To think that if you are working class you are NOT irredeemable worthless scum?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Lots of lovely attitudes shown on the 'is breastfeeding a middle class thing' thread.

How smug can you get?

Hands up if you are working class and not a stupid, uneducated, druggie, selfish, malnourished and mindless waste of space.

Orm, there's plenty of them in the Upper classes

Oh, and another one here for the Headbanger fan club. Spot on.

god it pisses me off when people say they are working class because their parents were, or because their parents were van drivers, or because they themselves work in a shop. Twaddle.

So how does it work then Fanjo is it purely down to cash?

I am from copper mining/sheep farming/soldier stock but am married to an IT professional and work in an office myself when I work.

Why should that piss you off DF?

What is your criteria? (um, and working in a shop would generally set you as WC, unless you're working in a shop just for a laugh or "pin money" even then...)

I have no idea what class I belong to, but dismissing whole sections of society isn't on is it?

working class

stupid- no

uneduvated- degree, studying for a MA

druggie- never even tried them

selfish- think not

malnourished sadly not

mindless- life might be easier if I were

waste of space- ah now that would be down to opinion I guess!

I am what I describe as transition class: feet still firmly in my roots but head out and I suppose the boys will be middle class. I don't see WC or MC as a negative, just descriptive of behaviour traits eg dinner / tea, lounge / front room

In'trestingly, the people I know who are proper posh (landed, titled etc.) would merrily drive around in a manky old car with dog hair on the back seat, in a jumper that's coming unravelled, and would think nothing of buying something second hand - all of which the slightly vulgar desperate Boden-clad middle classes (am I being contentious?!) with their pristine pastel-coloured Fiat 500 for Mum and the silver Citroen Picasso for family jaunts wouldn't bloody DREAM of doing, not for all the tea in Waitrose!

It does rather make me laugh.

I never get this whole class thing. It mystifies me

I'm the underclass. And an EBF'er. And I have a xsara picasso.

I is complex, innit?

Har, runny, I KNEW I'd trip meself up naming cars (can't drive. Never had the money to learn. I'll see your underclass and raise you ABJECT POVERTY! )

I think everyone is runnybottom. I am pretty posh, I go to cocktail parties in Chelsea but am also happy with a beer balanced on my tummy in front of a fire in a 44 gallon drum in Penriff (westy suburb in Sydney, completely feral, were I am from).

Why choose?!

is it easier to judge what class someone is than it is to decide about yourself?

headbanger - you are quite right. 100%.

And of course vulgarity is classless

Headbanger, I drive a 14 year old Volvo estate that mainly held together on the inside with gaffer tape, it makes me feel so much better about driving it when I see all the real monied people in my driving the same!

well well I have NO car - so there.

I come from the underclass. Truly. Great gran was banged up for braawling, gran had kids taken into care, loads of wastrels in the family. My mum is off her rocker, is a barmaid and a pot head, my uncle has 6 kids by 4 different women. Another uncle hasn't worked for donkey's years. i don't know who my father is.

I am as working class as they come - despite the waster in my family I think the working classes On THE WHOLE are proud, hardworking and respectable people. I was a single teenage mother at 17 - but also have the middle class trait of being aspitrational. So instead of going on income support like the rest of the family, went to college, got a job to pay my way at the time and slogged my way up. Now have 2 houses and a holiday home in France, go skiing, have Le Creuset saucepans, spend a fortune on eating out and own an Audi.

Would never class myself as middle class - i am emphatically WORKING class and somewhat to the left of Keir Hardie, which doesn't really go with all the ostensibly middle class pretentions listed above.

I read somewhere once that when you are with people of your own class, you feel comfortable and relaxed.

you wouldn't classify yourself as MC but other people would, wouldn't they?

Oh GOD that post is not shameless bragging as it looks, just said all that to show contradictions in that you can have middle class thing but still have working class mentality.

Oh god you will all think I am a Cath Kidston cupcake twat.

and you know I'm wondering, you'd feel comfortable if you were with traditionally WC people - but would they feel comfortable with you the same way if your lifestyle is so different now?

I will never get this class thing

Perhaps I should get a 'working class and proud' badge to identify myself.

No, I think it is quite apparent i am WC from all the swearing.

I grew up in a council house in a pit village but got educated upwards
My grandad used to say;'Bow your knee to no man and shake the hand of any.'That's me.

Zzen - that is interesting as i don't actually feel comfortable with my family, I don't actually see any of them any more (but that may be to do with the fact that I had an unhappy time with them all as opposed to the fact they are wc).

I socialised with WC people - DP is a bricklayer, his family are working class, my friends are all working class, although we are all aspirational and work hard and have a bit of money.

I think the word we are looking for is nouveau riche

"Why should that piss you off DF?"

it just does. I was a shop worker for 7 years. I don't consider myself Working class and would never claim tobe just because I worked in a shop!