What makes you middle class?

Well, sociologists generally define it by job type and income level.
The accent thing is complex, as it's often regional. Re soft markers - I'm not disagreeing with you, but can honestly say that I have no idea whatsoever what working class or middle hairstyles are?! None whatsoever.
I'm definitely not in a bubble. I've done a lot of zero hours agency work and worked with many traditionally working class people as well as middle class graduates.
I do regard myself as classless. I really do. As mentioned up thread, my parents are Northern Irish. I was actually born there, but lived in England from age two. I do think my Northern Irish roots complicate it somewhat, as the kind of class markers you describe are largely English.

@Ruminate2much Your post resonated with me. Even now, in my 70s, I feel like a mixture, because although we’ve never had much money, my father was privately educated, from a well to do professional family. Things went wrong, and there was no money. I’m Scottish, I sound Scottish, but have no strong local dialect. I have no higher level qualifications, flunked school, but I had a couple of minor management roles.

DH had a varied working life, very W/C in some respects, very much not in others. I feel classless too, with friends from very different walks of life, nice people! Our adult children are in high earning, professional roles. We do own our small home, (with a sitting room 😀) and I’m content with where we are, but I couldn’t place myself firmly in any class over my lifetime.

If you define class by job type or income level you ignore the inequality caused by certain types of people being excluded from certain workplaces because of their accent, the way they do their hair and make up, all those soft markers for class that no one likes to discuss but everyone adheres to religiously

Isn’t that the readership survey and for publications to see who reads their stuff? It doesn’t attribute class? Or do you have a link where it does?

The NRS social grade scales are pretty good for most purposes, OP.
I'm a C1. That's lower middle class.
I generally work office jobs, that are technically skilled but not managerial. My husband does similar.
We own a modest ex council house and can afford to run a cheap car. Kids are dressed Primark or supermarket clothes.
We can afford a holiday in the UK and kids activities within reason.

For example I work in an industry that has lots of training schemes and positive discrimination for people from underrepresented ethnic groups (as it should) but white working class people are entirely absent from its work force

As per my previous post, I think people who can't believe class divides still exist and that people want to discuss class are usually people who don't leave their class bubble. It should be discussed because real barriers still exist in employment for example if you have the wrong class accent it's more likely to exclude you from certain environments than if your skin is not white

I don't think class is irrelevant. But, I do think it's changed so much, as has society itself that I'm not sure it's as easily defined or definable.
As this thread proves, people have vastly different ideas about what makes someone middle class, or indeed working class.
I still personally think it's linked to your profession. If you're an academically-trained professional, then you're middle class. If you're a blue collar worker who didn't go to university, then you're working class. But, obviously others see it as something very different. I also believe you can change your class and be class mobile (up and down) within your own lifetime. Most sociologists agree; but many on this thread don't!
So, it's not clearly understood and there doesn't seem to be a consensus.
I'm not uncomfortable about my station in life, but totally confused by which class I am?! Working class doesn't really fit, as I've had so many middle-class influences. My parents were probably lower middle. But, middle class doesn't really fit, as I dropped out of college (mental health) and have ended up doing zero hours minimum wage type work, not a home owner, poor as a church mouse. But, I prefer to read than watch telly, I buy fair-trade tea and cocoa powder! On a good day I buy or make my own organic sourdough. On a bad day I buy cheap fluffy bread for 45p!
I say sitting room and sofa, but also talk about dinner and tea!
My parents were northern Irish, so I always felt a bit different in England anyway.
Genuinely no idea?! I do feel kind of classless, and some of us are, though we're told we can't be.
That expression - I can breakfast with paupers, and dine with kings - that's me! I genuinely can chat equally with people of all classes, and don't feel 'other' than any, based on class alone. I just like nice people. That's the thing that matters to me 😊

I'm A, and I can assure you there is absolutely NOTHING like the nonsense I read about on MN where I live. The majority of people couldn't care less, and those who do aren't worth bothering with.

Those of us who don't have to live with this rubbish are still allowed to have an opinion btw.

@IloveAslan @PinkPelicans
Poo pooing class as irrelevant reveals you are either:

A) foreign - in which case just scroll on by - I'm sure you have plenty of ingrained social constructs which we would find equally boring; or

B) deeply uncomfortable with your own station in life - in which case, sorry you feel inadequate, but being supercilious is twattish so stop it.

Yes, to people looking on from other countries it's all just ridiculous. However, it appears from the threads on class which crop up all the time on MN that some posters take it oh so seriously.

haha what is that really a thing 😆

Does that make the late Queen working class? She used to say 'telly'.

I'd say I was of working class roots, but hate football & have never watched it (I'm male so a bit unusual) yet knew Kate & Pippa pre William, there's a juxtaposition!

According to my ex-boss (Welsh, chip on shoulder character) I’m middle-class because I have a Home Counties accent (what can I say, I grew up there) and I own a house in an area that has, since my mortgage was paid off, become gentrified beyond 800% more than from when I bought it.
The fact that I am asset-rich but cash poor doesn’t seem to have struck him - entrenched as he is in his belief that I somehow got the silver spoon (nope! -parents didn’t have a pot to P1$$ in, much less to leave me with more than £500 when they passed) but to him, it’s all based on speaking “properly”!
And there I was just thinking I was… normal?

To be fair, those are Upper Middle and Upper Class signifiers. Except Upper Class people would have a drawing room as well as a sitting room.

“Very rude” 😂 bless your heart. I was not rude. You were rude, snobbishly looking down on everyone who wasn’t “upper middle class” like you.

I also did not defend the Kardashians. You first mentioned the Kardashians and stated they only had high school level education and I simply pointed out that you are factually incorrect. You then tried to double down by saying that you didn’t mean “those Kardashians” despite stating that “none of them are educated beyond high school level” and not clarifying which Kardashians you actually meant.

I simply googled “which Kardashians have degrees” - literally have never watched anything with them in it (intentionally) not do I follow celebrity culture - not for snobbery reasons, I simply don’t have time.

Wealth and class are of course linked and it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Are you suggesting that to become socially mobile you must simply listen to Opera? Is anyone with a degree who visits the theatre middle class?

She has “middle class tastes” and went to uni which makes her upper middle class, despite the fact she isn’t remotely wealthy.

Thank you. Absolutely not angry. I’m too classy to get angry at nobodies online 😉

Or maybe Klassy. Since I’m a Kardashian super fan and all.

Lols!

i'm very clearly a working class person 😂😂😂

Can’t believe people still talk about class!

@Superlambaanana you could come round?

Loo not toilet
Pee not wee
Napkin not serviette
Sofa not couch
Sitting room not lounge or front room
Lunch not dinner
Supper not tea
What not pardon
Hello not pleased to meet you
Really not very
Aitch not haitch
TV not telly

Maybe those were poor examples. But if we met, face to face, you'd conclude that I was middle class. We might hit it off, and we might not, but our socio-economic origins would come into play at some point. Probably not on first meeting. For example, I assume I like most of the people I encounter.