To ask how do you know which things are 'tacky/common'?

[TheHydrangeas]

On here I sometimes see certain items, behaviours, homeware, fashion, makeup, etc classed as "tacky" or "common". Sometimes I can understand it, but other times it is things that seem pretty innocuous. Despite this you see this kind of unanimous belief that those things are "common". However I can't really find an underlying pattern to what is deemed to be tacky/common and what is not. Is there any kind of theme or pattern to this? One example is I remember reading a thread where a pretty popular brand of scented candles were classed as tacky.

I also want to say that I am not trying to portray other users negatively as judgemental or anything, we are all entitled to our opinions. I am just interested from a broader point of view - how do certain things become tacky or common?

According to a previous thread I am because I'm having a roast chicken dinner and it's a Sunday.

I love a scented candle too.

I think 'tacky' has a judgement to it. People with these things are looked down on. For example rattan furniture. I have 2 plastic rattan chairs in my garden. I am therefore 'showy' and trying to look 'posh' (and failing). Actually I bought them because I like the look of rattan but can't afford it (and barely have anyone over - so not got much chance to be 'showy'!) But if I could afford real rattan I wouldn't have those negative connotations attached to my furniture - yet in both instances I would just be buying something I liked the look of.

Commoners - know your place! These expensive things aren't for the likes of you, and liking something enough to take a photo of it demonstrates how unworthy you really are.

Interesting to hear that Starbucks, green tea, Thai food and face masks are now considered tacky/common too. How bizarre.

If they sell it in any of

• home bargains
• the range
• wilkos

I think Starbucks has always been "common". Common is very similar to "basic" in the US.

My grandad made wooden things. Some beautiful furniture but also small things, like napkin rings. They were beautiful and each one was different - made from oddments of wood or using a different technique.
They are widely considered common, because being considerate of the person doing the laundry and reusing a napkin/serviette for another meal, personalised with a wooden ring, marks the family out as non-u .
The same as having garden furniture light enough to lift yourself, shows a consideration for the furniture carrier. Non-u.

My other grandad’s first job was as a gardener. First job of the day was often to use a bamboo switch to knock the dew off the grass, so the family would stay dry if they wanted a walk on the lawn later.

This stuff is all nonsense. Live your life.

@NancyPickford

My late mother had a long list of things and activities she thought of as "common". One was women smoking in the street. Common! Eating in the street. Common! (She'd have a fit nowadays to see the amount of Street Eating that goes on). Drunk women. Common! Nearly all her pronouncements were aimed at women.

Mine was the same. In her defence, she was born in 1918 when women smoking at all was a bit of a stretch!

• If they sell it in any of

• home bargains
• the range
• wilkos*

I prefer the poundshop and B&M.

If my SIL likes it, it's tacky. Simple rule of thumb but it works for me

love a nice simple rule like this, otherwise it gets so complicated. 😄

You'd have to shoot me before I used the word 'common'. Or 'classy' for that matter.
My son berated me for saying 'chav' and rightly so. I would never say it about anybody now as it's very judgmental but hypocriticaly I would say something is chavvy. But mostly I'd use the word tacky.

Don't like flashy, new, matchy, shiny things really but it's just a style and I recognise that. Some of the nicest people I know like all that stuff. Actually judging people for it is really uncool.

I don't like my kids speaking in a certain way ( 'aitch, 'like' at the end of every sentence ) I do know some great people who do speak like that though.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable

Interesting to hear that Starbucks, green tea, Thai food and face masks are now considered tacky/common too. How bizarre.

I think some posters are confused between "tacky" and "fashion victim"

(and yes, I realise there's probably an overlap)

Other posters are confused between "tacky" and "non-u" - buying ones bedroom furniture as a complete set is non-u because it means you haven't inherited it, but it's not tacky, it's just what some people have to do. Buying it from Homebase is probably common (? I'm not up on brands) and putting a huge gilt mirror on the ceiling is tacky.

It's all a shibboleth (and yes, my use of this word is also a shibboleth, I am meta I contain multitudes). This explains why someone thinks roast dinner for Sunday lunch is the preserve of chavs, and why another poster attempted to rationalise the hate for Yankee Candle, who produce white and cream tealights and votives, by describing them as inherently "big and ugly with artificial colours".

Surely the definition of tacky is everything and anything that is on, or could be on, the only way is Essex. The clothes, furniture, cars, the "look" as a whole.

I liked the poster that said this,

Who was it that said you are common “if your telly is bigger than your bookcase”?

Dh and I had a similar conversation last night and he couldn’t understand why it made me really ashamed and sad. I felt like a snob and I didn’t like feeling that way.

I decided today that three things are common (just nasty behaviour, really).

Flytipping junk outside a charity shop.

Swearing in public (which includes on online forums, folks)

and not nasty. but unpleasant to see, the aforementioned flytippers just happened to be overweight and showing off vast amounts of their ample bottoms underneath their not so ample shorts. Being overweight isn't common but showing unnecessary flesh is.

I know this thread is about how someone knows something is ‘tacky’ and ‘common’ but I’m wondering what the reverse words are.
What words those a lot on here are saying have ‘tacky’ or ‘common’ taste would use about those with different taste.
Pretentious ? Stuck up ?

By the standards of this thread wouldn't having a bookcase be common anyways? Especially if bought new, and the books aren't first edition passed down through generations.

By having one you're obviously trying to show off how read and cultured you are , which isn't effortless so it's common. Especially if you need to shop around to match it to the size of the telly.

@VinylDetective - mine was also born in 1918!
However, she smoked all her life - just not in the street!

@Yankathebear

I liked the poster that said this,

Who was it that said you are common “if your telly is bigger than your bookcase”?

Dh and I had a similar conversation last night and he couldn’t understand why it made me really ashamed and sad. I felt like a snob and I didn’t like feeling that way.

Why did you start such a conversation if it made you feel bad?

[quote NancyPickford]**@VinylDetective - mine was also born in 1918!
However, she smoked all her life - just not in the street![/quote]
Mine smoked for years too. She was actually almost nicked for unwittingly buying black market fags during the war! Given that she was the most law abiding person you could ever imagine, we found it highly amusing.

@Beefcurtains79

‘DH was married previously and his ex wife and I are startlingly different uo thdcextengceven our 4yo son asked how daddy had married her and me when we were so opposire‘

What a strange thing for a 4 year old to say, how does he even know your husbands ex wife from 45 years ago? Unless of course he’s heard you sneering at her.

That child did not say that unless he/she was heavily led into that conversation

@Atalune

zhamp yes she has. It is horrible. What’s that got to do with anything? Is she “cancelled” now?

She may well be unpleasant. But I thought her self possession and calling out someone deriding her like that was great.

Evidently not, given that she has had a seventeen year career since. It's interesting to reflect on how much the world has changed since then. She was acquitted of racially-aggravated assault but the allegation alone would be enough for trial by Twitter these days.

It sounds like she had a quick response for the interviewer but then I don't think it particularly remarkable that a highly successful woman from a working class background would be self-possessed.

Surely there’s no debate about Cheryl Cole’s style being tacky. She absolutely epitomises it and has made a living out of it. In fact most manufactured celebs are the same, tackiness personified.

@ComeOnBabyPopMyBubble true!

@Thisismytimetoshine I didn’t. It was part of a conversation that followed a social event and a comment that one guest had made towards another.

Oh, I see.

@Grottyfeet

So what is nice MC garden furniture made of?

You buy it from Vinterior or other vintage site. Reusing is good.