AIBU to think there has been far too many threads about class on mumsnet recently?

[Ginfordinner]

Why has there been so many class related threads on here lately?
I have read before that mumsnet posters are obsessed with class, but have managed to miss the threads about class, but over the last few days there have been so many.

After having read them I realise that I must be class blind, or that I just don't care what social class people are because I judge them on things like kindness, empathy, friendliness and respect, not how they hold their cutlery or how much they earn or what kind of TV shows they like.

For context I suppose that we would be considered middle class, but both DH and I have working class backgrounds.

I think we can expect a centre spread weekend article in one of the tabs in the coming weeks
"Why British women are still obsessed with class"
The journo must have a deadline as you're right- the sheer number, and all faux innocent "I'm not from here so I get ever so confused" is pathetic.

They aren't content?

They have an inferiority complex

Those who labour the subject too hard always appear to me a little clueless and try hard.

People jump on those threads like flies on poo though. 800 posts on one I saw the other day! Who knew it was that much fun to tell everyone you went to a much tougher school than anyone would imagine given your job, or that even though you're skint, you're still actually posh bc your granny called a mirror a looking glass or whatever?

I think all cultures are obsessed with class, but I think it's more about security than the car you drive. A fair number of the people who are self proclaimed middle class could easily lose everything if they lost their job, as they spend too much and have too much debt. You can't judge by appearances or subjective accounts of people's wealth. That's why it is so odd to put so much emphasis on money and the way you hold a spoon. It could all fall to bollocks tomorrow and this pandemic has shown that. Surely happiness and quality of life more important?

I should have written have not has.
Before anyone jumps on my grammar

Because nobody’s wholly exempt from class anxiety, it just affects some people more than others. And probably more so when everything everywhere is so uncertain?

I think its yet another thing people stress when they feel insecure.

People who feel insecurr about their ‘status’ try to mask their insecurity by othering themselves from people they see as being below them, the old “oh I would never do that I’m not working class” or the old “I would think they hadn’t been raised properly”.

People who feel secure in who they actually are don’t care about class or their own perceived status.

Its a bit like people who are insecure about their physical appearance, some people put others down to boost their ego, rather than working on improving their own self confidence.

It's also very telling on those threads that the people who think they are upper class, really aren't.
One poster kept harping on about her RP accent- you could tell from her writing that, she really really probably didn't have an RP accent. (Technically, not even the young royals do any more so it's unlikely Random Social Climbing MNer does )

Accents are a funny thing though. I'm from South London, but live in Yorkshire. People think I have a posh accent. I don't, I have a South London accent, not a Sheffield or Barnsley accent

The fact that people are stereotyped into their little boxes then when they're in their.
box feel so special that they can look down on others drives me mad
I have a thick Cornish accent imy not changing it as I am me and I cannot change to suit all the snobbery of lthers

*others

@Ginfordinner

Accents are a funny thing though. I'm from South London, but live in Yorkshire. People think I have a posh accent. I don't, I have a South London accent, not a Sheffield or Barnsley accent

The accent thing is weird.

I have a Pakistani/Nottinghamshire/North London accent, so my accent is ‘interesting’.

I never understand people who think an accent means posh, it simply means where a person has either developed language, or lived for a long time.

My partner who would be considered posh by those hung up on poshness (he is from old money) has a hybrid of a Swedish and Derbyshire accent, people sometimes think he has a Scottish accent.

In times of uncertainty, some people need some certainty to hang their flat cap on. They need the security that understanding where they fit in society brings.
It’s why we have Brexit - a Little England mentality.

Clearly there are behaviours that separate social groups. Clearly there are PLUs and we tend to find them through external signs. Clearly there are behaviours some find unacceptable but which are more usual in certain strata of society so are linked to social class.

I find that many people on MN like to use class as a descriptor. You'd often see something like "2 kids, job, fairly middle class or working class or DH and I are middle class but from a working class background..." and this is usually where the class doesn't matter.

Not entirely surprising that others then feel the need to figure out where they stand so they can describe themselves as such too.

Just based on your post, there was no need to write the last line but it's the sort of typical thing you see on MN, especially when saying at the same time that you're not interested in class. I suppose you're not immune to it then.

Bottom line: Can't blame people for being hung up on class because people describe themselves based on it all the time.

This is where I insert my supposed class for clarification

My favourite chestnut is "oh, class has nothing to do with money (subtext = I am just naturally superior)". Oh yeah, well how much money did your grandparents have? Of course it ultimately comes back to money.

(I am being rhetorical and really don't want to hear everyone's comparisons between their grandparents' finances and their own class identity )

MN is always obsessed with class, but Christmas is bonanza time because of Christmas Eve boxes, real/plastic trees, white/coloured Christmas lights, type of gifts and all that.

It is the snobbery and venom spouted on these threads that are tiresome discussing class is interesting when the posters have class with descriptions it is when they are downright rude to think of w.c people as inferior it is annoying.
I am working class I've always had a job etc I'm happy to be.

Spot on
It comes down to Grandparents money, I inherited from my Gran otherwise I'd be struggling

I guess it's a useful general description of someone's socio economic status. The problems arise when folk start to look down on those or discriminate against people they deem inferior because of their perceived class. It's like that thread the other day when some posters clearly equated working class as being thick.

It's insecurity. People who lack confidence in their own identity and place in the world cling to these distinctions.

It's bloody boring tbh.

For context I suppose that we would be considered middle class, but both DH and I have working class backgrounds.

You had me convinced.......right till the end when you wrote 🤞

Also why do we need to know how much people earn? Still I spose we can all be online millionaires

@PortiasPlumUpduffedPudding

Also why do we need to know how much people earn? Still I spose we can all be online millionaires

I would miss the following snobby “we have lots of money” phrases on MN if no one mentioned money

“Just get a cleaner”

“He can sleep in the spare room”

“Why not use the playroom?”

This is interesting.
I have no desire to be classed. Where we live my accent has always been different. My grandparents on one side were not wealthy but were considered middle class. They spoke formally and the correct cutlery was always used.
Everything was formal,they were addressed as mother and father.
Obviously we have been brought up always having napkins at dinner,and having the proper cutlery. We may have been poor at times but a mirror was called a looking glass. You always dressed clean and smart. There were lots of books and always had a variety of good quality table linen.
No idea what that makes me as I have held on to many of my grandmothers ways as mum used such and I am just following on.

I think a lot of it is bullshit and fantasy though Simon