Could you please give me some examples of inverted snobbery? (British context)

[btfly2]

What exactly does it mean?? I think I have an idea but still don't get the meaning or purpose for that...

[Crisps69]

You see it quite a bit on UK TV, particularly when celebrites say "I'm from (insert estate)" like that makes them more 'real' - living on an estate isn't a badge of honour.

[Crisps69]

There are a few posters here who 'get it' - inverted snobbery is something that isn't discussed enough. It's like you're not a real person just because you and your parents before you showed up and put the work in. I hate it, it's incredibly annoying/frustrating.

[Madein1995]

My areas awful for this

I was called stuck up for studying for gcses. A neighbour said it and mum did nothing

Mam told me "I don't know why you want to go sixth form for. What's wrong with working in a factory" and other gems

[Ponoka7]

My Dad wasn't from the UK, as a result we were a cricket and rugby household, not a football one. I had the piss taken out of me because they were seen as posh sports and 'was we to good for football' was often said. This was in Liverpool. Picking up a book for fun, was also ridiculed.

I never heard the end of going to a ballet performance.

In Prescot we are getting a Shakespeare theatre. The local shopping centre floor has Shakespeare quotes etched in. If you want to listen to inverted snobbery, stand there for around half an hour. It is pointed out daily that "no one from round here, or Liverpool has an interest in Shakespeare". "What's the point of this? " "what do we need with Shakespeare?".

Try and campaign for investment and if it doesn't focus on football or the beatles and the general population will laugh at it, because" it isn't for the likes of the ordinary people".

Using put downs, sarcasm to make a point about being, anti-education/culture.
"why has greggs/mcdonalds etc done a Vegan X. No one round here would be vegan".

There's now a anti looking after yourself/healthy eating/exercising, that comes under it.

It's not for the likes of us. You've been born into this tribe and you'll stay in it. "aren't we good enough for you?"

Jim Royale when Anthony wants a different life does a good example of it.

[StCharlotte]

Lonely Planet travel guides are full of it.

The more impressive the place/attraction, the more they will scoff at it and the people who visit it.

[Crisps69]

Inverted snobbery is when someone of working class/housing estate origin perceives people of middle to upper class as snobs and treats them as such even when they have not acted in a snobby way toward them. The working class person will even go so far as to perceive the middle class person's use of vocabulary as a personal attack simply for likely being better educated. You will often find middle class people downplaying their educational level to ingratiate themselves with the working class person. It's a sad state of affairs really, since we live in an awful society where judgements are often irrational. I imagine Cheryl Cole despite being a multi millionaire still suffers this insecurity.

[thecatsthecats]

Certain people scoffing that our DDs 'don't live in the real world' because they're at a grammar school, have tennis lessons, and music lessons...

Crock of shit. Their lives are just as real to them, as anyone else's.

I read a great article once by a man who'd gone to a university interview, and was asked if he preferred Dickens or Austen. He said he preferred Dickens, because it looked at different classes of people, and 'real lives and problems, not going off to balls and marriages' etc. The interviewer just frowned at him and asked 'Did people not go to balls and get married then?'.

Half the threads on this site would be a hell of a lot shorter if people accepted the principle of different people havign a different normality.

[storm11111]

Food Snob: Feels superior because they eat expensive sophisticated gourmet food and prides themselves on never having ate at a McDonalds.

Inverse Food Snob: Feels superior because they are too smart to waste good money on fancy food when there are fantastic deals at Lidl.

Parent Snob: Feels superior because they send their child to private school. looks down on other schools as inferior

Inverse Parent Snob: No child of theirs are going to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth and grow up a stuck up brat in a fancy private school. Their child is going to succeed (the superior way) without the privileges of private education.

[sueelleker]

Standard English, like the BBC commentators used to use.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

[Thurmanmurman]

Can I ask what an RP accent is?

[Andromeida59]

I was bullied at my work place for a while because of my perceived class. My accent is RP and my colleagues decided that I looked down upon them because of this. It took for them to get to know me before they started treating me as an equal.

[Nataleejah]

It really depends on WHO you are talking to and what tone you're using. For example, when people say "i worked so hard at my private school" sounds quite ridiculous comparing to someone who had worked a physically challenging job for shit pay.

[TallulahTheTiger]

Good point Gwen! Look at the Kardashians- and if anyone else cared the ripping that they get!

[Gwenhwyfar]

"But I think the 'flaunting' 'slap in the face' talk is indicative of inverse snobbery. "

Or just normal snobbery since some people see flaunting of material wealth as common/nouveau riche. Think about the way people sneer at footballers' houses.

[TallulahTheTiger]

But I think the 'flaunting' 'slap in the face' talk is indicative of inverse snobbery. As pp have said that's just their lives. Why is someone talking about their, yes possibly privileged life flaunting it, when talking about 'grafted' lifestyle great and 'proud of roots'??

[Nataleejah]

Well, a lot of people have worked very hard and their life is shit because they didn't have privileges of better education, secure house, etc. in the first place. So when somebody flaunts achievement its always a slap in the face. Therefore the scoffing.

[MaQueen]

Certain people scoffing that our DDs 'don't live in the real world' because they're at a grammar school, have tennis lessons, and music lessons...

Crock of shit. Their lives are just as real to them, as anyone else's.

Also, certain people who scoff at higher education e.g. 'I went to the university of life, me...'

[Icapturethecast1e]

Oh yes when you do something & people say 'trying to be posh or something'.Sorry but I'm far too busy Iiving my life to know what's posh or not.

[Jaxhog]

It also includes those who are 'proud' of being in-numerate.

[Jaxhog]

When people mention they've paid off their mortgages and the response is something like, well we had better things to spend our money on.

Or if you have a degree, and the response is well I've been to the university of life.

[CruCru]

Nope, must have passed me by. I think you've thought about this more deeply than I have.

[BoinkAlongQuietly]

Crucru you do realise that I was taking the piss out of my own inverted snobbery?

With 1 in 4 children in the U.K. experiencing childhood poverty, I don't actually think it's a "life lesson" for my 'precious' DS to have to take the train to his private school as opposed to a few of his peers who have the luxury of having drivers. It is farcical to think that taking the train is a hardship!

I didn't say anything about the "real world". That phrase and the phrase "real life" (which I did use) are meaningless, which was my point.

We are all humans who cannot escape the burden of that humanity no matter what our level of privilege. Having privilege doesn't make people happy but it does buffer and protect from a lot of suffering, to say otherwise is to massively insult those who go without.

Riding the very civilised public transport armed with a mobile phone, in the company of fellow school mates, with caring adults either side of the journey and a full stomach isn't a harship and it isn't "real life" (a farcical statement), it is the experience of privileged very few on the face of this planet. I meant it as a humourous and ridiculous example of inverted snobbery that isn't as painful as many of the examples given here.

[Imsickofnamechanging]

Crucru Round of applause for that. I've been wanting to say that for ever on MN but just couldn't be bothered. Each individuals world is the real world people,wether it's drive by shootings every 3 minutes or helicopters and champagne everyday, together all those things make what we know as the real world.

[nannieann]

I like BoinkAlong's definition. Unlike what some other posts imply, inverted snobbery is NOT about is North v South. Some of us northerners are just very proud of our roots!