Middle class identifiers 2022

[Pullandpush]

I read a similar thread a few years ago & the main middle class markers were hummus, organic food, private education, boden, ski trips etc, farrow & ball..
Are these unchanged for 2022 or have the identifiers shifted?
Since the pandemic I've seen a rise in the "hipster" style MC especially the men, maybe the working from home has allowed them to relax into the unshaven, casual look which wasn't there a few years ago...
Private education seems to be on the wane but that may be due to the cost of living..
Any other main MC identifiers I missed?

I do love a coconut cortado 😉
I am also an urban beekeeper who will spend the winter making my own beeswax candles and wraps 😂
I still think my biggest MC signifier might be listening to TMS (Test Match Special)

On a serious note - the cultural capital issue hasn’t disappeared with the move to more rigour over internships. I am a financial services lawyer so my DC know what job options exist and can talk about them. They will go into an interview better prepared than someone who has no family background. I worked on a mentoring programme which helped people prepare for interviews etc. because the knowledge gap is huge.

On a serious note - the cultural capital issue hasn’t disappeared with the move to more rigour over internships. I am a financial services lawyer so my DC know what job options exist and can talk about them. They will go into an interview better prepared than someone who has no family background. I worked on a mentoring programme which helped people prepare for interviews etc. because the knowledge gap is huge.

Agree. 'Knowing what jobs exist'

@sunglassesonthetable - are you not simply saying that you are selling a lifestyle and don’t really give a toss about actual social class? Why does pinning a lifestyle to a specific social class, rather than just identifying a lifestyle and flogging it, make a difference, if you don’t want to either exclude or con?

I live in a very MC area and around here it's:

Gousto boxes and the like being left out with the recycling
Having your own herb/veg patch
Having organic and/or specially-catered-to-your-dogs-palate dog food delivered
Sweaty Betty leggings (I'm on the verge of ditching mine as I hate the fact every other mum at school now wears them!)
Veja trainers (ditto)
Going on yogi retreats/glamping
Having your baby in a sling, preferably one of those cloth/shawl type ones that make you look like you're an earth mother
Brunching. The cafes around here are full to the brim from 10.30am with everyone "doing" coffee/oaty/muesli type breakfast with yogi berries and scrambled egg whites. No one seems to just have coffee round at one another's house anymore!
Electric cars
Garden rooms - every Tom,dick and Harry round here seems to be having them installed along with outdoor fireplaces/fire pits/sunken seating areas.
Oh, and grey staffy dogs - why does everyone suddenly have a staffy in a kind of trendy "griege" colour? 😂

I agree but the help is there at the Uni careers dept if your parents aren't in the know.
Btw - urban beekeeper! V cool hobby!

It depends how you define social class. Land Rovers etc are about money, which may, or may not be associated with class. Weber (who came after Marx) defined intellectual property as a marker, since eduction allows and individual to have more power/control of their lives. University educated professionals have more power/control than those who are uneducated for two reasons. One, because they can debate effectively, so argue their own case. Two, because they tend to have saleable skills. In addition to their jobs in the public sector, or for others, they can earn more money freelancing. Many working class people have a Land Rover (usually leased), designer clothes etc, but their financial situation is more fragile and can more easily go tits up than a middle class professional who may not be able to afford the Range Rover, or, as was said by a PP, be secure in their position in life and don’t choose to ‘flash the cash’. DH and I are middle class professionals. We are retired are not wealthy by any means. We spend a lot on travelling and did eat mainly organic food before the current inflation. Most of our money goes in travel. We have one 8-year-old Renault Scenic between us. We could buy a new one (and curtail the travel), but it does it’s job fine and we see no reason too.

I think this is too general a statement. Many “working class” jobs especially trades are very well paid and sustainable over the long term. I know many electricians, builders, plumbers, hairdressers etc who continue to earn a lot of money over their lifetimes and equally have seen some white collar professional roles decline through technology and outsourcing abroad online. It can be quite a mixed bag in all areas and as ever evolves depending on supply and demand.

www.newstatesman.com/society/2022/01/quiz-which-class-are-you-according-to-the-great-british-public

Perfect post to describe the MC like me. To me MC is more a type of attitude and culture. I have friends who are far richer, educated their children at St Paul’s and own 3 London houses and holiday in the Caribbean. I don’t do any of those things but we still get on very well as we’re interested in books, politics, our families and other people, jobs, current affairs etc etc. I never feel of a different class. Interestingly, I grew up in dire poverty in a very working class family, was orphaned as a teen and only had a suitcase of clothes. My family never stopped commenting on how much better I thought I was, and how awful they thought I was because I was always reading and didn’t agree with my dad’s racist views. I felt much more humiliated in my family than I’ve ever felt with my MC friends now. Sad.

are you not simply saying that you are selling a lifestyle and don’t really give a toss about actual social class? Why does pinning a lifestyle to a specific social class, rather than just identifying a lifestyle and flogging it, make a difference, if you don’t want to either exclude or con?

"Don't really give a toss... flogging it...exclude or con .."

You seem to have an axe to grind and Tbh @Walkaround I'm not even sure what you're asking me anymore.

I was having a relaxing time fiddling about on MN writing a list as per the OP and I maintain it is totally valid to have this chat in a non judgmental way.

Despite class mobility being a very important issue I am not pursuing that discussion on a thread which I entered on the basis of identifying flat whites and trainers.

@RedToothBrush

That’s interesting. Because what I have observed from the ‘new mc’ in our area seems to fit with what is termed technical middle class.

This jumps out :

Scores low for social and cultural capital. Distinguished by its social isolation and cultural apathy

This is what I meant by having a closed social circle and not being actively involved the community. This is the main difference with the established mc who have a wider social circle from all walks of life.

True, but that might not be the only reason. In the book the emphasis is on how much the TV dominates their lives hence my thought of newsreader accents. In the musical, I suspect the main reason Matilda has a MC accent (although no reason for the parents to have a WC one) is because the girls that play her are from MC families and are too young to do other accents.

I do take your point, but if a those trades people become physically constrained by injury, arthritis etc, there is a good chance their income will dry up. That isn’t the case for intellectual professionals, so they are more secure.

Meant to add at the end of this, that my point about the girls would be because MC and UC are massively overrepresented in performing arts careers. Which is a whole issue in itself.

This thread is very funny. Some of the humble bragging is spectacular. Informing us, in a pseudo self deprecating way, of how little maintenance they require, how they couldn’t care less for fashion and brands, how shambolically they dress, how scruffy their cross bred dogs are, how shit their heap of a car is, and what has to be the No.1 marker of the genuine MC woman - how they have never even had a manicure.

Nothing fills the average Mumsnetter with horror more than a bunch of randoms thinking they might be aspiring MC 😱

Sustainable clothes, vinted

Generally buying better and less - always been the thing in many bits of the MC, but more conscious and conspicuous now

eco deodorants

orchards for the have haves in the country

dog nursery in London

PT start ups from home for mothers, even more than before

This thread is funny.

I have just bought from joules and fat face, and am planning on a cockapoo and garden room 🤣🤣🤣

Judging by this I'm not "very" middle class. Maybe that's because I'm northern.

Interesting @DangerouslyBored

Never thought about that before. Do you mean they would never have a file and polish/ gel nails?

WC here - grew up in care homes, before going on to do a ma in social research methods, this thread is hilarious. I have always found class a fascinating topic, and yet many don't seem to appreciate the structure in which it exists, which makes it even funnier. Ah well 🤣😅

@CompoundV really depends on the type of uni.
Mine : Prestigious London uni, career fair from week 1. Lots of motivated peers around me, drilling on every part of the assessment process down to specific exercises if you wanted it.

DP: ‘Provincial’ (for want of a better word) uni. Careers dept had a jobs board, and a CV workshop. They did have job fairs but again smaller firms. Not the likes of investment banks, cutting edge tech or research firms etc.

Most of his CompSci uni mates went into tech support, web dev for smaller companies etc. DP was one of the few to get into a good grad scheme and on to better jobs.
While peers from better unis mostly all into highly paid graduate schemes, exciting startups and the like.

Now in ‘theory’ - yes, anybody can Google these careers and apply for them online. But we underestimate the effect of peer influence, and support. I wouldn’t have known that I needed to be applying for stuff, and bolstering my CV from DAY ONE. Similarly DP was lucky, he did a lot of own projects (which you need for the competitive grad schemes) but nobody ever told them at uni. They’d not be wrong to think that getting a good degree, plus a couple of PT jobs would be enough.

Can they get ‘a’ job : yes.
Can they get ‘prestigious’ jobs : probably not. The training and prep required are on a different level.

Of course it varies, something like Audit at the Big4 accounting firms is doable, they hire loads of graduates and it’s a body count. But you can’t pretend that management consulting, investment banking and the like are at similar levels of difficulty. Just as how working for Big Tech or a niche tech firms is different from ‘any old’ technology job for a non-tech company, small business etc etc

Tesla
English sparkling wine - shares in a company or some kind of subscription thingy
Gym membership - for women, doing 'weight training' with a personal trainer several times a week
Going somewhere to do cold water swimming regularly
House reno
Working from home, can be flexible to help out with school events etc if needed
Cleaner obvs
Kids clothes from Boden

You can tell as soon as you walk into a house:

• make you take your shoes off =WC
• what type of coffee they offer
• what type of tea they offer (usually have the option of Earl Grey, not just English breakfast)
• lots of books?
• what's on the walls? Proper art and photography = MC. Family photos, photo shoots, slogans = WC
• as a PP said.... butter. It lives in a dish, not a plastic tub. And is salted.
• car on drive - highly likely scruffy and owned outright. No PCP payments higher than your mortgage
• TV = not enormous

Simple!

Oh yes Sweaty Betty leggings and also a Mulberry Amberley bag - literally everyone has one!