Calling someone a 'chav'

[GuardianOfMyGalaxy]

Aibu to think that the word 'chav' is derogatory and shouldn't be used?

It's said in the baby name boards a lot, and to me, describing something as 'chav' or 'chavvy' is in the same manner as describing something as pikey or ghetto.

Am I being over sensitive and it's just banter, or is it as classist and stereotypical as I believe?

DD school Friends refer to themselves as chavs - they wear cropped tops and big white trainers - green shell jackets

To them it's a trendy word

Phyllis..
'chav' does NOT mean 'council housed and dangerous'.

..besides wouldn't that be 'chad'?

AJ - not chavvy
Ae jae - chavvy

Made up crap names that your child can't spell? That's chavvy....and lots of very rich people do it too.

yes I actually know a child whose name is spelt that way. And his mother is rougher than a badgers arsehole

rachel it doesn't bother me being called a snob or posh why should it ? it's hardly insulting. i've been called both on mn several times in the guise of an insult it just amuses me that's all.

car I know. That's why I asked..

AntigoneJones, that's what I have been told countless times by friends from around this area.

Anyway, I don't use that word in my vocabularly. However, it did seem to replace the word 'pikey' in my area, another word that I personally wouldn't use.

Owen Jones was being ironic when he used it as part of the title of his book.

Sorry, council house and violent, not dangerous.

Aha! Some posters have arrived who live in similar, if not the same area.

Strange isn't it? I think it's really interesting, the differences in how people talk and meanings ascribed to words. My brother has been a chav, I've been chavvy in the past and my nephew is a budding chav, which isnt insulting to us at all, just a bit jokey, yet if we lived 20 miles (at a guess) out of the area we'd be insulted.

Round here, chav is about bling and sports wear. I've heard people descibe themselves as chavvy when they are proud of their trainers. I think it's almost about being proud of being WC and bling?

I think of nouveau riche, to be honest.

If I call someone a snob, I 100% mean it as an insult.

well they are wrong Phyllis. It is from the Romany..:)

"Pikey" is still used in my area.

Pikey is racist

AntigoneJones, no need to sigh in my direction, madam! Slur words and their meanings tend to change from area to area.

Why is it ok to group together working class people with a negative stereotype? i grouped people together In a negative way because that's how I see them - i didn't group them according to their class

It doesn't matter where it originated - it's how it's used/perceived

After all the N word was the name of a colour -

Chav doesn't mean council house and violent 😕 yanbu though op it is said about people to make them inferior

no Phyllis, chav doesn't change from meaning 'small child' in Romany in one area to 'council housed and violent' in another does it? Somebody just made up the 'council housed and violent' afterwards, and now people simply parrot it. Granted they may parrot more in some areas, I don't know.

I'm a chav. That's why I'm avoided in the school playground of self proclaimed MC mothers. The MC fathers seem largely friendly and to not give too much of a shit about the class system.

I'm WC and proud. If that makes me a chav, then so be it.

I would say the N word is slightly different as it originated from slave owners. Anyway, black people have tended to taken that word and owned it.

In my area it's a derogatory term for travellers nothing to do with race.

You wouldn't call a MC person a chav.No matter how they were dressed or behaved.

It's only used to insult the WC.

So maybe this is one of those words that's ok for people who think they are chavvy/chavtastic to use when referencing themselves/their comparators, but it's insulting when someone who is not Chav uses it?