To hate the word chav

[usualsuspect]

What does it mean? ...it seems that only chavs make a noise or play loud music on MN

[alistron1]

The term chav is a pejorative. It's a stereotype, and a lazy one at that.

[CheerfulYank]

Meh. Doesn't bother me but then I live in America and we don't use it.

Here we have rednecks. No one minds being called that. :)

FWIW my grandfather was the most "common" man I ever knew and I loved him beyond reason. So anyone being labelled as anything that means "common" never holds any weight with me.

[Chil1234]

I doubt your grandfather was 'common' in the perjorative sense. "Common" where I come from means 'fur coat and no knickers'. Lack of taste & manners. Dubious morals. Low personal standards. Tendency towards ostentatious consumption, waste, idleness and 'more money than sense'. I grew up on a respectable working-class housing estate and you could spot the 'common' types a mile off. We didn't call them 'chavs' in those days but I think it's the same thing.

[Mumbybumby]

I remember 'chav' being used as a way of differentiating ravers 'chavs' from rockers 'crusties'/'grungers'.
This was waaaay back in the early- mid 90s, long before the word became nationally used.
I used to go out around the Medway area and there were a lot of ravers or 'chavs' in Chatham and I'm fairly certain its usage has become completely distorted because of its origins.
It had absolutely NO reference to social status when we used it!

[Mumbybumby]

Forgot to say that people also used to say 'alright chav' as something interchangeable with 'alright bruv' .. ..

[lionheart]

It is horrible, judgemental and and I think, used as a way of indicating your own superior status/taste/morality.

[noodle69]

lionheart what about people that call themselves chavs and are proud of living in 'chavvy' areas. You see a lot of that where I am

[ShinyMoonInAPurpleSky]

Well, if you see someone on Jeremy Kyle, or see someone who could be on Jeremy Kyle then they are a chav.

Although I prefer to say they are chavtastic.

And yes, I used to live on a council estate when the word first started being used. Before they were chavs in my area they were "scallys".

They are the PITAs of the rest of the community: uneducated, unemployed, probably involved in something illegal at one point of their lives and proud of all of the above.

Yes I am judgemental and that is why I'm on MN. You can all pretend you're not but there will be something you can't help but be judgey about .

[CheerfulYank]

Suppose not Chil . I mean he was common in the manner of...well, think of an American version of Onslow from Keeping Up Appearances. :)

[Kallista]

I went to school with lots of settled English Romany kids in late 80s / early 90s - they used 'chav' as a verb not a noun. Eg: 'i'll chav ya', 'gonna chav that'. Depending on the context it meant to take/buy/steal, have (as in beat up), or have (have as in have sex with). Romanies were the biggest minority and even the wealthiest pupils had Romany friends or lots of us had a mixed family so we used Romany words a lot, and copied their fashions eg lots of gold (except my mum wouldn't buy it). Certain wealthy kids were real snobs though but it made them unpopular.
I won't use the modern version of the word chav as i prefer to judge people by their personality. I will call someone 'rough' if they have a nasty aggressive attitude and i do look down on that behaviour. But you can live in a mansion and act rough.

[InPraiseOfBacchus]

YABU - I'm more irritated when people get sanctimonious about the fact that they hate the word 'chav'.

It's NOT a word meaning 'poor people'. It's a word for tasteless, wilfully ignorant, and vulgar people. Katie Price, for example, is a chav no matter how much money she's got.

[Bunbaker]

"YABU... I think 'chav' is just the latest slang for 'common' or 'vulgar'"

That's how I see it. On a holiday thread I saw recently someone asked for advice about going somewhere that wasn't full of chavs. I understood exactly what the poster meant as it was a one word description that conveyed a whole host of meanings.

Yes it is derogatory, but while I don't use the word myself I understand what is meant by it. And, yes, I am an insufferable snob about where I go on holiday and avoid "chav" destinations like the plague.

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

I ignored the holiday thread as I thought it was offensive.

I can think of people who have been publically educated, have a huge trust fund etc that I view as tasteless, wilfully ognorant and vulgar and yet I suspect they would not be called a chav. So it must mean more than that.

[constantlywrong]

...but some people are chavs...

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

If you get your kicks in life by insulting people then there a plenty of insults you can use without using a term that is only applied to the working class. The utter desperation of some middle class people to seperate themselves from those they consider beneath them is in itself worthy of contempt.

[SueSylvesterforPM]

If you get your kicks in life by insulting people then there a plenty of insults you can use without using a term that is only applied to the working class. The utter desperation of some middle class people to seperate themselves from those they consider beneath them is in itself worthy of contempt.


A chavvy metality is classless Katie Price, Kerry Katona etc are filthy rich but are still chavs well as far as Im concerned anyway.

[constantlywrong]

Well AFAIK "chav" isn't used to refer to everyone who is lower class. It's not a distinction of haves and have nots. Being "lower class" does not make you a chav, just like being "middle class" does not make you posh or a toff or whatever. It's not about money, or class. It just happens that most of what people would refer to as "chavs" are seemingly lower class, but this is because of their lack of work ethic/idea that everything should be given to them on a plate. It doesn't mean that everyone who is "lower class" is there for the same reason, or that anyone is saying that.

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

Class is not about money though is it. Class is a very difficult concept and possibly an outdated one, but it is most definitely not about money.

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

No not everyone who is lower class is a chav, but I would bet my bottom dollar that everyone who is a chav is lower/ working class. That is my point. If you have to insult people why do you have to reserve a term for those who a deemed to be lower or working class?

[constantlywrong]

desperately, yes but I mean in the sense of using the word "class" to draw distinctions between lower/upper/middle etc - I do actually think you can be "middle class" while being on what is thought of as a lower class wage (though don't see the need to label it tbh), but in this sense, that's what I was talking about.

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

It is also about people "having" things they are supposedly not worthy of. For decades the middle classes indulged in the odd burberry item. Heaven forbid a working class person started wearing it and now it is vulgar. So it keeps repeating ad infinitum.

[constantlywrong]

I would never actually use it as an insult - "what a total chav", etc but see no problem in saying something like "no, I'd rather not go to that pub, it's full of chavs".

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

I agree you can be middle class and have a lower class wage and you can be working class and have a huge income, which is where I suspect Kerry Katona and Katie Price are for most people. They are working class and therefore sneered at by those who consider themselves middle class, which was the point I was making.

[desperatelyseekingsnoozes]

But that is an insult constantly.

[constantlywrong]

Those knobs are in a total class of their own heh