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Just feels so outdated now.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?

lol, I hadnt seen your comment when I posted mine!!

Poor Kayden

As a former "Greebo" - "Chavs" very much existed and are not a myth, nor were they invented by the tabloids. They gave us hell in school. Fortunately most of us have grown up since then 😁

Loads of the kids are using a hateful classist slur?

Op doesn’t exist.

@waytoooldforthisshite, you are sounding quite silly. The word chav may now be considered derogatory but people don’t cease to exist just because you don’t believe in them.

Not the point of the thread, but as a working-class person, raised by working-class parents, I am offended at being lumped in with the chavs.

Working class work, they take pride in themselves, their homes, and the environment around them. They are polite and generous.

Chavs are proudly jobless, usually but not always addicts, swear in public in front of children and the elderly, spit in the street, thieve and intimidate people...

The op is clearly on the wind up.

Not sure if this has already been posted

chav
/tʃav/
noun
DEROGATORY•INFORMAL

a young person of a type characterized by coarse and brash behaviour (with connotations of low social status).

When I was in school I used to know loads of people with trackie bottoms and Rockports and they were great people. They weren't the mythical "chavs" though. They were just normal working class people dressing in a way that was normal at the time.

Idiot is just as much of a slur, if you want to be picky. Shades of what people who were locked up in the past used to be called.

FFS. You sound tiresome.

chavs still exist. Dodgy, uncultured, badly dressed rough looking types prone to cheap lager and antisocial behaviour.

Thank you for reaffirming my post that you are just repeating the same thing over and over!! Brilliant!

I could find sources and testimonials if I could be bothered but I’m too busy swigging a Stella and petting my Staffie!! 😂 #chavforlife 😂😂

p.s. claiming Owen Jones is a credible source doesn’t help your argument!

Yes its a good thread!!!

What are Rockports?? (Edit: just googled, they look like work boots?)

Brian Harvey is probably a good example of someone that would have been referred to as a chav years ago.

Chavs, oiks , little thugs... We all know what type we mean and they seem on the increase.

Chavs have always existed and still do.

I don’t see the word as a blanket term to refer to working class people, chavs are specifically supposed to be obnoxious, trashy, antisocial, violent, lack social boundaries etc. so no, it’s not used to describe all working class people. Plus you don’t even have to be working class to be chavvy, there are people who have a lot of wealth who still act like trash, get into shouting matches, have a short temper, have feral children/pets etc and can be described as chavs

OP, working class and Chav are not the same thing. Its more about taste and behaviour. One of my friends is chavvy, very rich though. When I go to her house I feel like I'm in a grey and gold velvet palace 😅

God, you're insufferable.

Starting to think this whole thread is a wind up.

No-one can be this stupid surely?

You say that like anyone else provided lots of links to back up their claims like I did.

Hahahahahah.

As a working class alt/emo teen in the early noughties, I can guarantee chavs where in fact a real sub culture, one who used to regularly beat up me and my friends, and bully us relentlessly. It was absolutely nothing to do with class, we were from the exact same backgrounds - but you knew to stay out of the park if there were Burberry wearing teens drinking white lightening unless you wanted trouble.

How naive to think it was and isn’t real.

Not all working class people are chavs, not all chavs are working class. There may be stereotypes out there where people are incorrectly called chavs - but there definitely was (and probably still is) a chav/scally subculture that generally sees more criminal behaviour and public disorder than amongst others.

Post of the thread!

Chavs were never a real subculture, though. https://eathealthy365.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-chav-in-british-culture/

"Was ‘chav’ a real subculture people identified with?
This is the most important distinction to make. No, people did not generally self-identify as “chavs.” It was almost always a label applied to others, usually in a negative way. Unlike Punks or Goths, who built identities around their labels, “chav” was an insult, a box created by outsiders.
"

I'm sorry you got bullied. That must've been terrible, but let's not use classist slurs.

Could I go to the bottom of my garden and find you a fairy? No. Myth.

Can I go up in the mountains in Wales and find a dragon? No. Myth.

Can I go into town and find you someone that most people would recognise and refer to as a chav? Yes. Not a myth.

Just because you want to police other people’s language it doesn’t stop scummy fuckers existing.

But.... These are just articles displaying one persons opinion, the person who wrote them. The very nature of language like this is that its subjective. Some might use the word 'chav', others will use other language to describe it but they are all recognising pretty much the same thing.

And no its not synonymous with 'working-class', and never has been. For one thing you need to be working, as in holding down paid employment, to be WC. Most people's idea of a 'chav' is not someone heading out to their 9-5 honest job every day 😂 its also not just the wearing of sportswear.

OP tbh you are making yourself sound a bit silly to be honest.

No you didn't you bloody idiot!

Please do keep posting though. I'm saving you up to show my mates in the pub tomorrow afternoon.