What makes a person 'common'?

[Karlwho]

In your opinion. Just interested.

Before speaking I always ask myself, I ask 'DanglyWhoreTassels' , how would our Queen say it.

I think she would say 'lavatory' not 'loo' or toilet!

Or is it 'toilet' not 'loo' or 'lavatory'?

Or is it 'Carsey' or 'Shitter'?

I'd better write to the palace to ask. Don't want to come off as common!

lottie not being particularly brilliant at SpaG does not make you common ffs. If someone is dyslexic and struggles with the written word does that automatically deem them common? Utter tosh.

Some of these really are demonstrating that people do not understand the traditional sense of the word common. All you're doing is showing everyone how narrow minded you are. See upthread about 100 pages ago about my mother's list of what makes you common, I never agreed with it then and I don't agree with half the crap being spouted here.

Everyone with a sense of superiority complex should gather on this thread.

I love how Mumsnet just has to put people into little boxes in order to understand who is "better".

I'm working class, live in a council flat in a fairly scummy area, have tattoos, swear, am a lone parent, claim tax credits.

I'm also, degree educated, politically aware, work in a professional setting, am fairly left wing, am gender critical, am actively anti-racist and involved with a campaign to make refugees welcome to the area I live in.

What wee box do I fit into?

twattymctwatterson
I think you need to lighten up to be honest.

I'd say some things on this thread are more working class markers than common (and I do a fair few of them whilst also ticking boxes that would probably be awfully middle class these days).

Nobody is putting people into boxes. They're making observations.

twatty I'm middle class, I also have tattoos, I swear like a trooper at home, I'm also degree educated, leftish wing leaning, realised last year that I'm a gc feminist, I put lipstick on in public on the bus, I've been a single mother and my husband is my children's step father.

Shall we invent some new boxes to fit in too

CitadelsofScience

Re your mother’s list: wasn’t she the one who thought sofa was common and couch correct?

Lola of course they are! The op literally started a thread asking what makes people common, inviting people to comment on what singles people out as being lesser (which is what common is considered to be).

I'm not upset, it's par for the course on Mnet, where there's a bit of a class obsession. I'm just pointing out that not everyone with the common "markers" described on the thread neatly fits the stereotype.

Citadels it sounds like we fit into the fabulous box

NoTheresa no that wasn't my mother, I don't actually know anyone I don't think that calls it a couch.

roisinaugusniamh I was taught all of these! So random. I still worry about signing cards with a red pen. I did it the other day and turned around to my colleague and said “ oh know this is supposed to be rude, but I don’t have another pen”. Colleague looked a bit bemused, so I think it’s just us!

Whoops! i've just sent of my query to Her Maj in red pen!

Red pen wishes them death. Green pen shows the world you're deranged.

Red pen is for marking. Ditto: green.

I’m afraid that middle class simply doesn’t exist as an entity. The bandwidth is too great. There is LMC, AMC, UMC. Each cohort mixes mainly with PLUs but the AMC (NM) may sit on fringes and be less certain of their place.
There are clear markers that cannot be seen until you enter the territory of the individual. You would have to ask yourself certain questions that most people would absorb the answers to almost subconsciously.

Are you able to provide a lust of such questions?

LIST!!!!

NoTheresa, an aide memoir to tick off where people sit on the spectrum wouldn’t work. You must simply know. If you are PLU, then you feel comfortable when you find your social classmates. You know the rules and what to guffaw about, what to raise an eyebrow at and what is acceptable for the gardener to put in.

twattymctwatterson
At the same time this thread was started, there was another one about what makes someone posh. People were discussing different markers of genuine posh vs wannabe seen to be posh.

I don't get this 'shock horror MN is obsessed with class'. It's like some people on here think they get a gold star for not seeing class.

Social class exists. It does. That's a fact. Certain things are associated with different classes. I think there's a difference between some things on this thread being common vs working class (this gets me a black mark from the do-gooders who'll claim they are protecting the working classes when working class people know there's different groups of working class). More recent class categories in academia and social research have made further distinctions between different classes because it's not just about income and job anymore, but the cultural and social influences people have.

Let's just pretend there's no class markers at all shall we? New 4x4 cars every 2 years to navigate the school run, Joules clothing and considering private school as something you'd save to afford are decidedly affluent middle class, but I better not say that.

Let's just pretend there's no class markers at all shall we? New 4x4 cars every 2 years to navigate the school run, Joules clothing and considering private school as something you'd save to afford are decidedly affluent middle class, but I better not say that.

Eh I'm confused because I'm so bloody tired. Are you saying people consider Joules clothing as something worn by the affluent middle class?

If I've completely misread that then I apologise but here Joules Clothing is worn by every Tom , Dick and Harry who are decidedly not affluent MC, rather they are the wannabes.

Lola the posh one was started in direct relation to this one. In retaliation almost. I've commented on those types of threads many times observing that MNet is obsessed with class. However the difference between those threads and these ones is that being posh/middle class isn't seen as a negative and that people who are perceived as "common" are at a default disadvantage in life.

The class system only exists because people perpetuate it.

Poor grammar
Kerouac advised writers to 'remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition'.

Is it not Aspiring rather than Affluent?

The class system has to exist. At least, for the time being. And not so that the MC can pay themselves on the back for being a little further up the tree. But to serve as a way to measure the gross inequality between classes.
Class is not the same now as it was pre industrial revolution. Your class is determined by your economic, social and cultural wealth. Not whether or not you shop at Joules or own a toilet brush.
Those at the bottom I.e. the precariat would never dream of having the lifestyle that the MC, or even traditional working class could achieve. The class system needs to exist to provide a measure of these things, how can we improve social inequality if we don’t have parameters to define which group of people are in need of extra help?? And how would we ever measure it was working?
I posted about this way further back in this thread.

So I do care about social class. But not as a tool to make people feel inferior!

That should be ‘pat’ not pay!

wee box
I do believe that is what the Queen calls it