Why do some people feel the need to describe themselves as ‘middle class’?

[lottieandmia22]

I met a man who said

‘I am incredibly lucky. I’m a middle class, white, straight male which puts me at an advantage’

Frankly, this made my teeth itch. I thought ‘what a tosser’

Why do people feel the need to do this? I couldn’t care less which class I am.

No - you pour the tea from the cup into the saucer and then drink from the saucer.

I think drinking tea from the saucer went out of fashion amongst the English middle classes some time in the 1700s. Nobody told my dad's family it might raise middle class eyebrows to do it in the 20th century.

Why would you pour tea into the saucer? Wouldn't it drop everywhere? (Does anyone use saucers daily now?)

To cool it down I think. Though interestingly in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little house on the prairie books (set in the 19thC US) there's a reference to Laura's snooty sister-in-law Eliza objecting to her father drinking tea out of a saucer - she obviously had upstart ideas! And puts paid to the idea that there were/are no class signifiers in the USA. The term 'trailer trash' for instance is surely based on class as much as money.

It does cool the tea down - and it's fun. You should try it some time.

Well, I've learnt something new there.
I have a family member who licks the plate - not really a class thing unless there's a 'pig' class!

Although I don't actually know anyone any more who still drinks from cups with teacups instead of mugs.

The closest taste I've ever had to my grandad's sweet tea poured into the teacup was tea from street vendors in India - they would prepare it by doing an awful lot of pouring it from one receptacle to another from a theatrical height. I'm sure as well as cooling it down, it aerates it too, which makes it somehow taste different!