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Just feels so outdated now.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?

Maybe the term is outdated, but it can be useful shorthand. I think we all - including you - have an idea of what she meant, so it was silly of you to be so pedantic.

Seeing that scummy fucker has been approved by the op then I’m guessing stupid cunt may well be too. But that person doesn’t exist, he was just a myth.

You don't believe satan exists?

'Oiks' is the word that sprang to my mind. Tennyson called them 'churls' in his poem, 'The Lady of Shallott'.

I’m sure OP thinks he’s a lovely lad who would never be any trouble to anyone.

Exactly. If you didn’t have to walk the long way to school to avoid getting jumped by a gang of older teenagers who thought you’d looked at them the wrong way then you experienced a certain amount of privilege in your life, and it is very galling to hear people like that telling us off for giving a name to those people. It’s also very insulting to working class people to say it’s a working class thing. I knew plenty of working class families who worked hard and raised their children right, and didn’t spend their evenings standing in alleyways trying to intimidate people or participating in petty vandalism.

In Scotland people are more likely to use the term ‘NED’ I think which is much the same thing.

I’d say it’s not so much working class as non-working underclass and more to do with low standards than low income. There are plenty of decent hardworking working people, non working out of the home disabled or carers who have high standards of behaviour and manners in public and who are clean and tidy.

Unfortunately the other group seem to have become larger. This is very evident if you speak to older teachers who remember the 70s, 80s, 90s when it was usually the case that the vast majority of parents of whatever ‘class’ supported the school and the teachers’ authority. Now, not so much!

Working class people are often the first to call out "chavs"!
Actually the first time I heard it as a mum was from a Muslim mother who lived on the local estate and was keen to escape!
I bet that doesn't fit your narrative.
Us middle class mums pussy-footing around someone's behaviour: we're all equal, they're probably having a hard day, hard life yada, yada
The mums who actually lived around these people had no truck with such sensibilities and called a spade a spade
Yes, there are arseholes in BMWs etc- who may be from wealthier areas, but it's logical and borne out that the glut of bad behaviour will be centred around poorer estates. And they can make life miserable for the decent people around them in a way that we can barely fathom if we live elsewhere.
You have a luxury belief there- whereby, you're not massively affected by "asbo"-type behaviour because you don't live around it- so you can be noble and pretend it doesn't exist.

I know people who are chavs and people who call themselves chavs. It's a bit bazaar to say they don't exist. Someone even posted an image of the word in the dictionary.

You can get chavs of all different classes, some work, some have never worked a day of their live either living off the government or so rich they don't need to work.

agreed… what’s the term for them now? 🤣

Charva. They are alive and kicking.

God, I had to do that 🙁. Sounds like you are talking from personal experience. I hear you. (Working class, council estate upbringing, well brought up and not a chav) targeted because I wasn’t an ignorant low life.

I knew someone in school who looked like him and he actually was a lovely lad. Now imagine if I believed in chavs and avoided him based on that. I would've missed out on a good friendship.

Not all working class people are "naice", OP, as you are apparently dimly aware, but disapprove of working class people themselves knowing.

Despite it being abundantly obvious to working class people themselves (who coined the term "chav") but laughably denied by middle class types who don't have to put up with any such folk in their midst, let alone the awful ones, who are a minority but a prominent blight on the lives of many decent working class people.

Citing a few sources you agree with does not mean that you know the meaning of a word. A word only means what people generally understand it to mean and it seems most people on here have quite a clear idea of what your friend meant by 'chavs'. You seem to be deliberately misinterpreting the word.

OP has never even encountered one. If that’s not privilege I don’t know what is!

I like how you were not bothered in the slightest about her being harassed. Bet she loved talking to you. Everyone knows what you mean when you say chav

Sweet baby Jesus and all the little angels. When will you understand that it is not just what someone looks like, how they dress or their social class but their attitude and behaviour that makes them a chav.

😂 😂 I still say chav! It’s definitely a thing.

100% this!

I suppose the word "chavtastic" is out too, then! 😂 Which is a pity, because it's a great way to describe things such as Louis Vuitton knock-offs or truly enormous hoop earrings! Not to mention the Croydon face-lift. 🤣🤣🤣And shell suits! Ahhh, it's all coming back!

I agree with you, OP, but you'll find little support around here.

Well if any friend of mine referred to people as chavs I'd be reevaluating the friendship.

Owen Jones is a tosser. He’s also just one man, with an opinion that he happened to write about. His opinion does not equal fact.

Maybe I will have a shot every time the op says mythical "chav" .. or would that be chavvy ??