'Proud' to be working class?

[RosemaryMoocher]

I am British but grew up overseas. I admit to having lived in a bit of a bubble, so please forgive my ignorance.

When reading online I often notice the phrase 'working class (and proud)' but rarely from those who identify as middle, upper and so on. I do not hear this spoken in everyday life as often as I see it online. Is there a history to this?

Does it refer to pride in terms of achievement or is it a response to being marginalised, historically? I have often sensed a kind of middle class guilt (can't think of a more appropriate word), which champions and defends the working class whilst the sentiment doesn't seem to be returned in the opposite direction. I am not sure if it is political as much as it is cultural. I would like to understand it a little more?

I think you are right. What actually is middle class. There are people on here who are financially struggling but feel middle class because of their job. Others are very well off, send their dc to private schools, have a second home but say they are working class because they do a trade.
British class is weird.

I absolutely agree

class system is ingrained in our society abs never has it need more obvious to me that when ds stsrted prep school snobbery is rife it’s only mc people who claim it isn’t

Why does it matter, they are bith middle class. Assuming the trade is skilled. A complexity of who is more middle class is silly. They are both middle class.

and as for the different definitions, there is one definition, the fact some randoms come up with their own, from the bbc to mumsnet posters doesn’t change the factual basis of the uk class system.

class Really isn’t about if you eat pies and like football or not , irrelevant of what some reporter working for the bbc dreamed up .

class system is ingrained in our society abs never has it need more obvious to me that when ds stsrted prep school snobbery is rife it’s only mc people who claim it isn’t

sure, but we also have inverted snobbery . It does work both ways. Arseholes exist. They walk amongst us, there will always be people who dislike people who they perceive to not be in their tribe. For whatever reason. Usually they feel threatened in some way. It starts at school , earlier , at home often, and can continue through adulthood. They never grow out of it. But both snobbery and inverted snobbery is part of some peoples mindsets.

I really confused with classes thing. Please enlighten me.

my family we are not british. We are come from south east asia. My husband is high earner, we have 2 houses and i’m not working because i can afford not to. We live very comfortable life. But our accent is not good. We are very loud. We like goes to the pub. We still shop in aldi and primark. If you look at us certainly we dont look like very put together.

meanwhile

my friend her husband is from oxford uni. They speak with RP accent, but they dont have car, they dont have house (still renting). Quite struggling with money because they only shop in waitrose and buy reiss, boden etc for clothing. The way they speak are very posh. Basically they both similar like will and kate. Very put together. But moneywise i’m much more better than them.

so who is the working class and who is the micdle class???

Nobody is better than anybody and that's what I live by. I don't think anybody is going to say they aren't proud of where they came from? Seems a very goady post to me and I'll put money on you not being working class

Well in our society if you are mc you have better chances in life

so how it works both ways I’m not sure

I don’t think any mc people who I know who are entitled and very much do judge but do their very best to hide it feel insecure at all far from it

Ah but 'better' chances in life depend upon what one desires. What one's tastes are, and what we prioritise.

If we are to focus on what our society calls privilege, then assets and education, access and opportunity count. I often wonder about health outcomes, and what exactly determines that. What creates poverty/wealth and class in the first place, and how much of that is learned in early life. Is it political or cultural? Our values are passed on, from generation to generation..

It is a shame to devolve this topic into how wealthy or middle class mumsnetters are, no one cares. It's all farts in the wind. Telling someone, a bunch of strangers on the internet what we have achieved is pointless. What's really interesting are the structural, systemic issues that determine these values, and why they exist. Like a sort of awareness of why we care, and how our society evolved this way. A bit deep, but hey ho. It is irrelevant how many of us have kids at a fucking private school.

Because snobby people look down on me because of my accent, the city I'm from, the jobs my parents did. But Im not ashamed of any of that not do I wish to change or wish I'd been bought you middle class. Im proud of the values I was raised with.

There is plenty of articles on the internet OP about health/wealth outcomes.

And if one person says "proud to be working class" they can mean they have no shame in doing a decent day's graft for a day's pay, another might mean they don't go in for all that museum/avocado nonsense, another might mean they just live where they live.

So it's impossible to definite what people mean when they say one expression stand alone. That has so many individual answers that research would be meaningless.

As for general information on, health, education outcomes etc there are numerous studies and reports over the years. But again "class" is so subjective as to be almost meaningless.

Privilege, as far as I can understand, is having a family who love and support you to whatever financial extent they can.

A bright working class kid will succeed if they have have love, encouragement and support from their family.

A dumb middle class kid might get so far but if they are dragged from sports group to music class and never really supported for whom they are they won't succeed in the same way, just might paper over the cracks.

In the end almost all of us and our kids are bang average. That's what average means.

Why are you putting on such a weirdly fake 'accent'. You need to try harder if you want to do this. You follow no linguistic pattern. It's just so obvious

I was trying to work that out Pocketvenuss. Thank you.