self entitled middle class??

[sweetsoulsister]

As an 'out of towner' can people explain why the middle class in this fine city of London feel they are so god damned righteous?

I'm standing in a queue with my children at the local swimming pool, and judging by the car park, it's busy. We go in and join a long queue. A couple of the families in front of me take their turn at the counter, turn around in disgust, and pace back and forth, argue with each other and work themselves up into a frenzy. Assuming they are going swimming I ask what has happened with the pool. One of the ladies says, 'The pool is at capacity and if we want to go in we will have to wait until someone leaves,' her voice rises another octave and she continues, 'This is completely unacceptable!!'

Really? Unacceptable? If you were the first family in the pool and it got too crowded because they let everyone in would you just suck it up because it's unacceptable to let everyone in?

This is not the first time I've encountered this outrage and it always seems to be what I've deemed the 'self entitled middle class...'

Explanations please???

[Quinteszilla]

I don't believe this.

1. There are plenty of private membership clubs that londons middle classes use when they want to go swimming.
   
2. If the pool was filled to capacity it must have been a public pool.
   

It follows that the frothing pool goers were not middle class just driving an oversized car to match their ego.

[sweetsoulsister]

Quinteszilla then please tell me what a classes one a middle class! Please!

[sweetsoulsister]

nerfmother and devora too, please enlighten me!

[Bogeyface]

No Devora, and they dont shop in our crappy mall anyway :o

I was just pointing out that in a town with such a striking difference between the haves and the have nots, such behaviour is more noticeable.

Nouveau are not MC or UC, they are rich WC! Or "trash with cash" :o [waits to be flamed]

[whereisshe]

Perhaps some surface similarities. I would make a distinction though: German people like to follow the rules. English people like everyone else to be following the rules.

Maybe this would help?

[Quinteszilla]

Not driving a land rover and behaving like idiots for sure?

[freelancegirl]

I think one of the issues here OP is your assumption of what is middle class could actually be interpreted as particularly rude and also seems to have misinterpreted what middle class is in this country. It's not your fault, you aren't from here and I am assuming haven't been here very long. There's a great swathe of middle class in this country which is nothing like how you see it in terms of income and behaviour. What you're referring to is probably more upper middle class. The attitude of the people in the queue however was nothing to do with class, they were probably just having a bad day or generally rude.

By the way where has this 'entitled' description come from anyway? I only really see it on MN.

[Bogeyface]

Quint that aint necessarily so. As we all know, the MC are the "squeezed middle" so presumably the private family gym membership was the first thing to go when the child benefit was cut.

[whereisshe]

Oh, and lots of middle class English people like to think of themselves as working class because it makes them feel more authentic, which complicates matters.

[antimatter]

I went off to read who and why considers themselves middle class...
In this DM article there's very interesting quote:

74 per cent of Brits think that certain aspects of your personality or life can mean you get grouped into a certain social class.

and somehow contradictory:

The study also revealed that Britons think genetics and family background has the biggest effect on which class you are in, followed by your job or career.

I think both opinion have been expressed in this thread

[MrsKoala]

I have lived and worked in many middle class and working class areas. I have also always had public facing jobs. Some working with very upper class people (think royalty and landed gentry), very middle class people, nouveau/arriviste people (which is what i would be described as i suppose) and working class people. I have been sworn at by all of them . However, each one does 'rude' and 'entitled' in a very different and probably quite nuanced way. I must say none annoyed me more than the middle class ones. They seemed so much more smug and outraged somehow. More indignant that things haven't gone their way than just cross. It's a subtle difference i think, but i do notice it.

Of course the majority of people are not twats (or i keep telling myself that at least) so it's only the real bellends which stand out.

[Bogeyface]

I would make a distinction though: German people like to follow the rules. English people like everyone else to be following the rules.
Very true!!

Did you pinch that from Hennig Wehn, cos that sounds like one of his?!

[Devora]

Why don't you google a good definition, OP? In the UK context, it is used in a number of ways to indicate wealth, profession, culture etc. It is possible to be middle class and fairly poor (I was raised in a council flat on benefits; still identified as middle class) and it is possible to be working class and have a 4x4. In terms of profession, I guess lower middle class starts with nurses, admin managers and upper middle class takes you up to QCs and surgeons.

It is, of course, used to stereotype people, just as you are doing. But most of us understand that that is what we are doing.

[Bogeyface]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973

What class are you?

[Viviennemary]

I'd be a bit annoyed to if I had to wait till somebody left before I could go swimming. It's bad enough waiting for a space in a car park or in a restaurant. But a swimming pool. Never heard of such a thing.

[steff13]

This is what wikipedia says defines Middle Class:

*Achievement of tertiary education.

*Holding professional qualifications, including academics, lawyers, chartered engineers, politicians, and doctors, regardless of leisure or wealth.

*Belief in bourgeois values, such as high rates of house ownership and jobs which are perceived to be secure.

*Lifestyle. In the United Kingdom, social status has historically been linked less directly to wealth than in the United States, and has also been judged by signifiers such as accent, manners, place of education, occupation, and the class of a person's family, circle of friends and acquaintances.

*Cultural identification. Often in the United States, the middle class are the most eager participants in pop culture whereas the reverse is true in Britain. The second generation of new immigrants will often enthusiastically forsake their traditional folk culture as a sign of having arrived in the middle class.

[SeaSickSal]

I sort of know what you mean OP. But it's not the whole middle class in London, just a certain type.

[Bogeyface]

I am


Established middle class

This is the most gregarious and the second wealthiest (NO I AM NOT!) of all the class groups. According to the Great British Class Survey results, lots of people in this group:

Enjoy a diverse range of cultural activities Yes
Went to university Nope, teen pregnancy put paid to that!
Are comfortably off, secure and established Cant type...for.....laughing

[sweetsoulsister]

For what it's worth I do love living here and find it interesting with the different dynamics of social being. I remember the first time I left my country and was surprised to find out I had an accent! I thought I sounded 'neutral'!

I am trying to be as neutral as possible when talking about the different class systems, but in my eyes they definitely do exist and I just want to know what makes them tick.

Thank you to those who were brave and intuned enough to comment with good arguments on both sides of the case. Nothing wrong with holding up a mirror once and awhile! I think the key to happiness is taking nothing personally.

[Quinteszilla]

Bogey, yes I suppose 9k or so per year is not to be sniffed at. I did not realise child benefit was that much! ( ours were stopped due to eu rules and immigration status upon our refurb yo Britain)

[Philoslothy]

That would piss me off which is why we have our own swimming pool(s). I am not middle class, just spoilt, self entitled and with a huge ego.

I also have a battered land rover.

[Devora]

Thanks Bogey, according to that I am a New Affluent Worker, who they say come from a working class background. So I probably wasn't middle class, just pretended to be, and have finally grown into my aspirations

[Devora]

sweetsoulsister, I haven't been at all defensive - no need to be, as I don't throw hissy fits in swimming pools - but your claim of 'holding up a mirror' would only be true if you actually knew what you were talking about

[Mimishimi]

They're just jerks. Other types of families might complain about it as "a f--king joke". I've seen both sorts in queues (including some very stiff-necked upper middle-class types who, without an ounce of shame, push right into queues at airport lounges - particularly from Indian and Anglo - Saxon backgrounds). I've Chinese mainlanders be extremely rude at Disneyland in Hong Kong. Someone's class/race/SES is irrelevant actually - anyone can act like an entitled twat.