to find it strange how some MN's are SO offended by the word Chav

[falolenhard]

Chav:
meaning a lower-class person who displays brash and loutish behavior and wears real or imitation designer

Snob:
A person with an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth who seeks to associate with social superiors

Both these terms are derogatory.
So why is it ok to call someone a snob (I bet nobody would say a word and it wouldn't get pulled)- but not a chav on here?

To be offended by one and not the other is a form of Inverted Snobbery?

Thanks @chickenme

Are you saying that you wouldn't mind being called a chav, or chavvy, in a good natured way? But what if it was cause for discrimination, in a way that being called a guardian reader is unlikely to be discriminatory in terms of having access to more opportunities?

I didn't disagree about "class" but I do about money. A lot of very rich people are distinctly chav in dress and behaviour.

It is always rich people that have acquired wealth and normally from working class backgrounds though, names mentioned in life. Jordan, Cheryl Cole (though she hasn't been orange for ages) etc.

Wayne Rooney, though chav isn't nearly and enough to describe that odious little toad.

What about. Tara PT? She's a bit norty and dressed badly back in her hey day but no one calls her a chav.

Chavvy is behaviour or a thing. To me anyway.

I don't need to hear someone's accent to call their baby's pierced ears chavvy. (The ears, not the baby before I get attacked again). And I would wager a lot on the fact that it's not just poorer people or working classes who get their babies ears pierced.

If someone wears a Croydon facelift hairdo, I don't need to know what street they live on or if their pearls are real to call it chavvy.

I don't class david beckham as a chav. His behaviour, look (current anyway) etc doesn't strike me as chavvy in the slightest.

No, I suppose Tara p-t wouldn't be called a chav, though I don't see why not, I would.

But spot another person of unknown background and origin behaving in ways she has in the past, and I would assume chavvy, yes.

Tara P-T doesn't go around shrieking abuse at people though. And she certainly wasn't dressed head to toe in Adidas or fake Burberry.

And everything Slithy has just posted.

If you want to use it, use it, but there is no denying it's class based.

It's defined as such in the Oxford Dictionary.

So you have to shriek and wear certain clothes?

Because if so how could people say a baby name is chavvy, or a Mickey Mouse t shirt or whatever else.

It's a way of saying that looks common, or lower class and I am TOTALLY looking down on it.

Look, if people want to use the word use it, but all this trying to redfine it as something not very insulting or class based is bollarks if you ask me.

It's part of it, yes.

'Chav' is insulting, isn't that the point? - & I don't care how much money David Beckham has he's still a bit Chavvy - the earring, kids with silly names.

And snob is insulting, as is Hooray Henry, chinless wonder and oik. Chav is no more or less insulting than any of those.

It is insulting. And clearly it's subjective as I don't think beckham is a chav and others do.

(When he had his hair in that silly half ponytail though, that looked chavvy)

I used Tara p-t as an example as others above me did.

Pick any 'posh' person who behaves badly and I would still call them chavvy.

We can't all agree on it's meaning, but the dictionary states it's lower class, so I'm happy to go with that.

Tara PT could be described as some a 'sloane' though.

From what I have experienced calling someone a chav is more about using a derogatory word to describe someone who exhibits certain attitudes, behavioural traits and lifestyle choices that are to varying degrees feckless, selfish,
They are the muppets driving around residential streets at 2am on a school night in some shite clapped out car equipped with a 500db bass speaker and a huge “wanker pipe” exhaust making everyone’s lives a misery. They are the arses who have a massive sense of entitlement but zero work ethic. They always know their rights even if they can’t spell them. They are the ones who think terrifying pensioners and those they perceive as weaker than them as a great form of entertainment. They are often the crap parents that set appalling examples to their kids. Any polite requests to moderate their antisocial behaviour no matter how well intentioned is met with insults, threats or actual violence.
The Guardian comment pages a few years ago tried several times to define the word chav as some kind of assault by the middle classes to label and demonise the working class and they were rightly slated for trying to conflate the two groups.
To those hand wringers who always seem to confer victimhood status on these sort of people and absolve them of any personal responsibility by excusing their crap obnoxious behaviour as always being someone else’s or the states fault try living nextdoor to a family of these people, I have and it bloody awful.

excellent points

Well if we are all decided it's certainly an insult, most of us are pretty sure it's class based and stereotypical, then doesn't it reasonably follow that people will find it offensive?

I don't think snob is as offensive as it isn't aimed at one section of society in such a way.

Chav is a word used to tear down the working class and keep them in their places imo. Maybe it bothers me because due to my life circumstances I could be described as a chav but I don't think I am one.

Chav is a word used to tear down the working class and keep them in their places imo

I really don't agree. Most people who could be described as working class certainly wouldn't/couldn't be described as chav.

Heraldgerald Good morning. I think if some

Heraldgerald good morning. I think if someone finds themself subjected to fewer opportunities as a result of their poor behaviour, criminality, laziness etc then that would be their fault. The demographic I would refer to as Guardian readers are enabling this type of person by apologising for them. I do think, though, that something needs to be done to get future generations out of this cycle of pure unashamed "not giving a shit" way of life.
In the past, in my lifetime, people were ashamed of being of "humble" origins and tried to make things better for their kids. What happened to that attitude? Today's chav is firmly in the gutter metaphorically speaking and proud of it.
Yes, I accept that most chavs aren't that well off but it's not
the case that working class people are automatically chav. Also, some working class people are comfortably off yet remain solidly working class. It isn't about money. A formerly very rich person could lose all his money but he wouldn't become a chav. He would always be a member of whatever class he started off in.
I have been called a chav jokingly by mates say for having a particular hairstyle or wearing a large gold earring or a loud outfit. That wouldn't bother me because I am not a chav really.
Long post but my train is delayed!

90% of the Jeremy Kyle show.
10% of my friends
And 5% of my family I would consider "chavs" each in their own ways and I still love my family and friends if consider a bit chavy.
Then there's "pond life" id say I only use this reference once or twice a year but when I do it's justified and yes it is an insult and usually aimed at the mother smoking whilst pushing her half dressed 6 month old down the road whilst it munches on a Mars bar, whilst hurling abuse at her older child who won't stay next to her whilst he swears and throws things at her with no regard to the fact they are in public and should probably have changed out of their pjs to go out for the day. (Massive generalisation there but so is the term) But chav? No, no I wouldn't personally be insulted if someone called me a chav, that's not to say my cousin would be chuffed to hear I consider him one.
Everyone's different, nobody will ever agree on this.

Depends how you use it TBH. I use it on an individual basis rather than to identify a whole group of people.

Perfectly possible to have 2 members of the same family & one is a Chav while the other isn't...

Before "Chav" they'd have been called "Scummers" or plain old "Cunts" round here....

subjected to fewer opportunities as a result of their poor behaviour, criminality, laziness etc then that would be their fault.
I find this interesting as someone with poor behaviour, criminal behaviour and a lazy outlook who was upper class or rich could do quite nicely for themselves in today's world. (Certain bankers are coming to mind).

The Tara PT example is very interesting. She does behave in a very chavvy way but yes, most people would not even think of using that word regarding her because of her well to do family and royal connections.
So yes, maybe one rule for the rich and one for the poor. Tara does not leech off the tax payers because she doesn't have to, but it's hard to imagine her supporting herself and making any kind of useful or genuine contribution to society.