to think that "middle class" has become a derogatory term

[hijk]

and actually, most people aren't actually part of any class, really, they are just individuals who make their own way in the world.

Some of our nicest towels come out of the bundles I buy from charity shops to use on horses and dogs!

My initial reaction to this thread title was that I disagreed.

Then I started reading a novel where someone (modern) came in from the garden carrying a "trug" on the first page. I realised that I hate them. (Even though I got 10/10 on workhorse's list.)

Ha - well maybe that's the strongest indication that I am WC! We don't have any nice towels - just some that match that we got as a wedding present 9 years ago which I will put out together if they are clean for guests. They are used in general rotation and not kept for good though.

The only towels we have purchased since the wedding are from the supermarket or charity shops - money is for spending on self catering holidays to cities or beautiful places..... maybe I'm a little MC after all.

I never knew towels could be so contentious.

Anyway, it's supper.

We don't have a single nice towel. They are all like sandpaper. I suspect DH has been washing them on the wrong setting

Do you have a dryer, I find putting them in, even for ten mins then transferring to normal drying apparatus, helps to make them more fluffy.

We have OK towels, but I don't think we have brought a single one does that make us Upper class? Inherited towels?

My towels are inherited from my grandparents, they are on a garish 1970s theme and none of them match. I must be UC too.

I'd say 100% Fafoutis, did they inherit them from their GP too?

No, my grandmother stole them from Binns in Sunderland. Am I WC now?

fafoutis, that makes you a right Norvern pleb.

Sorry.

That is fine grovel, I'm happy with that.

I don't know, Fa, was she terribly eccentric, artistic, perhaps engaging in performance art? If so, still UC.

This thread had decended into the usual "I'm soooooooo MC that I [insert little quip that they think makes them MC]".

Everyone who needs to go to work to live is just the same as everyone else.

No knitted she scrubbed the step and wore curlers.

OK classic WC, who took great pride in her appearance and cleanliness.

Can we still talk of todays wc like yester years though? Isn't there an underclass now?

As in WC was bottom of supposed scale but not its under class, wc etc?

I think the proud WC live in new-builds and work in call centres now.

Who was it who said that call centres were the factories of the twenty first century and new build estates were the tower blocks of the future? I remember listening to a radio program a while back (possibly Will Self). I remember thinking how utterly depressing it all sounded. The New build estate near me has houses starting at half a million. Nice tower block! wish i could afford one!

Fascinating thread! I think my main issue with the way the British class system is generally presented and discussed is that it detracts from economic and political indicators such as income, level of self-determination in the workplace, access to education, opportunities for participation in the political process etc etc by emphasising things like ham, choice of media and entertainment, the sort of house you grew up in, towels etc. And these are all just consumer choices, and therefore merely cultural. It turns the imho scandalous fact that the class system is so deeply engrained in 21st century into a culture war. Culturally I'm as mc as they come. But I'm a worker.

The underclass are just a renamed part of the working class. In fact the term underclass was invented by an American to demonise single mothers and their supposedly feral children.
I think class can be defined by your taste, the types of things you like tend to be passed onto you by your parents and reinforced by your peer group-its called cultural capital, a french academic did a lot of interesting work on this.
Academics are widely known by all their colleagues to be the tightest gits ever, they believe it reinforces the absent-minded professor who has heavier things on her mind than worldly goods trope-that's why they drive crap ancient cars and eat cheap food and hog the admin's chocolates at xmas parties. but really its because they're just stingy.

Towels that survive long enough to be inherited means you must be aristo, our wc nylon ones barely lasted 6 months

Sheba, agree with your point re the underclass. Would just like to add that the term has strongly racial undertones as well. I know what you mean about Bourdieu and the concept of cultural capital. Cultural capital can give us access to better opportunities, social networks etc. But it does so by affirming the class system, by affirming that the consumer choices of those who are better off must be, by definition, better choices. And all the cultural capital in the world (and I've got oodles of it) won't raise my wages. I need new towels, dammit!

workhorse I answered yes to all of your questions but am not MC and you would know that within seconds of meeting me.

Ooh I love a good middle class thread! So fascinating. I've read that Kate Fox book and another about consumerism and the class system which was similarly interesting. I teach socio-linguistics at A Level and a couple of my students are going investigations into the relationships between language and social class and they're gripped too.

So many people have a different idea of what constitutes wc and mc and there seems to be 'deal breakers' e.g. Towels!! :) I think a points system is an interesting idea but would perhaps need to be more than 10?

I tick 9 of Word's list - I'm still very close to my parents and don't really have a 'best' friend these days.

I have an MA in feminist literary theory but I say tea - I'd definitely be cross if my DH spoilt my new White Company towels and my children watch too much Netflix. We are national trust and zoo members though so maybe this cancels this out? My dad was a taxi driver for years and left school early to train as a mechanic ... But - my boy can spot a George Stubbs and loves olives? What does any of this mean? Is it important?

Do I lose ALL my MC points because I've never had quinoa and I'm not even sure how to pronounce it?

I don't know why - but I just find it all so interesting!

I actually, genuinely think I swing between both camps which is nice. Kind of like being bilingual!

Academics are widely known by all their colleagues to be the tightest gits ever, they believe it reinforces the absent-minded professor who has heavier things on her mind than worldly goods trope-that's why they drive crap ancient cars and eat cheap food and hog the admin's chocolates at xmas parties. but really its because they're just stingy

I didnt know this very interesting.

that's why they drive crap ancient cars and eat cheap food and hog the admin's chocolates at xmas parties.

The one I know fits this profile but also claims to be staunch labour and socialist - but more champagne socialist I would say, he doesn't mind flash houses or cars as long as they are brought for him.

Sheba, agree with your point re the underclass.

I thought underclass was people whose family had never had a job whose family were un likely to get jobs and people sort of trapped in that cycle.

I think class can be defined by your taste, the types of things you like tend to be passed onto you by your parents and reinforced by your peer group-its called cultural capital, a french academic did a lot of interesting work on this.

Interesting, so just interests basically.

I'm an academic.
I'm not tight in terms of spending money on going out / travelling & nice clothes for all the family, but I proudly live in a unmodernised house with only second-hand stuff. You are quite right it is because it reinforces the absent-minded professor who has heavier things on her mind than worldly goods trope. Also I don't brush my hair for the same reason.