What makes a person working/lower class???

[MrsSopranos]

Following from the other threads, they are really interesting! So what makes someone/ families working class and lower/ Chav class?

This is bollocks. I'm salaried. Above 30k. But live in a rough neighbourhood with high crime in a very small house. Council tax band a. I sometimes stay in very expensive 5 star hotels but I sometimes holiday in Benidorm. I have dinner at dinner time and tea at tea time. People cannot tell where I'm from because I don't really have an accent. I don't often swear. I left school at 15. My OH earns more than 70k and has worked his way up to that from the shop floor. I am working class and always will be. He insists he's middle class. But honestly, the only people who care are those who think they are middle class.

I'm middle class and swear all the time - it's all rubbish

being paid by the hour in a professional job where you are your own boss who has control over your pay/hours is different from a factory worker clocking in and out for 12 hour shifts
@Verily1 dh pays his personal assistant/lawyer/software engineer/admin assistant by the hour. Our plumber, our cleaner when we had one and I suspect if we had a gardener they'd be paid by the hour too - it's simply not a very clear way to define class.

It’s a very “middle England” and white obsession, isn’t it, and therefore pointless in our multicultural country: since BME people in the UK can presumably never be upper class if that’s about old money and the aristocracy and going to the right school, where do they fit in? What about white migrants from other places? If you can’t be middle class if you have a regional accent or your parents didn’t go to university, what about expats who call the UK home?

Or is the entire purpose of class to “other” people like this and make it clear they aren’t welcome? And don’t we have other words for that?

But honestly, the only people who care are those who think they are middle class.

Not where I'm from where everyone actually is middle class but spend their lives banging on about how working class they are. I know a GP, owns a big expensive house, kids go to private school, second holiday home etc, but because they grew up in a rough area they are working class, salt of the earth, woman of the people. Aye right.

My pal's test for checking if someone is working class or not is whether they make their own salad dressing 🤣🤣🤣

My pal's test for checking if someone is working class or not is whether they make their own salad dressing 🤣🤣🤣

Love this. I have a friend who says you’re automatically middle class if you can identify and pronounce a shiitake mushroom.

Rolywatts they're right they are working class, but their kids won't be.

They are not working class.

.... And if their child becomes a hairdresser who rents a council flat in Mosside they will not be middle-class.

Really? Off you fuck with your baiting shitty post.

I don't think examining class is necessarily always baity or shitty. It is an important measurement tool for scrutinising links between poverty/lifestyle/health.

My gut is always to react the way @Bookworm did but I do find that people's perceptions of their own and other peoples class very interesting. Did anyone see the Grayson Perry series about class and culture. I found it fascinating.

Rolywats they are working class, you can't change your social class by simply working in a better salaried job for one generation.

But honestly, the only people who care are those who think they are middle class

^ this

Out of interest, if you're purely defining it by job; what if the job is salaried but overtime is paid by the hour (as opposed to financial services etc where working overtime is just an expected part of the deal)?

Yes, I know it doesn't matter but I'm just curious as to where I would fit..

When I was growing up the only people that were middle class were the doctor, vicar and solicitor. Bank managers maybe but building society managers never.
I'm now married to a farmer, live in a large derelict house, drive a 4x4 and have kids at private school. As the majority of our time is spent shovelling s**t I would say that we are firmly working class.

@raspberry I believe you can. That's what social mobility is.

Interesting study cited in this article.
Changing classes

In a area where State school are good people who send their children to private school tend to be upwardly mobile.

@rolywatts- can't find the cited journal properly, nothing in anything in the newspaper articles says you can change classes as you suggest.

@raspberryk Can you provide any evidence that people can not change class. Surely as class is totally socially constructed, and measured using factors that are completely variable, no such evidence exists.

Can you explain fully why people can not change class?

Oh and I'm not sure if you were reading the same article I did but it clearly talked about social mobility (moving from one class to another) and how downward social mobility is more likely than at any point in the past.

Holding a knife like a pencil.
Saying "pardon".
Wearing man-made fibres.
Using euphemisms like "passed away" for died.
Poor manners.
Inappropriate clothing.

Oh the replies on here are disappointing.

I always find it interesting reading when people are wringing theirs hands and getting in to a lather about their social class.

Please try harder MNetters I don't get out much

When people on here refer to themselves as middle class it makes me a bit sick in my month.

‘I’m a Boden wearing middle class mum’ (not envy)

But why is it more irksome to describe yourself as middle class than working class. Both are still accepting a class system.