Being called Posh… when we’re not…

[Poshornot]

Feeling a bit offended really - have been called posh on a few occasions. But we aren’t posh or come from posh backgrounds. We live in a terraced in an average town with average-below average schools and earn an average income.

We work hard to pay for nice things but now i feel a bit of an outsider in our own community. I don’t want people thinking we’re posh / don’t fit in with them just because we have a 5 year old car not an ‘old banger’ or because we keep our house / garden well kept :/

anyone else experienced this?

Depends where you go. It’s a big country. As others have said there might have been sarcasm involved.

I imagine sarcasm was involved.

Yes I’ve had this all my life. One boyfriend used to ‘joke’ that I had a billiard room… but behind my back.

A billiard room behind your back? Was it permanently attached?

You seem quite invested in this thread @AlexTfan?

Absolutely. I love it. It’s fun!

Because I am from the Home Counties and don't have the local accent, I get called posh. That's until they see the ballroom wing I have flung out at the back and then I am Very Posh.

I get what the OP means. It can be quite othering and deliberately saying 'you're not one of us' in certain situations such as in my current job in a new town.

I am also not posh and don't even have an RP accent, I have a noticably northern accent and dialect but for some reason sound a bit plummy- my DM reckons it's because she used Radio 4 to send me to sleep as a baby! I also love reading and have quite a wide vocab which I think some people read as 'up her own arse'. I'm genuinely not.

It's all quite disappointing as I didn't necessarily expect to become firm friends with everyone but I was hoping to get to know a few new people but it was made quite clear early on that I would not be bullied or anything (they're not unpleasant) but I was not one of the crowd because they perceive me as 'posh' and therefore unrelatable.

I hate that 'keepin it real' attitude – the idea that anyone who speaks well, or has polished their accent a bit, or reads good books, etc, is somehow 'posh' and up themselves. The goddam class system is a blight on this country. It holds people back in so many ways.

Its not an insult, you know?!

It is on mumsnet and it’s only ok to be rich and successful if you preface this information with “I’m as working class as they come” and include the fact that “our children go to state school even though we could easily afford private”.

Yes, it's not nice when one is being bullied, especially a child.
But taking the piss out of somebody bragging about a holiday in Spain? Come on...

This is the trouble. I think all classes are complicit in enforcing class structures in this way. The 'non posh' in belittling those you mention, and the 'posh' or at least those in positions of power by genuinely viewing people without the right accent/ contacts/ education as less capable. Obv not everyone.

There was talk (I think by the Labour Party but I could be wrong) to make class related insults against the law like racism or sexism, but I don’t know whether it would work just one way - eg you couldn’t call someone common but you could still call them posh - or both ways so neither allowed.

I got called posh due to my southern accent and I'm still not sure if it was meant to be an insult or not. I just think its a bit of a thick thing to say, its not like if you are born south of London you get gifted a butler, a title, and a rolls royce at birth by the council.

👀🤭

💐 @NeitherPoshNorRich hug 🤗

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