Is watching soaps working class?

[crochetmonkey74]

Just as I say really. I'm an avid soap watcher, grew up very poor and on benefits, now comfortable and in a job where there are a lot of middle class people. At work someone said this as a sort of barbed joke but a lot of people agreed . What do you think?

Oops typo! Possibly not possible

I don’t watch soaps - I’m working class & come from a very working class family!

My friends parents who I would say are middle class watch soaps - always makes me giggle as their lives are around what soaps are on. Used to flat share with a friend who family very wealthy - avid watcher of both Eastenders & Emerdale! he used to always take control of the TV 7-8 on Tuesday & Thursday (back in the day when these where the only days those two on)

I watch lots of crap though that others might judge me on but thankfully I don’t have any friends like that! Love a bit of Love Island and enjoyed Love is blind :)

I'm working class and don't watch the soaps now, but I did when I was growing up. I went through a rebellious phase and lived without a TV completely for about 5 years late teens/ early 20s. When I got one again I had no idea what was going on in the soaps and just never got back into them. I do watch a lot of reality type shows and box sets instead. But my years of neighbours, home and away, Eastenders emmerdale and coronation street every time they were on and Sundays watching the holly oaks omnibus are well behind me!
I have tried watching a few since but just can't stick it out. But I miss the feeling of routine and reassurance I used to get from being a habitual soap watcher.

I feel like watching soaps is for elderly people!

@Ireolu

Still don't understand the preoccupation of MN with class. It ultimately doesn't matter if it is or isn't.

Class is a fascinating topic for some people. If you’re not interested, don’t click on a thread about it.

I don’t mean that rudely. I just mean - people are free to have conversations about what interests / intrigues them. That will be different for different people.

My upper class grandmother adored her soap operas. Emmerdale was her favourite. My mother (boarding school, polo ponies etc) loved Coronation Street so I grew up with it and loved it too. I don’t watch it anymore and neither does my mother. I kind of miss it. My aspirational lower middle class MIL (think Hyacinth Bouquet) is very snobbish about soap operas and can’t get her head around the fact that my mother likes them (yet is seemingly ‘posh’). Make of that what you will.

My sister in law watches every soap and all the quiz shows like the Chase. It seems like such a big commitment of time!

I used to watch Neighbours at uni but I haven’t seen it for years now. My parents listen to the Archers.

Princess Diana used to be a huge Eastenders fan in the 80s.

In my experience, posh people like Home and Away

Yes

Giving a shit marks you as needing to prove yourselfso you're aspiring working class,

But really who cares

Nope

@TheHoptimist

yes probably, watching TV generally is more wc.

But listening to The Archers is very MC

Rubbish

Don't watch soaps but watch University Challenge, Newsnight and Four In A Bed

I watch eastenders and I'm as posh as they come

@QuebecBagnet

Guess I’m middle class and I’ve never watched soaps. Nobody in my friendship circle does and never heard anyone at work talk about soaps.

If you work, you are working class, just blue/white collar. You sound a snob tbf

@AfterSchoolWorry

I feel like watching soaps is for elderly people!

So judgemental

I think I am probably middle class and I don't watch soaps, but this is because I generally don't like drama. I watch a lot of quiz shows and low brow reality /documentary type programmes

Bollocks to what other people think - looking down your nose at other people's viewing habits is just another way of saying 'I'm simply so much better than you'.

The only thing that annoys me about MN class discussions is when people declare themselves as ‘proud’ to be working/middle class.

Why are you proud of fitting into some bullshit social construct with no basis?

Working class, and not one for telly much at all. I find it hard enough keeping track of the odd film, long serials would flummox me.

My dad used to watch a couple of soaps, but he’s given up on them now.

I used to like sewing bee, as I like sewing, but think it’s the only reality type thing I’ve watched. Doubt I’ll watch with the new presenter though, as I’ve not enjoyed her contributions to other things I’ve seen her in.

I do love crappy murder mystery books though, if that helps? :o

@ClariceQuiff

I once read that the Queen is a fan of Coronation Street .

Queen Mum was partial to Neighbours apparently. Bet it was the hunky Aussie surfer dudes she liked!

@Chocolattay

The only thing that annoys me about MN class discussions is when people declare themselves as ‘proud’ to be working/middle class.

Why are you proud of fitting into some bullshit social construct with no basis?

Probably because people have been made to feel bad about being working class by those with more resources and power, and they got pissed off with it and refused to be ashamed, which then leads to people saying that they are 'proudly working class'. It is a construct but it has affected people's lives for centuries and it's hard to shift.

Me and a very middle class colleague used to deliberately discuss soaps at working lunches. Lol

Eh?? Enjoying a certain tyoneof program is not a class issue.