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?'

I ski but its cross-country skiing which is the poor man's skiing (might even make DD ski to school in winter)

WC, then was perceived as MC by some, but am back at WC. In fact, not even that as now on benefits. I hate it and am ashamed.

Me too, RabidHarpy, except I don't feel ashamed - not one bit.

Life happens & shit happens & we do what we have to, to survive - no shame in that at all.
Stop feeling ashamed this instant! (That's an order, btw & not negotiable )

for you.

See I can't really relate to a lot of these markers that are perceived as w/c. I know it's derived from personal experience. I don't have a tattoo, I don't have a huge tv, I don't go to the salon or have botox. I don't have the latest phone. Not interested in anything celebrity or reality tv shows. (In fact I don't really watch tv in general, I would rather listen to the radio) It's just so not my thing.

I don't drive, I do have a license, but I would rather walk.

Did I dream it, or did a MC poster from yesterday talk of allowing her DC to play in her 'culture de sac'? Obviously an autocorrect fail, but did make me laugh and I can't find the post now .

Cellardoor I don't do any of those things either, although some of my friends definitely do and I can't really relate to them either.

But I don't see that as a problem, the WC is probably larger and more geographically disparate than the MC so it's probably logical that our behaviours are more nuanced.

I know my OP was lighthearted but the core of my working class identity is likely my politics and values rather than any iPhone or acrylic nails which I'm supposed to have.

Real housewives of OC is my guilty pleasure though

Oh Leilanii I do hope so!

Cellardoor I'm working class or not, but in different ways. I do have tattoos, and see nothing wrong with sitting in the front garden (has that been mentioned yet?) but I don't like reality shows, scouse brows, acrylic nails, latest phones, loads of stuff as a status indictor (I actually find my company car a bit embarrasing in that it's a waste of money spendthrift thing to do).

I listen to Radio 4 and read a lot, work in a profession with a degree, holiday in naice quiet areas of the Mediterranean and find the plane journey there full of the Magaluf crowd an ordeal, am definitely not obsessed with keeping a clean house.

I'm not sure that there is such a class divide any more and there are probably lots of people like me that have both working and middle class traits, that it's far from black and white.

Many more people go to university but that doesn't necessarily make the wealthier than those in manual trades. Some plumbers, builders, mechanics probably earn more than teachers, social workers, librarians, academics etc.

Yep I saw the 'culture de sac' too.

Sounds like something dodgy I might find at the bottom of my bag after the summer hols

Solidly upper middle class here (privately educated blah blah blah) but my view of a working class trait is they are very concerned with how they are perceived. Much more so than any other class.

So labels are important. Children even babies wearing labels; piles of presents photographed and posted on Facebook

I enjoy fish and chips
I make a big fuss about Christmas

I don't think I am working class, though.

I really don't understand the photos on Facebook of piles of presents ready to be opened. Why do people assume that anyone is interested in seeing that?

God knows.

I don't even understand why anybody would want to be on Facebook in the first place.

Actually Holiday I disagree somewhat;

It's the lower MC who are the most self conscious
They care a great deal that they are perceived by the WC as 'better than them' and are absolutely desperate to gain perceived parity with the established MC.

The WC only really give credence to the opinions of other WC people.
We're not invested in impressing you per se, merely with outdoing each other

I post photos of unopened presents.
I do it because I'm exited and I feel like I've achieved something (not just the buying but the wrapping, tidying the living room, doing it all in secret while the kids are asleep) and I naturally want to share that with my friends.
You want some validation for your efforts and you can't get that from the kids because you have to pretend someone else did it!

This thread has made me think...

On the outside I suppose I am wc but the way I was brought up was more mc or mc aspirations, I live in a deprived area but in a nice part of it in a nice house, we work, we have a lot of books, like nice holidays etc but then have designer clothes ( more the dc ) and go to Butlins!

I am obsessed with my house though but that's partly to do with my (diagnosed) OCD.

Here's something I've always wanted to ask but thought better of it waits to be flamed

Do you think you can tell a lot from the outside of people's homes? Genuine question.

There is one house in my close, shabby looking, blinds never open, garden overgrown etc and I imagine it's not nice inside, it could well be but it's the so called curb appeal makes it look horrible.

Runs away...

There is one house in my close, shabby looking, blinds never open, garden overgrown etc and I imagine it's not nice inside, it could well be but it's the so called curb appeal makes it look horrible

That sounds a lot like my house. Inside is mostly plain white, neutral carpeting, dusty, decorated 11 years ago when we moved in and not touched since (apart from the extension which was an ordeal and the result of 10 years of procrastination and indecision but a necesscity due to ridiculously tiny kitchen).

it's like that because we both find almost anything more interesting than cleaning, decorating and gardening and can't be bothered to do anything about it. Even getting a cleaner, even though we can easily afford one, hasn't happened because organising one and tidying up for the cleaner is too much of a chore.

Barbara- your honesty is refreshing!

I truly wish I didn't care about such trivial things but I do, I'm not materialistic at all, we don't have a fancy car or posh stuff but it has to be " just so " and everything has its place. I must be a bloody nightmare to live with

Can I join the working class OP? it sounds much nicer than all this faffing about with Waitrose, Yoga and Sumac. I promise I'll try to resurrect the West Midlands accent of my youth.

Sure you can Ex

Pull up a pew and I'll get the kettle on for a nice brew

Faffing about with Waitrose? As opposed to what. Asda?

Nope. Lidl.

Even the lowly WC eschew the contemporary Sodom and Gammorah which is Asda

29/07/2017 19:16 Smitff

What's so pernicious about British class is that there is nothing you can do about it. It's what you're born into. Lifestyles, taste, belongings - these can all change through circumstance. You can never change your parentage. That's the whole point. It keeps people in their place.

You will never change your class because it is determined by what you are born into. That is it exactly. Social class is not about how much money you have; it is about your parents' positions or occupations.

Good thread, OP.

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!

Holidays at Center Parcs rather than overseas

^These are both quite Middle Class, in my opinion

And what's a Huskita?

I agree MissAlabamaWhitman and BarbaraofSeville.

Just to clarify, I have no issue with tattoos or acrylic nails etc! I wouldn't make an immediate assumption either way to be honest based on those things. It's definitely not as clear cut as maybe when my parents were growing up. I know it's light hearted though