To think the working classes have been demonized in this country?

[AwkwardMary]

I just read an article about it...lost the page though...so can't link sorry! It really resonated with me...it spoke of how their are no positive working class characters on TV anymore...the comedy shows that portray them make them the lowest of the low and shows like TOWIE are only illustrating how the working classed "done good" are only as tacky and badly informed as they "ever were"...and how Little Britain was written by two middle class men who'd been to private schools...so who the eff were THEY to take the piss out of working class girls like they did?

In the 80s we had good, positive and sympathetic worknig class characters like Yosser and it spoke of how Brookside was born of the Thatcher Years and showed a truer representation of the hard working working classes. Those with respect for themselves and a good work ethic. The 50s, 60s and 70s had lots of good literature such as Kes and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Poor Cow, Up the Junction etc

These days people are all about moving forward and away from being working class...nothing wrong with that you may think...why shouldn't people aspire to a better lifestyle? Well of course they should but not if it means that anyone who isn't striving for a bigger house and more "things" is looked down on and called a chav.

Is it all about respectability? Have the real working classes lost their self respect?

(I am working class right through and often feel confused about my past and my present)

I AM working class you arsehole Trois

So where does the under class fall into this discussion then, someone who lets say is on benefits, has always been on benefits, whos parents were on benefits. Someone who lives on a sink estate and has no more than a very basic education and may not be able to read or write properly.

These people are routinely looked down on by the working classes as well as everyone else in society. Why should we focus on the demonized working classes when they too demonize the under classess?

Or does this bring us back to the discussion of who is in which class, which you clearly do not want to talk about?

trois cross post, this thread is not helping with my class confusion one little bit!

Del boy was a theft, who didn't pay tax, and cheated the system. Not a role model surely

It's more than a job...or the lack of it and I can only assume that everyone here aside from myself is middle class.

I'm comfortable being defined as working class - so in answer to Mary's specific question about working class role models on TV, I would say some Emmerdale characters, the midwives from One Born Every Minute and Kevin Bridges (the comedian). Is that what you mean OP?? Not easy though is it to think of genuine working class role models in the public eye!

jaqueline the "undeclass" you talk of is a relatively new thing though isn't it? Born of Thatcher.

I thought that there might be some on soaps MrsLemon but what about quality drama?

AkwardMary -- 'You lose your job it does not mean you lose your class!'

Now that's funny because according to you because I got a degree I instantly lost my class! You can't have it both ways.

Just a reminder I am in my own opinion working class.

I recall a conversation I had once with a friend from Uni. She spoke in a rather derogatory way of someone we knew because this girl was of 'new money'. I was

griphook thats what I thought, Delboy may be a role model to some but surely not a positive one?!

Erm, yes you might have a point there. Plus dodgy taste in wallpaper.
And dressing gowns.

No...jaqueline Where did I say that? I have a degree but consider myself working class still...

dodgy wallpaper and blow up dolls, does he even rate as a human.

But being serious the only positive role model I can think of is who is not ashamed of being working class and that is Kathy Burke.

Ah yes grip but she's a real person!

Aah right Mary... so how about DCI Banks? Or the hilarious Two Pints Crew (Not 'quality drama' admittedly.... but funny and working class )

For me personally I suppose I have always looked to real life inspirational people as role models. Currently I am a little in luff with my local MP - Rachel Reeves - although I think she went off me a little when I admitted voting tory last time

I cannot stand the class system. It's demoralizing for all "classes". Stop trying to pigeon hole yourselves and get on with life.

Class should be seen and not heard AKA stop talking about it!

I do not believe that the working class have been demonized. Their fate has been worse than that. They have been erased.

Replaced with Underclass. A convenient lable for when the less well off behave in an unsavoury manner.(Getting drunk, not having ALevels, being an unmarried parent, requiring benefits). Or Middle Class when they behave well.(buy houses, have a SAHM & a WOHD, aren't stupid, extol education to their kids).

That sums things up rather nicely Diane!

you got me, Working class people are often portayed as depressed or down trodden, debt ridden with a life that should be pitied, and if only we could all pull together we could make their little lives so much better.

It's as though it is a comfortable place for them to be...when the middle classes get uncomfortable with the way things are going, the imbalances as to what some sections of society get in terms of education, housing, food and health, they can feel better simply by recalling "Ah yes...but those people have no morals do they!" So that's alright then.

You just said that you assumed everyone on this thread aside from yourself was middle class.

It is accurate to say that the media portrays anyone from, shall we say, a lower class bracket in an poor light. They are routinely demonised and this has far reaching consequences for our society as a whole. It is something that I feel passionately about and something that has become worse over the past 10 years.

I understand that the idea of an under class is a relitavely new development but that does not mean that is should be discounted, especially when the people in this social bracket quite possibly recieve the most discrimination and demonzation.

Just thought of "Shameless"...what of that? I don't watch it...are there any positive characters in that?

I "felt" that *Jaqueline" because for some reason I felt that I was being challenged....in terms of my own class.

What makes someone gain the pity/scorn of others in terms of class? Is it those women who turn up on the school run with poorly dressed DC? The ones who might keep their pj bottoms on...or give the DC sausage rolls to eat in their buggies?

If so, is it a lack of pride which earns them the scorn of others?