what does Middle Class mean?

[fluffybutt]

I am slightly suprised at the amount of reference to Class, on MN. So I was just wondering, what determines ones class?.

I don't know anyone that frets like people say they should be.

I agree that wineandcheese probably sums it up most accurately in my book

"Middle Class" is what people who don't like you, call you when they want to insult you over personal choices you might make. (Clothes, schooling, car etc).

Money cant buy class! Middle class I would say is if you earn over 100K a year under that your working class .

Wayne rooney earns that a week and is not middle class

The money bit is irrelevant.

The middle classes use thier middle classness as a protective shield against all those whipper snappers like me from the wrong end of town who have out performed them educationally and financially...

At least, they tell themselves as they darn their socks, we're not nouveau..shudder.

marsha I think money has only become irrelevent in recent times.

Previously the class system could very much be deliniated on financial terms...but now so many solidly middle class folk are earning way less than others from WC background that they've had to change tack.

Now you can be middle class and poor...but you can still place yourself higher in the pecking order (which is important if you're middle class) because clas has, apparently, and recently become nothing to do with money.

I agree with wineandcheese.

I tick all the MC boxes (Radio 4, Guardian, read books, watch very little TV, shop at farmers' markets, am a "friend" of the local museum, off to Hay next week...) but as I work PT for a charity my income is pretty tiny.

Class fascinates me though, which probably instantly marks me out as MC!

Yes it's all over the shop these days. Although I know many, many very wealthy mc people of course. But in response to sweetness claim re £100k cutoff, I'd say that is incorrect.

Money most definitely does not buy class.

Look at Victoria Beckham .

there is no limit to the amount of boring on about class mners can do, is there?

well that stopped that then

What happened to the idea of the middle class being in the middle? On this and other threads there seems to be an assumption that most people are working class and the middle class are the most well off in society (earning over £100k a year or sending children to private schools). On that basis, what makes you upper class?

Is anyone on here genuinely upper class, by the way? (sorry for trying to derail thread)

"If you define by class, then you have no class"

That's what my grandmother said to me when I was younger and asked her if she was upper class!

(I asked her because she was talking about how as a child, her clothing was delivered twice a year, direct from Harrods. To me aged about 8, that was the definition of Upper Class!)

Porpoisefull- isn't uc landed gentry only?nobles, and the like?

Upper class I believe is the true blue bloods.

Landed gentry, aristocrats, horse teeth etc.

I'm glad to MC and not UC.

Although some Hoorah Henrys slip through the net.

I hate class posts ...... (I realy do) I know someone on another forum who persistently insists she is middle class, she constantly patronises those who she believes to be working class. They rent thier home, rely on public transport with 3 children under 5, husband works very long hours to make ends meet, buy all of thier clothes from car boots sales and she has to shop in farm foods and lidl. is that middle class?

to me only the upper class can afford to look working class and not give a toss! where as someone to trys to be more than they are, normally fails.

Hate to admit anything on here but my folks are peerage posh.
However I work in voluntary sector and will inherit nothing.

It means that you mke a living with your brains and not with your hands....unless you're an artist.

If you work in a factory, call centre, shop or office in a menial role then you'r working class. Ditto taxi drivers, truck and bus drivers, anyone in catering except chefs....receptionists and dental hygenists....they're ll working class.

colditz not breastfeeding has fuck all to do with class.

I was pondering this this morning. I think the classes have changed a lot during recent years with the growing 'Nouveau riche'.

I consider myself to have been brought up in a middle class home with my father being a Doctor and them also listening to radio four!!
But does that make me middle class? I'm not sure, but the fact that I studied at a good university(red brick) and worked for a few years before having kids teaching and travelling might sway me more to thinking I am probably more swayed towards the middle class. However I also have two brothers who are totally different - left school at 16, got into trouble with police,never found a career path............

I don't think class is down to how much you are paid, we were not 'rich' growing up because we only had one income coming in and for 5 children, that's not easy but I have no doubt my dad earned his respect.

Job/profession yes - A plumber might earn more than a lawyer but I would not say the plumber was in a higher class because he had more money or a nicer car.

Morals/standards - yes, and we were not allow to swear at home or we would be slippered! We were set boundaries we never dared cross. I hope to set the same boundaries for my children (bar the slipper!!) We were not allowed to watch films too old for us etc........I hear the way some parents talk to their kids in the street and quite honestly it freaks me out!

I also think that the huge increase in people going to 'university' has not helped us to unravel the question.

Colditz, I agree Breastfeeding 'shouldn't' have anything to do with class, unfortunately some people who call themselves middle class think that breast feeding their babies and having a nice pram makes them middle class!

Don't want to be labelled for someone else's convenience or so that I am classifiable as worth knowing or not. Not interested in labelling other people. There are two sorts of people in the world - those I get on with and those I don't. Simples!

I met someone who thought Carluccios was a posh restaurant to go to on an important date. To me, it's somewhere to have brunch when I'm bored. I consider her not middle class and I probably am.