to ask what a chav is?

[tallulahxhunny]

Who/what are chavs?

They are very popular anyway as everyone seems to be one and everyone talks about them

Only chavs do that then?

Forgot to mention: the real 'problem' with chavs is, of course, that they're too lazy/arrogant/stupid to piss off out of their social housing so that said 'creatives' can move in and enjoy the guilt-free view.

Catgirl, it's from chavi and chavo. Rom children in school started hearing it said to local girls wearing hooped earings long before it it became a comon thing. It started as a tease and got nasty.

I don't think chav used to be used in the same way it is now- what most of you are describing as chavs were called scum before. Chavs are those from the benefit culture who manage to dress in designer gear but without the designer life to match- eg the burberry check hats, the top named sports gear and heavy jewelry.

A 'chav' is a person who exhibits any sort of behavior that:

a) one doesn't do oneself, or
b) one does actually do but doesn't like to admit it, and
c) one gets enjoyment from 'looking down on', and/or
d) one feels part of a 'gang' for in disliking said behaviour, and
e) is written about in one or more of the tabloids on a daily basis and/or
f) is referred to on the Matthew Wright show, and/or
g) involves sending copious amounts of gold to those companies soliciting for it to be sent in envelopes.

It's hard to define what a 'chav' looks like but it never seems to bear any resemblance to the person one sees in the mirror...

I think a 'chav' must therefore be some kind of enigma... oft talked about, never seen.

What a lot of people call chavvy is wanting to dress up, jewellery, labels, hair and makeup done, etc. Even labels for tracksuits. Working class people have always wanted to dress up and look smart. It's the middle class kids that want to look scruffy and poor, at least when I was a teenage It's about being conspicuous with things like labels and jewellery, and translates into the home as well - which is why having your DVD's on display is called chavvy, having a big shiny tv centre in your living room is chavvy.

It's not really the same in any way as calling people hooray henry's or whatever, people labelled "posh" even in a jeering way tend to have lots of money and power, and "chavs" have neither.

I reckon people wjo call other people names and lebl groups have some issues. I grew up on a council estate on benefits.

It is vile word used by more fortunate people to disparage less fortunate ones.

OP asked for definition of CHAV - look on wikipedia - 'council housed and violent' is one definition - origins are also the - romanie and a translation meaning kid or child. That's the definition- whether people think it's an appropriate word to use is up for debate.

Suggested reading: "Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class" by Owen Jones

i received this text the other day

"Our father,who art in prison,even mum knows not his name,thy chavdom come,you'll read the sun,in Exmouth which is in Devon,give us this day our welfare bread and forgive us our ASBOS as we happy slap those who got ASBOS against us,lead us not into employment but into free housing,for thine is chavdom,the burberry and the bacardi,forever and ever...INNIT!

I thought it meant people who wore expensive gold jewelery and had a Burberry raincoat. Plenty like that around my way and they don't live in council houses.

I'd love to link to Rod Liddle's review of "Chavs The Demonization of the Working Class" but you have to subscribe to see articles from the Sunday Times.

Amazon reviews, Paisley?

Its a shame the word chav is used to sum up people in council housing.
Chav, is more to do with a particular set of personality traits.

I have met poor people with impeccable manners, decent and law abiding citizens, caring and hardworking with a strong sense of what it means to live in a "community", and raising beautiful children.

Ive also met rich people who are terribly rude, lack any decorum, arrogant and selfish, and are just a complete nuisance to society.

Thats not to say there arent poor chav's or rich decent people, but please dont paint everyone with same brush, and dont put people down based on their accomodation.

No indeed, nokissymum, that would be jolly mean.
But 'chav' isn't generally used to describe wealthy arseholes people, it's a term of abuse for working class people.

Wouldn't be the same Tchootnika.

Liddle's definition of the word (as unlikable as he his) was interesting.

Ohhhh... go on then....

Yes, but why perpetuate the abuse of "working class " people ? What have they done ? There's nothing wrong with being working class, there's the assumption there that working class equals trash, a lot of trash comes dressed in armani these days.

I dont know if you are guilty of any of this, but i know a lot of people who would fall into this category who are just lovely and hard working, i also know lots of very decent well off people.

We need to be pointing the finger at the real chav's, the voilent mums screaming and kicking other mums in the school playground, the loud girl bullies who think they are "it".

Well, quite so, nokissy.
Owen Jones' book (see above) looks quite interesting - might provide some answers...

Yes it does look interesting actually, will see if its on amazon, thank you.

Yes, Sloane Rangers - Chelsea (Sloane Square). Lady Di etc.

I can't Tchoonika, that's what I meat about the subscription thing.
It was just amusingly written and said that 'Chavs the Demonization of the Working Class' is based on the "false premise, that working-class equals chav......

....Has there ever been a chavvier event than the wedding of David Beckham and Victoria Adams? Never mind the white dove set loose or the purple flag hoisted aloft embroidered with the letters VDB (that?s Victoria, David and Brooklyn); how about the golden thrones Posh and Becks were seated"

I didn't realise that chav was only/usually applied to the poor/working classes.

There are plenty of people who live by us who have rather a lot of money. Some of them would be appropriately described as chavs. Especially the people over the road.... car stereo blaring at 10.30pm, throwing cigarette ends onto other people's gardens/driveways, verbally abusive and threatening to neighbours who ever so politely ask them to turn the music down.... I've seen more police cars over the past 12 months than I ever saw when I lived in a HA place!

And I also know plenty of poor/working class people that would never be described as a chav.

When I hear it I hear a short cut describing an undesirable attitude and conduct, nothing to do with social status or income.

The point it that it is used exclusively for people from a working class background: David and Victoria Beckham's wedding might not have been to everyone's taste (though I thought it looked fab!), but 'chavvy' was applied to it because of their wc backgrounds. Elton John's 50th was just as extravagent but no-one was calling him a chav.

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