to think this class system only exists on MN?

[GildedWingsOfGrace]

All the time I hear "middle class" bashing on here.

Or "working class" guilt. Only on MN.

I wouldn't have a clue what class I am or what class my friends are, or the people I work with are.

It doesn't even occur to me, and I never hear it mentioned in day to day life

You clearly don't read the daily mail. It is obsessed with class.

If you don mind me asking - are you English? Class obsession is built into many English people in a way that other European countries etc don't understand.

Yes I'm English.

I also notice a lot of "British Bashing" on MN too.

Why is MN so obsessed with class?

I am obsessed with the amount of midle class people who try to convince people they are working class when they are not.

Possibly it is shorthand used to describe someone
Possibly it's judgy and can be used to undermine people.
Possibly I don't know sorry.

Watching the English by Kate Fox is interesting on this. It's popular anthropology and spends a lot of time on class.

I find that class exists everywhere and its only more vocalised on MNet.

It's irritating when "middle class" and "middle income" are used interchangeably too.

Oh no, you haven't met DH's family. They are obsessed with class! Mostly mocking what they consider to be posh I.e. me and how we're raising our children though strangly they appear to aspire to a "higher" class when you look at how they spend their money- all expensive cars, clothes and holidays. Very very odd.

i always wonder how people can, for instance, look at the background of the current government,and not see how class shapes everything in the uk

It's still possible to read Jilly Cooper's "Class" and recognise exactly the system she describes, even though it was written backin the 1970s. The structure and key identifying characteristics haven't changed.

As a side note, I find the class threads on MN fascinating! I think it's because I struggle to understand the sneering that goes on and MN gives a great insight as to how people think. I can't exactly ask DH's family half the stuff I garner from here!

love that book meditrina, it's so true

classes exist in the rl, mnetters just don't feel ashamed about talking about which class they are

it was an eye opener to me

I agree OP.

My friends, and I have a lot , are from a variety of backgrounds. No one seems to give a toss about where you have come from.

I am astonished you have no idea what class you are if you are British / English. Even if you don't consider it day to day.

Because I don't care enough to know. How will it affect my life?

Will I stop being friends who are a certain class? Start shopping in Waitrose? Get a promotion?

No. It would make no difference to my life at all.

Guess my social class, because I have no clue:

HGV driver, paid-for education, obese, possesses cafetiere, prison haircut, RP accent, says "fuck" a LOT, drinks gin, eats at KFC, has hit people while sober, OU degree, votes Labour, lives on estate, drinks Amarone di Valpolicella, announces farts, drinks St Jean de Minervois, DD has tricolor hair and says "innit", has hit people while drunk, drinks Brewdog, changes shirt every other day.

Oh yeah: born in Yorkshire. Automatically whatever than you.

It does make a difference though. It affects how people interact with each other. This isn't right and it isn't fair but it is true.

Yes, seems to be a Mumsnet and Daily Mail obsession - probably says a lot

Ahem. Hitting people in this instance means in a sporting context. Ish.

I am about 90 pages into a book called chavs - the demonisation of the working class it is fascinating so far.

I am definitely working class, though university educated, and I live in one of the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Mumsnet is about the only place I get to interact with middle class people, and sometimes I feel like I am living on another planet to some of the posters here.

"How will it affect my life?"

Class affects everyones life in all kinds of ways. It's a shorthand way of discussing the structural inequalities in society - why children born into different families have different opportunities. Why people's access to capital and assets is so different, and how people's position in the labour market affects their life, standard of living, and choices.

Pointing out that class exists doesn't mean claiming that the fact that it exists is good!

The trouble is that people get obsessed with picking over the indicators of someone's class rather than the structural issues themselves. A lot of quibbling about what class someone is depending on whether they shop at Waitrose or play tennis or darts is silly, really. Trying to pigeonhole individual people is silly.

But the structural concerns are still important. Class is, in the end, all about people's relationship to capital and degree of power in the labour market.

It does make a difference though. It affects how people interact with each other. This isn't right and it isn't fair but it is true.

Does it?

Maybe I am blind to it, but this has never happened to me.

If I was interviewing someone for a job or the other way around - how would I know what class they are?

greenbananas I am about as mc as one could possibly be... but trust me when I say I feel like I'm living on another planet to most posters!

Love watching the English

I don't know what class I am for definite, but I'm pretty sure by everything I've read it's middle class. Don't really care one way or the other as it doesn't affect my life!

What interests me is the amount of vitriol some of the classes seem to attract and why some people are desperate to stick to one class even though by most definitions they are another...

That paragraph makes no sense, and needs punctuation!

Gilded- one would know by class signifiers and shibboleths.

It matters to some, not to me most.

I would say that it doesn't affect my life if I was middle class though wouldn't I