Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why MN's so concerned with class

195 replies

ivykaty44 · 17/04/2011 11:13

Is it envy, is that what it boils down to pure envy of someone else and they might be doing better.

Even the cycling threads end up with class being brought into the mix.

Why is class brought into so many thread - even this one!

OP posts:
Einsteinnolonger · 17/04/2011 19:09

usualsuspect

The bait last all of one tenth of a second. Pmsl.

Watertight · 17/04/2011 19:10

Completely agree with everything that LeQueen has said.

Class has nothing to do with money. Nothing at all.

Einsteinnolonger · 17/04/2011 19:10

usualsuspect

Btw, Council house you said?

thefirstMrsDeVere · 17/04/2011 19:12

hmmmm Well I am working class, no denying that.

I am fine with it. I am fine with people being middle class too. If they are happy, I am happy. Smile

What I dont like is when being middle class is held up as something we are all desperate to be. I really am not but dont take it as an insult nor nuffin. I am just happy to be who I is.

I think its peculiar how class envy has sort of swapped. It seems that the better off are jealous of those who have less than them. They seem to think that they should have lesser. The class divide is getting a bit too small for their liking.

I have seen/heard threads/comments along the lines of 'my neighbour gets £30 WTC a week and I only get £10. My OH works really long hours and she is a single mum who only works part time. Its not faiiiiiirrrrr'

Totally missing the point of what top up benefits are for and also that she is living on a single income out of necessity not choice.

What the feckity feck is that about?

There is a group of people who dont want to be like those they despise, they dont want to live like them, they dont want what they have (crappy flat in a crappy area) but they dont want them to have it either.

Again - what the feckity feck is that about?

Oh and for the record - we are not all jealous of your nice victorian semi and your holidays abroad. I think its nice you have a lovely house and a holiday once or twice a year. So there is no need to look at me like that.

hairfullofsnakes · 17/04/2011 19:18

I don't have a clue what class I am! How do you know?!

clitorisorclitoraint · 17/04/2011 19:19

Class has nothing to do with money. Nothing at all.

Eh? My 10K salary begs to differ!

alistron1 · 17/04/2011 19:22

Class used to be about money, but that particular divide has been blurred. Someone on 10K a year can be MC but someone on 100K a year can be dead common.

clitorisorclitoraint · 17/04/2011 19:28
Confused

...but I have always considered myself WC by virtue of the fact that I work, but am paid a low salary for it, so none of the foreign holidays, lavish weddings, dinners out, nice cars and posh clothes which I consider to be markers for being MC.

I was raised in a council house by factory worker parents, but I do have a degree.

Gotta be WC surely?

Watertight · 17/04/2011 19:32

clitorisorclitoraint

What I mean is that someone can be as rich as you like but be an utter yob, and someone else can be as poor as a church mouse but have class.

For me, it's about the way you live and behave and how you treat people, not how much cash you've got.

AlpinePony · 17/04/2011 19:36

Clitoris, do you think the beckhams have class?

Einsteinnolonger · 17/04/2011 19:37

clitorisorclitoraint

I was raised in a council house by factory worker parents

Oh dear. Media studies, doesn't count.

Einsteinnolonger · 17/04/2011 19:46

\Everyone

Working class = aspirational

Middle class = non aspirational

Original poster
ivykaty44 · 17/04/2011 19:48

The Beckhams are the Beckhams, there isn't any one like them, not even Kate and Wills are like the Beckhams

OP posts:
Original poster
ivykaty44 · 17/04/2011 19:50

What I mean is that someone can be as rich as you like but be an utter yob, and someone else can be as poor as a church mouse but have class.

Thats the same as saying

someone can be rich and nasty or soemone can be poor and kind and pleasant, so class and the obsession is to do with whether people are nasty or nice and doens't matter whether they have a bean or not

OP posts:
Einsteinnolonger · 17/04/2011 19:51

Einsteinnolonger Sun 17-Apr-11 19:46:41
\Everyone

Working class = aspirational

Middle class = non aspirational

Sorry, should have been other way round.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 17/04/2011 19:59

Do you mean the working classes are non aspirational?

I think it depends on what you class as aspirations.

Being happy and healthy and having enough to live on. Seeing your kids happy and healthy and in work. Having children etc.

That may include them going to uni it may not. It may include them owning their own house or finding a nice place to rent. Having a job for life that allows them to have a good life even if its not a profession.

I think all of those things are fine aspirations for your children.

alistron1 · 17/04/2011 20:07

Someone on 10K a year could have a house full of books, like gardening, listen to radio 4, read the guardian, be politically aware and be rather knowledgeable, articulate and erudite.

Someone on 100k a year might holiday several times a year, drive a flash car, live in a posh house and have lots of posh gear....BUT they might not have read a book in their lives, have really poor general knowledge, read The Sun and heat and watch a constant diet of eastenders/hollyoaks/corrie/emmerdale.

Who in that scenario is middle class?

AlpinePony · 17/04/2011 20:10

Alistron, is it not obvious?

thefirstMrsDeVere · 17/04/2011 20:13

Well I am most of the above (the first one). Not sure about erudite and my spelling is awful but lots of books, R4 on all the time, spent all day in the garden and used to by the guardian (too expensive now).

One day I WILL have a degree but it will be via the OU and I will be almost 50 when its finished. I am not middle class but my children might be one day.

Thats a point actually. The early years foundation degree is a requirement for many jobs not traditionally linked to a degree. So lots of working class women (particularly) will suddenly be MC? No? Nah.

Original poster
ivykaty44 · 17/04/2011 20:15

alistron - neither are MC

the first is upper class and the second is working class, I noticed the trick - you said someone was on 10k a year - that could well be unearned income - anh thought you would trick me Grin

OP posts:
thefirstMrsDeVere · 17/04/2011 20:16

oooo I could be mistaken as Upper Class! yay.

Original poster
ivykaty44 · 17/04/2011 20:21

would it really please you? How would it really effect your life if you where mistaken for a different class to the one you have given yourself?

It would to me be a bit like well someone stuck me in that pidgeon hole and wayhay they now picked me out of that hole and stuck me in one that's green not brown, would it have such an effect on you?

OP posts:
alistron1 · 17/04/2011 20:23

LOL Ivykaty!!! I've read enough Jilly Cooper books (note my WC reading choices!!!) to know that the 'U's have gardeners and only read papers for the racing results!!!

And Rupert Campbell Black (the most U man in the world) never read a book in his life. God, I want to be a Taggie.

AlpinePony · 17/04/2011 20:39

Taggie couldn't read though could she? You'd have to set fire to the library.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 17/04/2011 20:41

erm it was a joke.

Not a good one I grant you, but a joke nevertheless. Pretty obvious from my previous postings.