Are you middle class or not, the Allegra McEverdy test

[Teatime55]

In the frankly bizarre Guardian article today, Jack Monroe says she didn’t realise she was working class until she met Allegra. (I think shes trying to defend her WC credentials).

So Allegra went to St Paul’s, her dad went to Harrow and Oxford, and was a psychiatrist etc. Dhe built a business that sold for millions.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegra_McEvedy

Anyway compared to Allegra I am definitely working class, are you?

This.

Middle class people who say "I don't see class" are talking as much bollocks as white people who say "I don't see race".

My daughter is called Allegra. I always get excited when I see her name.

That JM article was weird
I think the journalist thought she was drinking again and it certainly sounded like it.

This.
personally I could give a damn if someone is WC, MC, whatever class.
Britain is obsessed, so 19th century.

Very true.

The thing is in real life no one is ever going to talk about class because quite frankly it makes you sound like a horrendous snob. But here, anonymously, of course people talk about it.

This would work if there was a definitive definition of 'middle class'. But there isn't.

Some people base it on income level, some on how people conduct themselves (behaviour/morals/standards), some on education regardless of income level etc.

It's like most things when people try to fit themselves into a defined category, they often find they can't.

Many years ago, I watched a programme about people on benefits. It was a politician (can't remember who, maybe Gordon Brown?) who was meeting people.

He spoke to one particularly girl who lived on benefits in a council flat. She declared herself to be upper class. When asked why, she stated that she didn't work and she didn't pay for her home. She had all the time in the world to do the things she wanted to do. So she couldn't be working class - because she didnt work. The only other people who were able to say the same were the independently wealthy upper classes. Therefore, she must be upper class. Just goes to show how meaningless it all is! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Britain is obsessed, so 19th century.

It is!

This is when the supposed 'middle class' emerged. When all those people who were able to fund setting up mills and factories wanted a way to distinguish themselves from those they employed to work in mills and factories and who were desperately aggrieved that they weren't upper class and looked down on others.

'Middle class' is all about looking down on others and finding them lacking compared to yourself.

Bo one else cares.

Oh I know a fair few people who like to talk about class!

They're always the ones who feel they have something to prove 😉

Yeah this.

my issue is she has spent the last time framing herself as working class and a representative of those people. That somehow she is extraordinary as a journalist breaking through all these barriers, which frankly weren’t there. She has no idea what it’s like for some people.

She’s used it in terms of presenting herself as having the lack of opportunities that many WC face. In fact, it mostly looks as if she fucked up at school (grammar school at that).

Instead whats she’s now saying is she’s not incredibly posh and in fact is probably extraordinarily average.

But what’s the whole point someone is trying to make? That because JM is (?) middle class that she couldn’t have been poor…? Because the two things are not mutually exclusive.

This in spades 😄

She’s the founder of Leon and enormously wealthy. It’s not about what she thinks but about Jack Monroe claiming to be working class in comparison to her, because JM is thick as two short planks.

That’s not middle class that’s upper middle class. Private school (v posh one) etc

The problem is, people can mistakenly perceive that their worth as a human being is based on what class they are. This is a very sad thing and not at all accurate. Class is irrelevant, all people are equal. Striving to be middle class so that you can feel superior to working class people is a character flaw and one that's best got rid of.

I agree.

You could start by reading the link in the OP then you would know what it's about.

Perfect summary.

And so is strenuously insisting you are working class as though it somehow makes you automatically more heroic

Everyone who works is working class.

@GreyCarpet

That simply isn’t true. You can’t compare barristers and the like who send their kids to private school over a dinner lady who’s kids are at the local state. Both working, one is much more privileged in society than the other.

If it was anywhere near an art school or the Slade at UCL, he might have been a fine art student. When I was a student at UCL I was always a little awestruck by the effortlessly cool but very paint bespattered students emerging from the Slade's wing into the North Cloisters for a coffee break.

As for class, who knows these days, and how relevant is it? Back in the days when it was very difficult to move from one class to another it was probably a more important concept, but these days four kids can grow up in the same household, end up all doing very different jobs and leading very different lives, on different income levels, in some cases as a result of marriage to someone from a very different background. It's a much more nebulous concept now.

I also think Allegra is incredibly posh, so suggesting not being her makes you WC, probably makes most people WC.
It’s poor reasoning to explain why she’s been calling herself that.

Middle class people can become poor of course. JM presents herself as WC and not having had the opportunities of someone MC, therefore limiting her options in life and career. It’s simply not true. If she had done well in school I’m sure she could have continued and gone to university with no particular barriers.

I think there are communities of WC people where it’s hard to break the cycle, especially in terms of education. We know WC can be poorly represented especially in print media, she’s been used as example of someone who wasn’t MC and managed to become a Guardian writer etc. and it’s not true. She’s complained she hasn’t got TV gigs because of her WC roots, seems entirely a badge she’s given herself.

I've read Allegra's wikipedia - was JM on the frugal cookery trail, etc before they were together? I.e. was it a meeting of minds or did JM copy Allegra?