Friend still believes in "chavs"?

[waytoooldforthisshite]

Had a funny (well, slightly depressing) conversation today. my friend came round all flustered, telling me that she'd been "harassed by chavs" outside the shop. One was some teenager who asked for her number 🙄

Tried to explain that "chavs" aren't even real, it's a tabloid invented stereotype/myth from the early 2000s that was basically used to demonise working class people. But she just went on about it like she was quoting The Sun from 2004. I ended up showing her this article. She's 39.... and I expected her to know a bit better but what can ya do eh?

Just feels so outdated now. You don't really hear anyone say "chav" anymore (thankfully), and it's weird how those old class-based stereotypes still linger. I honestly felt like I'd timetravelled back to the Little Britain era 😂

Anyone else still know people who talk like that?

If they are real then I've yet to encounter a single one.

Here it refers to ‘trash with cash’ types who spend all their spare cash on designer gear, flash cars etc . They’re making sure everyone knows they’re well off but have terrible, tacky taste. And no manners usually.

I mean you shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush but stereotypes exist for a reason. 😂

I've yet to encounter a single "chav". The people I refer to were just friendly, normal working-class lads who happened to dress in a way that was very normal and popular at the time.

Chav isn’t about class. You can have very wealthy chavs. It’s about behaviour and morals. I think you’ve got yourself confused.

Just dressing in sportswear doesn't make a chav though? It wouldn't have been used that much where I am in Ireland but did seem to be more for female than male if it was used. Lads dressed like that especially if NorthFace or Canade Goose and in intimidating mouthy groups would be 'roadmen' here

Well aren't you the lucky one. I've never seen an elephant in real life, but I'm very sure they do exist.

Are you saying that all ‘working class’ people were called ‘chavs’?

How would you define ‘working class’?

How would you define ‘chav’?

Are ‘working class people’ the same as ‘working people’?

Asking for your definitions / thinking, not a link to dictionary definitions or anything to grim misogynist oik Owen cretin says.

What are your views about males pestering females?

This is what I always thought it meant.

They aren’t chavs though. I’ve never seen a badger in the wild, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Lucky you.

Online dictionary definition of a chav: A young person of a type characterised by coarse and brash behaviour (with connotations of low social status).

I see nothing wrong with that definition and if OP has never encountered one then she must live a very privileged and cosseted life.

Agree, my 16 year and their friends use this term but it means something slightly different - referring to how certain young people dress and what make they wear etc.

Was that meant to say god or unicorns but your finger slipped? I’ve never heard of a chav denier before. Where on earth do you live? And where is the AIBU vote when we really need it?

Agreed. And those privileges make her feel entitled, completely wrongheadedly, to lecture a former friend who has just had a nasty experience. She’s either disingenuous or a misguided, virtue signalling idiot.

So how do you define what people are referring to as chavs. To say you have never met one means that you know what they are. What do you understand chav to mean?

"Care to explain how it's "batshit" when I've backed things up with reputable sources?"
"I'll trust the reputable sources. First link is from Cambridge University's website"
Ah yes, your 'sources'. Have you actually followed your 'Cambridge University' link and read it @waytoooldforthisshite ? All it is is an index and brief description of articles in Journal of Social Policy (Volume 41 , Issue 3 , July 2012). One of the articles is a review of Owen Jones' book Chavs. That's all your link is - an index. (Many academic journals just pull together a list of all recent publications in that field whilst adding nothing - don't get me started on the demise of the peer-review system.)

socialistparty .org.uk is 'reputable', but again it's just a review of the same Jones' book.

As for the link in your opening post - it's a recipe site. Perfectly reputable source for recipes.

I'm torn between thinking you've got some sort of Saviour Complex, that middle-class-you is coming to the rescue of the helpless and much-maligned working classes, or alternatively - you are trolling. Posting shit to gather responses, chortling as you read everyone else's exasperation at you.

Nah, I'm not really torn. You're trolling.

Ne'er do wells obviously 🤣

🤣🤣🤣 what have I just read! Op I suggest you stop reading online and look at the real world. How many people have to tell you that chavs have and continue to exist. For what it’s worth I wouldn’t even think of working class people when thinking of a chav. I think of someone who will likely never hold down a job and instead have a life of crime - in between which they will fly around on motorbikes wearing balaclavas

Then they are not chavs are they? Who called them chavs? Chav is more to do with anti-social behaviour. A perfectly nice, decent person dressed in a tracksuit or whatever is not going to be called a chav.

I don’t think OP really knows what they’re talking about and is being offended on behalf of others who didn’t even ask for her to be.

What are you on about?

There are chavs where I live they are real

Chav has nothing to do with money really, a chav can be anyone who is trying too hard to be high fashion in blingy branded clothing when in fact they have no taste or class- it's not a term to describe the working or befit classes on mass. Katie price is a chav in my understanding of what a chav is despite not being poor. It's the excessive wearing of heavily branded clothes, the over-applied makeup, the flashy cars, the blingy decor in her house etc.

"Chav" isn't a person or real thing. It's a boogeyman. Like "satan" is. It's basically what middle/upper class people often believe the working class are all like.

Not at all relevant to the thread but this has reminded me of one of my first encounters as a diplomat.

The person in question referred to 'unsaveloy' characters outside the Corinthia. But he meant unsavory. I still giggle now when I think of these unsaveloy characters walking down the road. 😃

Chavs do exist OP. Just go into any major shopping centre...Bluewater, for example.