To wonder why MN is obsessed with class?

[Moknicker]

Having read yet another class related thread here, I confess to being puzzled by it. I am a foreigner but have lived in the UK for 15 years and am married to an Englishman. I can honestly say that in all my social interactions here "social class" has never been a factor that has determined anything in my life - be it finding friends, getting a job, etc. Of course lots of other things have been factors - my foreignness, education levels, income levels but never whether I say "napkin" or "serviette" or where I buy my groceries etc.

Is it different for the posters in the "class" threads? Has it ever made it difference to your day to day lives as to what class you were. Or are these just academic discussions (albeit interesting ones) to while away some time? But if so, then why do they crop up again and again?

I have the opposite problem, I live in Sweden which is a pretty classless country and it baffles me. I ask my dp what a middle class name/accent/school would be and he just looks at me like I am crazy.

I think it's probably just an MN thing.

I've never taken part in or even overheard a discussion about what class British people are in real life.

It's mainly Asian people here who seem a little obsessed with what class they are.

beats me!

MN is obsessed with class because it's predominantly British, OP. The only reason you've experienced this country as not paying much attention to class in its dealings with you is that you're foreign and therefore exempt from the whole business.

i think on mn it is mainly a desription.
someone might be trying to describe their life and saying I am WC or MC helps/
it is also used to brag and show off
and to woe it up

It's because MN is crammed full of Guardian readers.

I think it stems from our parents... And their parents...

I feel defined by my class
It describes my culture, of which I am proud
I enjoy the familiarity of sharing experiences etc with people from the same culure

I dont discuss my class daily (or even very often) in RL

Web chat, is more of an anlaysis, so it becomes more relevant to mention it

Btw, Im Asian and a guardian reader (as well as the telegraph, indy and any other online newspaper I can find) [:)] - so perhaps that's why Im asking.

But since this is an anonymous forum could I ask if there have been instances where it has actually mattered in your life? Would you not date someone or be friends with someone? Have you been excluded because of class? Does it actually make you feel superior or inferior to someone?

Class is the perspective of British life. It's an error to imagine it doesn't exist. Here I'm thinking of all representations of it in art and politics. How is it not there?

I can't think of a time in my life when I haven't applied a class perspective to my dealings with people. It's not an automatic shit/not shit, but a recognition of the situation.

I think in real life we judge each other on class without even realising it, accent/clothes/name/home decor all lead us to make assumptions about class, on mumsnet we don't know that a poster is talking queen's English and that her children are called Tabitha and Tarquin and she shops at john lewis so she might put mg as an insight into their situation.

It's because MN is crammed full of Guardian readers Practically every link on MN is to the DM

I'd imagine other countries do the same to some extent. there's always divisions like, wealth, education etc. I think the UK is more about these divisions these days that just class. People are changing class now they are able to get better educated. It's definitely more fluid and mixed now.

i have felt judged because of my class, in the past

Not in any overt awful incidences

Just in attitude and assumptions

perceptions that are ingrained/covert/subconscious; in the same way that racism is often

that was in reply to Mon 12.43 post

That would make you vair vair non-u, MrsMicawber :o

Also OP I 'pass' for MC, and my MC friends assume I am; often we can be having converstaions about our childhoods for example...I cannot relate to what they talk about. I can feel poles apart from them at these times; I cant respond because I cant relate. I can/dont want to tell them I have no clue what they are talking about (because that is a detraction from the topic of the conversation)

I have also had tales I tell from childhood/youth/younger years meet with

I am never ever dating again ; and I wouldnt rule anyone out, but definitely would need to be 'won over' by a middle class suitor. Am attracted to WC men

FWIW I'm also a foreigner and I think you must move in fairly homogenous circles to think class isn't an issue in Britain.

I find the nuances of class in Britain (and elsewhere - the US for example is almost as bad even though they don't acknowledge it like Brits do) tremendously interesting in a sort of anthropological way. Attaching value judgements to supermarkets is bloody interesting - how it's communicated, who gets to 'break' the rules and what THAT says, etc etc.

For me 'class' is a just a label for differences between people.

I have dated someone before where our 'class' difference is what made it not work, equally, I have friends where the 'class' difference has had no effect.

I find it is used on here/I use it on here merely as terminology to describe, more than an obsession of thou is better than thee.

I do get judged. I have a great job, quite high up and people assume that I am a low life basically. Until I prove them otherwise by being awesome at my job... then they can be all over me like a rash.

I get annoyed at one particular MC person I know they clearly live in a less desirable area but will ALWAYS say she lives in the more up market town next door. And she will get angry, very seriously angry about it if it's questioned. Fecking bonkers if you ask me...