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 bet the Fogles don't use fish knives. 🤣

Every boot sale and vintage market is full of them.

Love the Fogles! Had to have a Google about them giving up soap, Marina in particular always looks so polished in that! "country" healthy way!

That sounds very aspirational middle class 🤣

Yes, those are the main 'rules'! Other 'rules' appear to be surnames as first names, names beginning with 'k' (most, not all) and made up spellings and pronunciations.

Names like Anna Maria or Mary Ann are deemed more acceptable

One signifier I’ve found is sleep, or more specially, children’s sleep.
@FreyaStorm

That is such an interesting take!

You understand at what point to sit when a waiter pushes in your chair….without looking

That brings up resentful memories of me, wakeful in bed, in full daylight, hearing some of the village kids playing outside.

Yeah. Sadly this is how it works. I don't feel middle class but I can't identify as anything else because I went to private school and Cambridge and work in a profession etc.

Both parents were born into WC families and didn't go to university. I don't feel middle class but what else can I call myself? First generation middle class? Maybe that's it actually.

You have to have an aspidistra to be middle class. You will only be middle class if you know that reference 😂🤣😂

What do you use if not napkins? Or is not everyone as clumsy as me 🤣

We have one set of crockery and cutlery and then extra mismatched pieces of each leftover from student days (not married yet so no wedding gifts). And could borrow the family silver cutlery from my parents if we were having a really smart event - but never would because I can’t be bothered to hand wash and polish it!

Well I only know the George Orwell reference. Is that the MC reference?

Well I only know the George Orwell reference. Is that the MC reference

Yes you qualify 😂

The sleep thing is interesting. My working class nan was possibly ahead of the curve as she had my uncle in bed at 6pm every night even as a teen. He hearsnhis friends outside. He has turned out to be very clever and sucessful though.

It is important to say, again, that class and intelligence are not causally related. Class is often a product of accident of birth and then inequality of opportunity.

Plenty of WC people are far more intelligent that their supposed betters.

If anything, George Orwell was one of our greatest commentators on the class system and the vagaries of being British. I read him and love him because of his razor sharp criticism of class.

That used to be one of my favourite books!

I did own an aspidistra for a while. Cast iron plant indeed! Though I always intended to try again.

I do think I was a bit exceptional grade-wise, but in retrospect think I was given a big leg up by a bit of positive discrimination (first in family to go to university, single parent household, poor, etc.) I was offered a full scholarship to a boarding school for A Level but turned it down as I felt I had a better chance at Oxford coming from a comp (which was very selective and produced better grades than the public school) and it worked out. I didn’t have the social or cultural capital to stay at Oxford for very long, but that’s another story!

George Orwell was ideally placed to comment on class in England coming from a solidly (U)MC background and going to Eton back in the days when it really was the preserve of 'toffs'.

No I agree on the intelligence thing. And I do worry that many of our state schools do especially in working class areas do in fact dumb our kids down. The book learning to labour suggests just this. I have always been ambivalent about the state school system for just this reason

Although my kids go to a naice middle class primary, I think the mindset in a private school would be very different again.

Even then, I don't think it's a definite. When I named my DS and looked on the baby name board, his name was often mocked and sneered at. It's a perfectly normal name and not all that common either, so I have no idea where the connotations were coming from. Was quite odd. Then Harry and Meghan named their son the same name a few years later 🤷‍♀️ so might become more popular now, I don't know. But my point is, I don't think you can predict names by class as much as you think

"What do you use if not napkins? Or is not everyone as clumsy as me 🤣"

Kitchen roll in this house 😂 Blitz being the far superior one I buy. The other brands are rubbish

People saying class=money are just so wrong!!! Think of reality type slebs or footballers etc who could have millions of pounds but still be working class

But they're not. They have enough money by then not to work, so by definition, not working class. They can afford to do lots of things that many so-called middle class people can't do, due to lack of means, from ski-ing holidays to renting islands, to potentially buying yachts if they are really rich. And money buys them the chance to do "middle class" things like go to Ascot or Glorious Goodwood (neither of which interest me in the slightest).

It is all to do with money. Rich lawyers are quite happy to associate with rich plumbers. They don't really want to associate with less well-off lawyers or average-paid nurses.

If anyone is old enough to remember the class commentary of alternative comedy back in the 80s, back then it was very popular for the MC to act WC, probably to annoy their parents. Rik and Vivien were stereotypical of the behaviour. It made great comedy.

HOWEVER.. all the landlords require a guarantor.. a parent etc who earns over X amount, can provide Y months of bank statements and so on. Ds was lucky, and my parents were able to step in

My ds is at uni in a northern city. I was asked to be guarantor but all the landlord asked for was my debit card details. I wasn't asked to prove salary or anything else. And even though I went to university myself things have changed a lot since I was there, so my having been is not remotely indicative of how things work now.

Oh! I have the WGAC one but just use it for mopping up drinks I’ve knocked over cleaning

Tsk, slack manners. No napkin? Use the corner of the tablecloth.