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Just feels so outdated now.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?

Well it's a good thing I'm not the other person now, isn't it? By your logic every other replier on this thread is the same person since they all talk the same and have the same opinion!

OP, you do realise that a term like that can't be controlled by opinion pieces, however well-researched they are?

You can cite all you want, but people will have different experiences and opinions, you don't have a trump card.

@ColinWhoIsNotAChav , you know the terms yuppie, boomer, hipster, yummy mummy and I going to throw another one in there just for fun,
man-dem. Those who these slurs are aimed at, do exist. A slur is not a nice way of referring to people but this does not negate the existence of types of people as seen from the perspective of other people.

The consensus of this thread is that -

1. Chavs do exist
2. It is not and never has been a blanket term to describe the working class
3. Not all chavs are working class

I await your response!

this just gets better and better…
@waytoooldforthisshite & your alter ego @ColinWhoIsNotAChav you really need help as you are very clearly not playing with a full deck 😂😂😂😂😂 fucking priceless

Ventriloquism springs to mind also!

They have become Roadmen now 😁

Have you reported them to the RSPCA? Or any other animal charity?

I get you might be reasonably scared of reaction...

Chav has nothing to do with the working class! Where on earth do you get that idea from? Its people who refuse to work, who dress and behave a certain way.

It's not like the OP gave lots of sources saying that chav is a slur made up to demonise the WC or anything sarcasm

Agreed.

So 99% in this thread must all be the same person then, since they write the same way and have the same opinion that chavs must exist

OP did at the beginning of the thread. It was all about the media constructing a slur campaign against the working class and demonising them with the invention the chav.

Thankfully saviour Owen Jones had come to the rescue of the working class with his piece “Chavs: The demonisation of the Working Class”.

As a result according to you and OP, chavs have
never existed, They are a myth (Jones speak), in the same way as the stories we tell about the Loch Ness Monster and according to what is written in the bible.

Sorry @ColinWhoIsNotAChav , missed to quote you.

I didn’t know we weren’t allowed to say chavs! I use this lots. If I see a chav, I say it!

Tell me

When you say "see a chav"

What do you mean?

I wear a trackie, baseball cap and gold chain

If you saw me would you label me a "chav"?

What if I told you it's not used as much anymore because people are more aware now it's a slur meant to demonise WC people?

Clearly people know what type of person they are describing with the word 'chav'. If it wasn't a thing worth categorising it would not have stuck. As has been pointed out upthread, it is not about being working class as not all and not only working class people are categorised that way.

Anyone who thinks "chav" is not a classist insult is either thick as two short planks or lying

I mean the following….(rightly or wrongly) but it’s my definition and understanding of a chav…

hoods up/balaclava
smoking weed
swearing
calling each other ‘bruv’ & trying to look cool
intimidating behaviour
spitting/shouting on the street
in summer - strutting down to spoons with their vest on drinking a can at 10am doing all of the above!
pjs/juicy trackie & 10 layers of fake tan and 10” eyelashes at school drop off while on the phone to their identical friends talking about someone being a f*ing rat

just general common behaviour!

I use ‘chav’ frequently and will continue to do so!

So in other words all things WC youth have did or done at one point

Gotcha

Hey, @ColinWhoIsNotAChav, I’m like a bug that you want to swat!

You contradict OP, because OP says that chavs are naughty young people, or something like
that, whereas you say they are someone who wears a “trackie, a baseball cap and a gold chain”.

And as a result you actually confirm what we have all been saying, chavs are actually a sub culture, defined by the way they dress and the behaviour they preform. Chavs are not the working class. Chavs are chavs!

I’m working class. I can still manage to have a bit of decorum.

Um, I never, ever did any of that. Nor did any of my friends, nor did my children, or my nieces and nephews.

If you did, then yes, you are a chav. No, that is not because you wear gold chains or are working class. It is because you have no class and even fewer manners.

Absolutely this.

Love the way the OP is using Owen Jones as if to give their argument credibility 😆

In the 31 years I've lived

I've YET to come across a SINGLE person who identified as a "chav"

Met plenty of people who had the term thrown at them and it was always seen as offensive

It's not a subculture, if it was don't you think there'd be groups specific to it, like how there are subreddits and forums for goth subculture, furry subculture, etc

Since people are posting anecdotes here's one of mine

It was at night, was a teen then and I was walking through an area I didn't know well

Ended up getting lost

In some quieter area was a group of older teens, loud ones

All wearing trackies, baseball caps, chains and sovereign rings

The type of people who have their pictures taken without consent by others and uploaded to ChavScum.com (now defunct thank god) to have dozens of hateful commenters commenting on the photo calling them disgusting, "chav scum" etc

I approached them just as I would approach a group of nerdy looking teens

Those lads helped me find where I needed to go and were extremely friendly and understood I was getting anxious about being lost

Thanks to them I got to where I was safely

Now if I was a MumsNetter who believed in chavs then that story wouldn't have had a happy ending!