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Just feels so outdated now.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?

No I am not, Katie price was pimped out by the sun at 16 (which would be illegal in the USA and all page three readers considered nonces).
has been a good mother to Harvey despite people nit picking every little thing she does (like he is stronger and bigger than her now and she was criticised for moving him to a supported living type place)

fair enough the comment above yours I didn’t know about the animals but I think many of the price haters aren’t aware of that either they usually criticise her for stuff that doesn’t affect them like her getting a boob job 🙄

anyway a chav would be a thuggish teenage boy selling drugs and beating people up for looking vaguely in his direction. If you don’t want people like the op or Owen jones criticising the term then stop overusing it and applying it to everyone who does something you consider “tacky”

Oh come on, she’s the absolute epitome of a chav. And it goes to show that being a chav has absolutely nothing to do with wealth.

I am sure KP is a Mumsnetter because the minute anyone dares to criticise her there are always those suddenly leaping to defend her. The way she treats her animals alone is absolutely terrible.

The term is disputed but either means a young boy in Romani or council housed and violent would you care to explain how Katie price is a young boy or the messy mansion was owned by the council?
considering the amount of shit people give her she’d be within her rights to get a little violent

You think people give a shit what LOJ says!!!

Lol.

Katie Price is 100% a chav. Which is a shame as she wasnt brought up like that but there you are.

My cousin is a chav - or at least I'd say she's a good example of how the word has expanded to encompass more than its original meaning.

She's not violent or criminal in any way and has never smoked or done drugs and doesn't often drink. She's never been particularly poor, grew up in a council house but a large, very nice one which her mother bought very quickly. It's her behaviour that makes me call her chav. Two kids by two different men and was desperately trying to make it three by three but hasn't been able to hang on to anyone long enough. I suspect the two child cap has also had something to do with it. Hasn't worked much and never had any intention of doing so - someone else will pick up the bill for her kids, no? She uses 'you was' and 'we was', doesn't believe in reading books apart from Katie Price's autobiography. Her idea of a healthy breakfast for her kids is a cup of sugary tea and three chocolate biscuits and highly objects when the school ask her not to fill their lunch boxes with crisps and chocolate, and maybe try the occasional bit of fruit - how very dare they?! Yes, her kids are overweight and are not allowed to be told off by anyone else. Her kids are, of course, her world...

She 100% indulged in the fake Burberry print and fake Uggs back in the day. Her style idols are in fact the yummy mummies she sees around her so it's all about trying to copy them but getting it wrong. It involves being in the queue for the Next sale by 4am on Boxing Day, and her clothes are invariably too tight and emphasise the wrong parts. She goes for the long acrylics with Tippex tips and loves to see kids dressed in heavily logoed fake Gucci etc. She thinks Michael Barrymore was the height of sophisticated humour. She absolutely doesn't know there's a difference between money and class and got herself a BMW (the cheapest available) because she was convinced that would mean she fits in with actual yummy mummies.

I could go on but I think you get the idea. Her friends are all much the same and a regular topic of conversation in the group is their annoyance because they all think they deserve a better council house than the ones they have. They all want an extra bedroom, bigger garden, new bathroom etc. Yes, I'm snobby about her and them because I don't approve of people having kids with no intention of creating a stable home life and on someone else's coin, thinking work is optional. To be clear, I have no objection to SAHMs who are not expecting the state to fund it and because it's a choice made between them and the children's father and they can support it and run their lives accordingly, or because it's necessary due to illness/disability etc. This is not that. I also sneer at her tying herself in knots trying to be what she'll never be because she refuses to understand the importance of things like education, manners, stability for kids. I don't care if the OP thinks that makes me a hateful classist and I'm quite happy to say that I don't believe these kinds of people are great for society.

My husband is working class and a tradesman. He is not a chav. His sister is a chav. She has eyebrows and teeth that can be seen from outer space (among other - in my eyes - chav markers).

The modern and generalised use of the word isn’t either of those definitions anymore. Everyone knows this. It’s disingenuous to claim otherwise.

Shes the salt of the earth.....!!!

The modern and generalised use of the word is a bunch of out of control teenagers selling drugs and beating people up for looking at them maybe even dressed head to toe in Nike or adidas I ask again what this has to do with Katie price?

Well clearly the op gives a shit what oj thinks or we wouldn’t have this 23 page thread

So now you’re admitting the term doesn’t mean what you originally said it does.

Everyone knows KP is a chav. Tacky, common, vulgar, wearing tacky looking branded clothes, etc etc etc. I could go on. The term is more broad than just a certain group of teens but everyone knows one when they see one.

Are you one of those who really cant get past something like potatoes not being a British food because it came from the new world, or objecting to terms like 'spaghetti Bolognese' because its not seen in Bologna?

Chav means exactly people like Katie Price, bad parents, loud, fake, naff designer gear, whether fake or real, unstable anti social life, tons of kids by other men or tons of kids with different women, awful tans, awful dramatic life, among lots of other things. Chav also means little thugs tattooed, running around attacking people, being little gangsters, their mums turning a blind eye, their dads usually wearing tight polyester 'sports' wear despite never setting foot in a gym

They are all those things. Dont be ridiculous.

Nothing about Katie price makes me think of a chav and I’m not someone like the op who’s offended by the word.

I mean what exactly is your problem? God forbid a woman get a fake tan or have a bit of fun

Regarding your first paragraph no. What the hell are you on about 😂

id consider chav to mean concil housed and violent and before you take offense at that I grew up in a council house and my mother still lives in it, I’d happily live in one too if the waiting list wasn’t ten years.

it has absolutely nothing to do with Katie price. What exactly is your issue? God forbid a famous woman get a fake tan or have a little fun. And I guess she struggles with having a stable life after being pumped by the sun age 16 and having her whole life in the limelight

*pimped

You sound fun

Oh ffs 🙈

My teenage daughter calls people chavs and she hasn’t got it from me so the term is definitely still in circulation. She last used it at a well known theme park to describe the horrible, entitled teenagers being rude to staff, pushing in, swearing and belittling other visitors and having no manners. I can’t say I disagree with the use of the term in this context as these kids were utterly vile.

DD21 has been known to use the term to mean rough. It’s not a term I use.

Well aren’t you a shite friend 😳🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

I’m 24 and use it (not for Katie price though!!). I don’t get the posters saying it’s a term that stopped being used 20 years ago

“I’ve been harassed by a yob”

”Don’t say ‘yob’, actually, it demonises the criminal fraternity. I know because Owen Jones says so”.

I was about to reply with something similar-it’s not a ‘working class’ slur it’s more about a look/dress sense & attitude. I’m 44 now and still like alternative fashion. Can confirm chavs are alive & well where I live but they’re now called Road Men.

Do you also take offence to the term ‘road men’? Because that’s what my teenagers now term their peers that I would have absolutely termed a ‘chav’.

As far as I was aware the term Chav originated in Chatham, Kent - although some believed it was an acronym for ‘council house and violent’, others believed it originated from the Romany word čhavo. You may see it as a slur against the working classes … but it’s just a collective term. Like Mods or rockers of their day who dressed a particular way and behaved in a certain manner (scooter riding etc).

The idea of lecturing your friend who was harassed on her terminology and insisting that you are correct regardless of the Mumsnet consensus who say that you are not (should have been an AIBU) makes me really grateful that I have easy going friends who don’t jump on their soapbox when I’m in a state.

Shame you are more concerned with her choice of vocabulary than the clearly distressing incident of a friend. I wonder if she felt a pang of suppressed sadness at your shock of her wording, maybe on a clearer happier day she would have described them differently.

A chav or whatever colloquial expression is used to describe teenagers or adults that are causing offence to others in their actions or words, generally dressing in a street fashion, but can be from any parental background. Can be working class but not always.

Well done on re-educating your friend! Honestly chavs are a thing no matter what you call them. There are lots of different words to describe various groups of people. All humans judge and use handy one word descriptors to describes group with similar traits. In the north some call the black clad feral youths 'rats'