to be sick of hearing the 'CLASS' card played on mn?

[mumzyof2]

Is it just me? Or is anyone else sick of hearing the class divide thing mentioned on here?
As soon as someone mentions disciplining children, supermarkets , etc, it turns into a big class debate!

Why?

Why, in this day and age, when there is such a MASSIVE range of people no living in the UK, do we still give a flying toot about peoples class?

Why?? Cod frightens me ever so slightly!

Yes, she thinks they're lower-class...

they're naff y'know!

but all the class threads are like groundhog day. same old people saying how they are this and do that and own this. so that makes them mc. then a dig at people on benefits....and on it goes.
Boring with a capital B.
I am wc wouldn't say I am proud of it. just waht I am. but to be honest who really cares.

Be afraid Cod, be very afraid!

i think it must be an English thing, i've never heard so much discussion of class in my life until i came on MN. and i think, tbh, that some people have a chip on their shoulder about it (on both 'sides') when given that we don't even know if we're talking to hairy truckers or not is a bit ridiculous. it's a bore, frankly. we should be able to engage with the issues and differing opinions without it becoming class war.

Aitch I agree- so much for the "classless" society eh?

I'd hate to say I was "Middle class" or "lower-class" hopefully I'm an approachable person who gets on with most people from all walks of life. Don't think aobut it except with bewilderment on here whjere someposters can be SOOOO judgemental

The class thing gets up my nose too!!

the americans are just as classed obsessed but they call it 'money and posessions and who has what'

We lived in a well off neighbourhood in Virginia for 2 years. Initially all the image-obessessed neighbours thought we must be rather posh cos we had English accents.
Gradually as they saw us walking to the shops, not going to chucrh, using a bicycle and not a car and sitting on the front step swigging beer out of a bottle and smoking they became more and more horrified. And then the 'hippies' whisper went round.
And none of them talked to us.
It was all about image and what was considered important. They didn't know that I was bought up by single mum on benefits or DH went to a private school. They didn't know we both had PhD's or that dd had a stonker of a slaray (scientists are paid a decent amount in the US). Mind you, if they'd know we're left wing commie liberals they'd of all moved away!
But it was all what you wore, what you drove and how many 'actvities' your child was ferried too. All surface shallow stuff and all perception.
Course, this was stuck up North VA with its gated communties where the word 'liberal' is spat on and they worshipped Bush and Co. I expect there's normal people tehre too

I have noticed class keeps coming up on mumsnet. I have noticed theres a bit bit of bullying on mn as well. I havent really posted lately as a few things have put me off coming on here.

Where'd all these 2's come from?!

Oh, and YANBU.

Ah, have now read the threads in question.

I'm not getting involved in that lot thanks!

Another 2 lol

The difference between wc and mc is so blurred nowadays.

Can anybody give an accurate defination and seriously categorise themselves in to one or the other?

It's because, although they're loathe to openingly admit it, a larg-ish portion of Mners consider themselves better than other Mners with less money/lower incomes/non profressional occupations. They like to make comments about how they think everyone should shop in Waitrose (eg) because it's so much more ethically responsible, better quality etc with no thought/consideration for the fact that the reason that many don't shop there is because there is no way they can afford such poor value for money.

People are overtly looked down upon for buying clothes from New Look, shopping at Tesco etc and as for Lidl and Netto, etc, they are the but of a great many jokes, disguising a teasing, on a weekly basis.

People, quite understandly, object. They are then accused of what is becoming a very popular old chestnut, inverted snobbery. In other words people should quietly put up with having their lower income-lives sneered at.

That's not to say everyone who mentions Waitrose et al is boasting. It's the not the mentioning it.. it's how it's mentioned and the ignorant comments that often come after it.

That's where "class" comes into in.

Th quite amusing thing to consider is that the majority of these people who aspire to be "middle class" are the ones with the real class issues.. the "upper class" don't concern themselves with such things!

Cardy, an accurate definition is impossible. It's all the minds of those who perceive themselves to be middle class (which has less to do with money than attitude) and that can change, daily.

I don't think it's an English so much as an MN thing.
Of course class, or peoples perception/anxiety about class, plays a part in RL but unless you are very unlucky you're unlikely to come across the constant allusions to it that you will come across on here.
I think some clutch their 'class' as some vital part of who they are when trying to project themselves onto the MN community, then more people feel they have to play along in order to fit the 'ideal' MNer stereotype. So it self-perpetuates.

And it's very wearing.

Yes, I think it's too easy to call it an English preoccupation, or if it is, to assume that all English people are pre-occupied with it. I'm certainly not. I don't think about it from one day to the next, and it was never spoken of in my family, either.

Big sign of insecurity, imo, to describe yourself in those terms.

I think being pre occupied by it and being interested are 2 different things though (I'm the latter). I do think class affects you if you live in this country though.

that's crap, shiny, about lidl and netto, i have rarely seen either spoken about in anything other than glowing terms on here. huge long lists of what's good there, with contributions from people who appear to have money on here and those who appear not to. value and quality are value and quality, and most mners i think 'get' that.

personally i think that a £1.99 chicken from Tesco isn't value for money cos it tastes crap. as it happens, i also think the Oakham ones from M&S taste crud as well and are barely kept to RSPCA standards either. so i'm not buying either. i'm a food snob, not a snob.

i'm so utterly tired of this class thing, it's such bullshit. swearing off waitrose for lent to go to 'tesco, the poor people's shop' is just so colossally offensive it's not true. it's not a christian attitude, it's not an accurate assertion, it's not even (i'll bet my fucking life) true, so why are people getting their knickers in a twist about it?
because they want to, imo, because they like fighting about this shit. again and again and again.

It is something Ive noticed, a wee bit of snobbery but mostly people bringing it up for whatever reason, a lot more than in RL. As a working-class chav (its official, I did a quiz) who earns more than my entire family put together, I do end up jumping into it a bit! But I do think Im a bit proud of my job/earning/knowledge of pound shops!

Personally I think the classism on MN is endemic and if I hear another bleating Mail reader bitching about the woman down the road with six kids and a range rover who must be raking it in in child benefits I'll puke!

Classism is every bit as important an issue as racism, yet somehow I don't expect to see a "I'm sick of hear the RACE card being played on mn" because people would rightly call you a racist for it. In the UK we are obssessed with class at whatever strata of society we inhabit (although I think the middle class are definately the worst offenders) but we shouldn't talk about it, how crass.

Perhaps the little boys born in Glasgow with lower life expectancy than little boys in Gaza should just accept that everyone is equal now, right? Bollocks! There's no frickin' way those little boys are living in a meritocracy where they have just as much of a chance to suceed in life as David Camerons' spawn, y'know why? CLASS INEQUALITIES.

As the Scots say - "We are ALL Jock Tamson's bairns".