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Original poster

to think this class system only exists on MN?

308 replies

GildedWingsOfGrace · 13/09/2013 20:00

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 Confused

OP posts:
greenbananas · 13/09/2013 20:37

bsc Grin glad it's not just me!

usualsuspect · 13/09/2013 20:38

Only the MC care about class.

FreudiansSlipper · 13/09/2013 20:38

there is far more bashing of the wc than mc on here

i find many are desperate to show they are so mc

who really cares, well many on here obviously do

but sadly many people do judge what class you are from by what you wear, say, how you talk, where you go on holiday and even if you have your tv hanging on the wall Hmm

Original poster
GildedWingsOfGrace · 13/09/2013 20:39

What other classes are there apart from working and middle?

In terms of Titanic would working class be steerage?

OP posts:
FreudiansSlipper · 13/09/2013 20:41

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

Why?

LittleBearPad · 13/09/2013 20:41

There's a whole gamut of classes

Upper, middle and working being the main ones but there are subdivisions in them. Ie Upper middle / lower middle etc.

Original poster
GildedWingsOfGrace · 13/09/2013 20:41

i find many are desperate to show they are so mc

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

When it comes to class MN just straight out confuses me Confused

OP posts:
LittleBearPad · 13/09/2013 20:42

Because class and income are not the same thing.

LuisSuarezTeeth · 13/09/2013 20:43

If you meet a wide variety of people daily, as I do, you would soon become aware of "class". It is definitely not restricted to MN.

LuisSuarezTeeth · 13/09/2013 20:43

LittleBear - exactly

FreudiansSlipper · 13/09/2013 20:49

yes i am well aware of that

but what i do not understand is why it is irritating to someone

TheUglyFuckling · 13/09/2013 20:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Rufus43 · 13/09/2013 21:04

But can you move round from class to class? It seems to be mc people saying my dad was wc and when I started out in life I was wc so I am wc til I die

And although its not related to money most people seem to equate being mc to the type/amount of stuff you own or money you earn (husbands in some cases)

Seaweedy · 13/09/2013 21:12

What Mercibucket and ThumbsDown said. I think you'd need to be seriously blinkered not to see the workings of class in the day to day way this society functions. I say that as someone not from the UK.

i do agree with whoever said up the thread that Mn focuses on 'reading' the details of class and class aspiration rather than larger class structures or politics. The baby names forum is particularly interesting for that. There's a thread currently discussing whether or not Megan is a 'chavvy' name.

HalooJones · 13/09/2013 21:33

Most people that think they are middle class are really working class.

kaosak · 13/09/2013 22:52

Amazed that you could be British and not be aware of class and whereabouts you fit in for better or for worse.

It's everything from the newspaper you read, where and how you take your holidays, which supermarket you shop at, which schools you care to go to, where you buy your clothes blah blah.

I think you need to feel comfortable wherever you fit in within that class structure, aspiring to be something you are not is never going to feel great I wouldn't have thought.

DuelingFanjo · 13/09/2013 22:54

Hallo, funny I would say the opposite is true. People seem desperate to be working class when they are clearly ot. They think because their father or grandfather worked in a shop or the mines it means they are still working class.

kaosak · 13/09/2013 23:00

Yes I agree Dueling, it's more street innit. I blame Call Me Dave Grin!

usualsuspect · 13/09/2013 23:01

Posters on MN are desperate to be seen as MC.

WhereYouLeftIt · 13/09/2013 23:21

"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?"

I don't care about/believe in astrology, and don't think it could possibly affect my life; but I still know what star sign I am.

Prambo · 14/09/2013 00:33

I only became class-conscious when I joined mumsnet and I am ashamed to say I am now sneery of those who are middle class.

DuelingFanjo · 14/09/2013 00:48

I suspect there's a huge misunderstanding of what middle class is!

Lazysuzanne · 14/09/2013 01:07

class is about social and economic status, it's not rigidly and absolutely definable.

Lazysuzanne · 14/09/2013 01:16

as for who is middle class and who is working class, different people/groups will use different criteria according to their purposes.

We are multi dimensional and tend not to slot easily into clearly defined categories.

Thats not to say that class doesnt exist, clearly we live in a very unequal society.

stitchy · 14/09/2013 01:25

The class system is alive and kicking, I just don't know into which class I fall as neither the working class or the middle class would have me as a member. On the one hand my brother is a banker, sister is a curator, mates are solicitors etc and yet I'm a non-university educated, daughter of a salt-of-the-earth (more patronising middle class term for chav) proper northern, 'you can't go to heaven if you vote tory' dad. It's class limbo.