To be annoyed when people think the word ‘chav’

[DrScully]

...is offensive to working class people?

Sorted by the ‘students laughing at the working classes’ thread.

My Mum is proper working class. Grew up in extreme poverty in a big industrial city. She left school at 15, got a job. Says ‘breakfast, dinner and tea’ and ‘toilet’, would say ‘serviette’ and ‘living room’.

She uses the word chav to mean a certain type of person, someone of low intelligence and education, who has poor taste and does not conduct themselves with dignities. She would never, in a million years, associate it with being working class.

For example, she would call Katie Price a ‘chav’, because of the way she dresses, what she’s called her kids etc, despite the fact that Katie Price is a millionaire who was raised middle class, riding horses.

She would never call someone a chav who was a normal working class person, e.g a single mum in jeans and a tshirt who works as a cleaner, a bus driver, a bin man etc.

It annoys me when people chime in on threads with ‘how dare you use chav, it’s very classist and offensive towards the working class.’ While I understand it’s not a nice thing to say, not all working class people are stood about smoking in tracksuits! My understanding is it is a taste based insult, not a class based one like pleb.

AIBU over this? It’s not a word I fling around willy billy by any means, and I can see that it’s not a nice thing to call someone, but why the hell does it now mean all working class people?!

Am I

Totally agree OP. It just means vulgar, brash and ostentatious where I'm from; nothing to do with money.

Irish 'Travellers' have recently started to use some of these old English Gypsy words, in I suppose you could say an attempt at cultural appropriation. IT's are not Gypsies/Romany, but they do (or did?) have their own interesting Irish based language called Shelta

A lot of my family are Scottish travellers (or trevllers as they pronounce it) who talk what they call Cant and chavvy is a word I've heard from them too. I know very, very little about the etymology of Cant but I have seen some of my relatives' photos in an old book about Scottish travellers, I'd have to ask my dad about it.

does the word chav come from charver? 😕 or is that rubbish ive heard relatives use that word before wondered if it was similar..

Could always go back to calling them "Council Estate Scum" I suppose.

There has always been a term for the "skankier" elements of society & always will be. Same as there is always one for the "higher" end.

Unfortunately, if so many people didn't fit the stereotypes so perfectly there wouldn't be a need for the generalisations!!

Also on this thread 'chavs' are referred to as working class even though a number of posters clearly state they have a tendency not to work. Surely you cannot be working class if you are unemployed

I think posters are avoiding using that poisonous tabloid term “underclass” so they use working class instead because to them they’re no different

Agree op. I’ve never known anyone in RL to get offended over the word chav, just middle class mumsnetters!

When my dd was at school chav was used to describe a certain type of youngster based on dress code etc. My dd wasn't a chav she was an "emo".

Anyway I thought the term was attributed to actions rather than background.

But smeddum it IS an underclass. Sad to say because it’s generally not their fault but this country has developed an underclass of people who have never worked and who will never work and whose children will never work.

We can’t just pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s a tragedy.

"What do you call lazy middle class people who "pop out kids willy nilly?"
I feel pretty disgusted by anyone who has children without putting a bit of thought, care and attention into it and I was using my sister in law here to describe that attitude.

"Why do you have a different term of abuse for working class "lazy " people than middle class "lazy " people?"
Er, I don't.

I think you're missing the point I was making, which is that I don't see the term 'chav' as a synonym for working class. To me it describes an attitude and a behaviour rather than an income bracket. Some working class people are chavs, some are not. Equally, middle class people or anyone else exhibiting chavvy behaviour is a chav.

There's a fair amount of reverse snobbery that goes on too...

To me chav/ned (I'm from Scotland so that's the equivalent) was a style and way of life more than anything, they had their uniform of burberry scarves, baseball caps, kappa trackies, rockport boots and the biggest gold chain they could buy. They didn't work, works for losers and the government owes them and they weren't shy of a fight

I don't actually think that "Chav" comes from the gypsy word "Chaver".
Chaver was widely used (among other gypsy terms) where I grew up, and it just means lad/geezer ("alright Chaver?")
As I understand it "Chav" originated as shorthand for people from Chatham, Kent, with their Burberry and gold. It was like saying someone was "Bridge and Tunnel" in New York, e.g vulgar suburbanites.
I think the virtue signalling chattering classes get in a tizz about people using it because a) they think it's anti-gypsy and b) they don't really know any working class people so think they are all chavs.
It's just a descriptive term like "thug" or "Hooray Henry".

@Deadgood well you learn something new everyday!

Working class is people that work in jobs that don’t require university. Although I would say it’s the class you’re born in as you can’t really escape it, no safety net etc.

I don't think it's anything to do with being working class. Is it not just people that wear sports clothes all the time