To ask what makes you working class? (Lighthearted)

[MissAlabamaWhitman]

So, the whole 'what makes you middle class' has been done to death hasn't it?

We're all pretty au fair with avocados, elephants sodding breath, the ubiquity of joules et cetera.
And lovely as it is to have such knowledge of the middle classes, none of it applies to me.

I'm working class and I'll explIn to you that which denotes this in just a minute.

Incidentally I heard that there's a few of us about so perhaps we can make our own list of our very own class signifiers.

Who's in?

I shall go first.....

Love of charity shops, this week I picked up a leather Hobbs bag for 3.99 and a couple of Abercrombie & Fitch tops for DD1 1.49 each!

Love of Iceland/Heron foods/Home bargains/B&M. Yes I know I could get everything I need in Sainsbury's but I actually prefer scrabbling around for bargains and topping up at Lidl.

Chardonnay. I love it, tastes fab. I can't be arsed to pretend that I prefer a Beaujolais or Cab Sav. I don't.

One bathroom/toilet in a five bed house.

Regional accent which I take pleasure in.

Children who play football and wear replica kits whilst doing so

Girls who wear pinkI draw the line at bloody Jojo bows though

Getting drunk at barbecues and performing impromptu Karaoke.

Allowing my children to 'play out' in the cul de sac from age seven.

Cleaning my own house.

Holidays at Center Parcs rather than overseas.

Owning a Huskita

Letting my children watch TV and eat crisps in full view of other parents.

Having a 'pop man'

Listening to LBC rather than R4

Not really giving a fuck about trans, one way or the other.

I'm sure there's lots more besides which I'll try to remember.
How about you?
What makes you sit back at the end of a hard day and think 'yep I'm a fully paid up member of the old working classes?'

Working Class To me is working for a living eg to pay the Bills

This is antiquated thinking, from the times before there was a 'middle class'. Which is pre 20th Century.

You were either landed gentry -- or you worked for the landed gentry.

Then the educated middle classes emerged - you can hardly claim doctors, lawyers, engineers, academics, etc are working class, purely because they work.

Also - you can't land on one marker, and claim a class association because of it. 'Owning a big screen TV' doesn't make you working class, any more than 'having a degree' propels you into the middle class.

Class is far, far greater than the sum of its parts.

Is botox working class?

But of course!

Utterly MC me looks 28 at 35 because beach holidays are too common for the likes of me, and you don't develop sun-induced wrinkles at avantgardistic Icelandic art galleries ...

I grew up working class and so did my mum, we always talk about having things 'for best'. Like a fancy outfit you buy new and save, shoes you don't wear so they don't scuff, even down to nicer cleaning products and sponges saved for when the 'best' cleaning needed doing.

I'm fairly well-off now, but I still hold onto things 'for best' and I still think it's a treat to have a bit of change and be able to buy something frivolous like a cake in a bakery. Despite having the money to realistically order how ever many cakes I wanted.

My general feeling of being working class is that, if I step out of my sphere, I feel like there's a joke or a secret everyone else knows that I don't quite get. When people talk about expensive cars, giant houses, designer clothes, I just can't quite understand a) why they think it's important to tell me or b) why anyone would waste their money like that. The fear of being poor far outweighs any joy I would get in spending money like that.

This thread is great. I'm posh MC but tick loads of these things cited as evidence of WC-mess, such as hand me downs, knowing the neighbours, loving Aldi etc.

Complex thing, our class system!

Yes Botox is WC.

In fact it's ubiquitous amongst late twenties/early thirties WC women around here. As are lip fillers.

It's the hair extensions of the present day.

Loving corned beef and potato pie.

OP I just knew you were from the Dingle. Something about the reference to home and bargain and watching runners on the prom. I'll have to NC now as I'm currently MNing from the Dingle

Anyhoo, here's my two penneths worth..

Having ascended to the heady heights of lower MC (from upper WC), a few of the points on here really ring true to me:

WC:

• ALWAYS taking about the price of something, especially when it's a bargain
• relaxed about ear piercing
• innate knowledge you could have someone in a fight if you had to, because your inner fuming self can't hold back
• loads of prezzies at Christmas, wrapped in cheap paper from the corner shop
• a very strong work ethic, because there's no one to rely on financially other than yourself at the end of the day
• eat fish in batter/breadcrumbs

MC:

• money talk is vulgar
• hand wringing about school catchments
• would rather be seen dead than do a package holiday
• eat salmon

I'm from an upper WC background but now work in a profession that has been mentioned as being resolutely MC. I worked incredibly hard to get where I am professionally, but at the same time if I got made redundant tomorrow is he straight back out to work cleaning or whatnot to make ends meet. None of this "time out" malarkey or signing on.

That said, I love muted colours from FatFace, despise NEXT (used to work there), would rather be seen dead than in any garishly branded clothes (same for rest of family, and when younger), have a cleaner, worry about school catchments,will let DD get her ears pierced when she wants, love a bargain and love telling people about my bargains.

Oh and OP, if you're in a 5 bed house over the water then you most definitely count as "well posh" now

Serious addition to the thread now:

I'm arguably 2nd generation MC - or 1st, whichever way you chose to count:

My grandparents were all thoroughly WC, whereas my mother is a ead teacher and my father an architect. I have three degrees and earn about 3 times the national average wage. I'm uber-intellectual, the type of person who reads philosophical tomes in the bathtub, as are my friends. But there are some supposedly WC things I will forever hold on to:

I'm always scared that, whatever security I have, will vanish and that I will lose anything I own. I believe, against all evidence to the contrary, that I should be grateful to these nice gentlemen who offer me a good position (I'm actually a manager in a multinational corporation, FWIW). And then, there is my politics: not only would I never vote Tory (although it'd be in my personal best interest at present) but I also refuse to be friends with or date anyone who does.

Yes, class is bloody complex. I'm technically about as MC as they come, but it's never quite sunk in.

And the brows OP.

My sister is WC and rocks and incredible Scouse brow. I am much more refined and could never consider wearing such an abomination

I suppose we're MC now but I think I grew up as a the 'WC hippies' subset of the WC (think raised by wolves the to show but not quite as disorganised)

I like that we were allowed to play out as kids in a big group and that we were allowed to go for sweets as the corner shop about 1O mins away as long as the one of the 'big girls' took us - tween/teen neighbours.

I used to love going to the bingo with my nonna - Italian bingo is more fun than English bingo I think because instead of money you get random prizes ranging from tat (teddies, soaps etc) to cool stuff like mountain bikes and kitchen appliances.

Yay I got another one then :) (botox) although I never go in the sun and look younger than I am botox or no botox , and have never gone for the 'frozen ' look only the subtle way of it.

doffs cap to crapcat my fellow Dingleite

I can't carry off a scouse brow either, I think I'm too pale and wan looking for thick, dark brows.

No I'm not posh by any means I'm here cos I couldn't afford a house in Calderstones.

When I get there I'll let you know and then you can call me posh

Well... (somewhat Irish flavoured)

I'm from Tallaght (this is enough on its own!)
I'm the first person in my family to complete the Leaving Cert, go to uni and still the only one with a masters
I buy a disproportionately large amount of my clothes in Primark/Penneys
At least one side of my family is almost entirely functional alcoholics and heavy smokers
8 cups of tea a day is standard when home
Spice bags from the local Chinese takeaway are a very regular thing when home

Oh and crapcat you need to get yourself to the charity shops on Allerton Rd if you like a second hand bargain.

Barnardos on Gateacre Park Drive is also quite well stocked.

My kids play out
Fish finger sandwiches or some other breaded thing from the freezer with waffles is sometimes a meal.
I think centre parks and Butlins are too expensive
Recently went on a sun caravaning holiday
Live on a council estate in a masonette where people fight outside regularly.
I have a massive family
My mum had me at 17 and was married at 17
I shop at Primark.
I have no savings as my wages just about cover outgoings
Having to think up very odd meals for the kids towards the end of the month as can't afford more food until payday.
Having to go to the shop to top up gas and electric

innate knowledge you could have someone in a fight if you had to, because your inner fuming self can't hold back

This made me lol
There's some comments further back too about having to keep a tight reign on your inner arsehole when you're drunk.

I massively relate to that!!

Some WC like to think they are MC mostly these days but I think there is an attitude to money where as the 'old' version of MC were actually quite comfortably off and not flashy rather than the new being brought up WC and slapping a load of bling on credit and then claiming you're MC.

Nothing wrong with either (except the credit/lending in this country is seriously out of control)

I'm probably lower working class, but there are a couple of red herrings that might be misleading..... I have 2 horses kept on a shoestring and a 'posh' accent - from my nan who constantly made us pronounce words 'correctly' from the moment I could speak.

• work when everyone else is enjoying themselves (for more than a few years)
• have pre paid phone, gas and electric
• owe most of my 'education' and vocabulary to reading in childhood and teens as only one adult hogged TV in the house
• have no 2 pieces of furniture that match (all given or very cheap and needed)
• can't afford 'food principles' (organic, free range etc)
• buy new clothes/shoes for functional use and price rather than because I want them, they look nice etc
• holiday at families or friends homes
• shop for essentials at £ shop regularly
• regular in charity shops
• never have anything to send to charity shops as it's all worn to holes

Sure there's more

Popping to the corner shop in your slippers/ PJ bottoms.
Holidays in a caravan somewhere in the UK and loving getting to the isle of white or jersey because it was exotic.
Refusing to pay £20 for a decent insert item here because 'I can get it for a fiver in B&M Bargains

I'd say I'm working class.

However, I went to a red brick.

Wouldn't do Butlins or Centre Parks, not a chance.

Tea is the evening meal.

Very careful with money. Not planning on paying for private education any time soon. DC'S have hand me downs, no problem at all.

Lancashire born and bred, live abroad now though. One of the main perks of escaping the class bullshit of the UK!

I currently have a piece of broken furniture outside my front door.
I went on a sun holiday this year as my main holiday.
I work a minimum wage job.
I dress my 9 month old son in little tracksuits the thug.
I live in a large council estate.
I had super noodles for tea.

Just to throw a spanner in the discussion. Does anyone think there are different levels of class within the class not so much upper class. But maybe working class. My gf for example was in his words working class and proud. As a child I was shocked at this as I thought my gp were upper class as they were so posh. That made my grandad laugh when I told him this observation....... but the weekly shop was in Waitrose !!! My child self was very confused. I do realise now that he totally wasn't UC

Dh is insistent we (or at least he) is working class.

He works a manual job (but a Very specialised skilled C1 role that pays more than the average office job)
He isn't degree educated (but his intelligence and work based knowledge is that of an engineer)
Covered in tattoos (from specialists in their field that he's spent months researching and designing and travelling distances to get)

Personally though ... he drinks San Pellegrino fizzy water, orders a bespoke razor kit from a subscription service and has a stash of about 15 types of tea (bag and loose leaf). This screams middle class to me

I think the whole "class" thing is a bit dated now.

We do have three trays of Pot Noodles and corned beef in the kitchen though 🤢🤢🤢🤢

We are working class ive never shopped in a charity shop been on holiday to center parcs or botoxed my face i dont talk about money obviously I am gettind ideas above my station