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?

Well, I went to an all girls school and used to have a hobby looking after horses in a yard. A lot of people used to see that as posh.

I grew up with a comfortable lifestyle. I never went without, but my parents certainly weren't millionaires.

Not everyone that goes to Oxbridge comes from a wealthy background. I knew a girl that studied engineering at Cambridge who came from a council estate.

Cross-post with apathy!

No-one wears gold tufts any more, btw.

Elendon. Although I think classism can go both ways it tends to be more derogatory against groups who hold less power. So in the case of TOff, less stigmatising than chav.

cross post with apathy

This feels like a summary of my Good intentions and reality.

Doesn't it mean CHeshunt And Vicinity?

I don't use it myself, but I view it just as a descriptive term in the same way that punk, emo or yuppie is.

i dont see why anyone would come on to a public forum and ask opinions on the name of their baby. It's just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I'll admit I sometimes use the term chav. I wouldn't use it out loud but I'll often think it in my head. I have a certain image of what I would class as a chav and that may differ to someone else's idea of what a chav is. I used the term today, I thought it to myself when I was walking back from the shops today and there was 2 adults a male and a female walking towards me , it was slightly sunny and he had his t shirt off and tucked into his scruffy tracksuit bottoms,whilst shouting at the female and she was shouting back , using foul language and he spat on the grass. I know where they live, the garden is a mess and it often smells of weed when I pass the house and there's music blasting out. I often called them chavs !

Doesn't it mean CHeshunt And Vicinity?

No, it doesn't
Nor does it mean Chatham average, Cheltenham Average, council house and violent, or any of the other backronyms invented to explain the rise of the word in the early noughties

CHeshunt And Vicinity wasn't invented in the early noughties, it was invented in 2017. On May 1st to be precise. Now push off.

In my Mum's day the equivalent was "all fur coat and no knickers ". Plenty of cash but no class. No awareness of other people. Preening. Dismissive of the needs of others. Overinflated sense of your own value compared to others.

Round these parts chav means common. It's not meant in a racist way even if that was the origin of the word (IF).

I don't see the problem if someone uses this on the baby board if the OP asks for opinions. I'd want to know if the name was perceived that way. They asked, people are telling them their feelings on the name!

It's just a word.

I'm not even convinced that all the people protesting the use of the word on here don't use it in their internal monologue.