to wonder if peoples definition of Chav/Chavvy varies greatly

[GirlOutNumbered]

This is a bit of a post about a post. Some one said that a girl in a barbour jacket would be chavvy. I have never, ever seen a Chav in a barbour jacket.

A chav down here is someone who wears a tracksuit most of the time and jeans with a polo shirt when going out on the town. The girls would wear tracksuit tucked into ugg style boots, the boys trainers.

Whats a chav where you are?

Chav transcends social economic class, income, education and housing.

Oh compos. My lack of grammar is lazy use of the iPad and I will ignore your personal attack on my intelligence.

I'm not arguing a point, just stating a fact.

I will take on board that you and others feel that there are negative connotations to the word.

Akiss And gingers! I don't understand why its okay to relentlessly mock people with red hair when all other forms are racism are (understandably) taboo?

agree with Akissisnotacontract, generally speaking Chavvy seems to be used about white working class people, regardless of whether they're blingy, tasteless, have a bulldog, or are slapping their children in the street (as someone says further down the thread).

Horrible term. my mother used to use the word "common" in the same place. Stupid really given that she was a white working class person who lived in a council house.

I'm not arguing a point, just stating a fact.

You seem to be struggling with the difference between 'opinion' and 'fact.' It seems to be equally as confused and ill-considered as your use of the word 'chav.'

ComposHat, I hate to say it, but you sound like you would love to apply the word 'chav'' from the way you've just belittled OP.
Funny, this thread is pretending to care about making sure we don't belittle people! Crikey!
I now see the nastiness of which you all warned.
I'm bowing out of this one...

In fairness to girl she has stated since the very beginning of the thread that she didn't realise it had such negative connotations.

You're spot on, everlong. You express (better than i did!) what a chav is to me.

The person you describe is a loutish scumbag. I would wage a bet that that person often wears the kind of clothes my orange, Chihuahua toting lady does.....

dances, I'm with you on the gingerist thing. Why is it OK to be foul about a hair colour?
Weird!
Now I'm definitely off...

everlong

ComposHat I actually agreed with some of your points upthread until you became so utterly patronising. Do you mean to come across so superior and arrogant in your posts?

It does seem to be quite a new term though doesn't it?I wonder how long the word has been in common use.Why do we need such derogatory terms? A person is what he/she is and should only be defined by behaviour not by wealth/class/clothing/possessions/accent .It just doesn't matter.

snooping

The difference is that I am objecting to the things the OP's lazy and unquestioning use of a term widely considered to be offensive.

There is a world of difference between objecting to the things an individual has said and calling these comments offensive stupid or bigoted (as I have done with the OP) and what she is doing: basically using a blanket term to condemn a whole group of people by the way they dress and their socio-economic status.

ComposHat I actually agreed with some of your points upthread until you became so utterly patronising. Do you mean to come across so superior and arrogant in your posts?

I probably was a bit OTT wasn't I?.

lazy and unquestionning could also be couched ignorant (of). I don't know if that is any better, but i did think the op was ignorant of the many layers associated with the word rather than lazy, and i don't think it helps drive discussion to be unnkind to the person. In fact its mean and a bit rubbish.

Chav is a pejoritive term often used to distinguish a socio economic class. Used as a self identifier, the word is acceptable, however to use as a slang term usually infers some inherent rubbishness on behalf of the person using it.

HTH

I never said anything about their socio economic status and at what point did I condemn them?
You are reading a lot more into my posts than was intended.

Ah Custy. One succinct well thought outpost, discussion over. Job done.

So it's OK to belittle one person by being directly nasty, but not OK to apply a widely used general term in the way it's used in OP's region?
Glad you made that clear ComposHat.

So it's OK to belittle one person by being directly nasty, but not OK to apply a widely used general term in the way it's used in OP's region?

In a word...Yes.

I objected to the things she said (I admit I probably went a bit to far - but if you start a 'define a chav' thread on AIBU then you should expect a bit of critical comment) and not to her as a person, let alone a whole group of people I consider to be like her.

Where I grew up, the term 'Paki Shop' was (and depressingly still is) widely used to describe a corner-shop.

I wholly object to this 'widely used general term in the way it is used in my region' and consider those who use it to be, at best, ignorant and thoughtless and at worst, out and out racists.

Am I wrong in this? or should I just accept it, as it is a word that is used round there?

You didn't object to what I said, you scolded me about my grammar and inferred that I was stupid.

It's perfectly fine to disagree with me, I had no idea of the strong feeling about the word. I was just surprised at the description of a chav wearing a Barbour jacket. Now I have read the thread I can appreciate that it's notes great term and will reconsider its use.

I never tried to redefine the word, as you put it. I was just explaining my perception of the word in this part of the world. Which I may add is very far away from somewhere that the use of Paki shop is rife. so maybe that is why it's so different for me.

I think racial hatred has a slightly different slant though doesn't it?
Hating someone for the colour of their skin, or their culture is quite different to calling someone a 'chav' for behaving loutishly and wearing designer/fake designer clothes - isn't it? Nowhere in that Oxford Dictionary definition does skin colour get mentioned for 'chav'.
I always consider someone a 'chav' when they are behaving really badly and without consideration for other people, usually when you're out and about. It's their behaviour that makes you notice/judge them. Then they get the chav label because they're dressed by definition of the term.
That is a world away from just taking an instant hatred to someone for the colour of their skin or their religious belief. As for the term Paki, I like that people from Pakistan have taken the word as their own and call themselves 'Paki's' in some places. It has removed the stigma from those who chose to use it as a derogatory term.
Despite this debate, you did go too far, and you were gratuitously nasty! I think there may be double-standards lurking somewhere there ComposHat.

To be fair ComposHat has held her hands up and said she went too far. Let's all find a happy place