. going after a "damaged" triangle on top of everything. People- like Bill's parents- are definitely going to assume it's a weird power fetish thing. Some might be offput by it but know they can't say anything, others will turn a blind eye deliberately, and some will resent Bill in a kind of "what's so special about him??" way.
So yeah, basically like the Victorian era where a man of the upperclass would never think of courting or marrying a woman of the lower class, but might end up needing to fire his maid later because he got her pregnant. That sounds about right. Especially when "Flatland" was based on Victorian era social mores.
And now I'm picturing some ambitious trapezoid who thinks that maybe getting a hexagon sugar-daddy could be a way to advance their career options trying (and failing) to subtly flirt with Ford because they are clearly a much better option than the blind triangle that used to rant about impossible things.
It's 100% that Victorian mindset. That's a very fun idea- Ford gains something of a fan club later on, and there could easily be a number of shapes who might try to pull something along those lines. Of course, well-known to us but not to them is the fact that Ford is there for Bill and Bill alone. Unfortunate for the would-be sugar-babies but still fun fodder for drama!
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