What makes you middle class?

[Singlemum90]

So a comment from my mother a few years ago has stuck with me ever since then really. When I was no longer a single mum, and found myself a little less skint, she said 'oh it's so good now you're just a nice middle class mum, I'm so proud of you'

Aside from her clearly looking down at me before this, and deciding class was what defined how she felt about me- I have often wondered what made her decide I was middle class at this point.

How do you define it? (I feel it's very subjective) Is it what family you are born into? Your income?(And what income makes the 'classes'? Is it a specific job type? The way you stick your finger out when you drink tea?
Or is it just a shitty way to divide people and how they feel about themselves?

Actually, it was @Notmyuser who was very rude to me and smugly pointed out that I was not middle class, although I most definitely am. She then went on a rant defending the Kardashians, while claiming to 'not follow' them (it always amuses me that their fans often won't even admit to being fans: it's as if they realise how naff it makes them to be fans so they pretend not to be, all the while getting angry at people who see them for the cheap, common grifters that they are) The only people who are being 'Hyacinth Bucket' are the people who associate wealth with class. They probably also insist that their guests take their shoes off.

@TheSolstices yip. That and keeping your house meticulously spick and span because only dirty WC people have dirty houses. (Meanwhile the actual artistos don't give a shit about pristine houses, do seriously tacky stuff like shopping in Lidl, and wear wacky/ dirty/ moth eaten clothes when not in town)

It seems to me, and I am deeply and very boringly middle class on every possible measure, that it mainly bothers you. I know I am middle class. I am appalling at tennis and music (and not interested beyond politely). I like history and politics and science and thrillers: I read rather than watching much tv because TV is so slow and I get bored waiting for the obvious.

@LovelyTheresa aw jaysus Theresa, you just keep proving my point over and over again by calling people common!

Alright, if you're so certain you're MC, give us your creds. What makes you so sure you are?

@Superlambaanana and my house is only fairly clean.

This is nuts! You are not MC because you like some things and are bad at others. Or because you find some other people common!

Can anyone actually put forward any credible points as to why we should believe they are MC?!

@TheSolstices I'm Irish. Please correct my subjective opinion further 🤣

Maybe those were poor examples. But if we met, face to face, you'd conclude that I was middle class. We might hit it off, and we might not, but our socio-economic origins would come into play at some point. Probably not on first meeting. For example, I assume I like most of the people I encounter.

Loo not toilet
Pee not wee
Napkin not serviette
Sofa not couch
Sitting room not lounge or front room
Lunch not dinner
Supper not tea
What not pardon
Hello not pleased to meet you
Really not very
Aitch not haitch
TV not telly

@Superlambaanana you could come round?

Can’t believe people still talk about class!

i'm very clearly a working class person 😂😂😂

Lols!

Thank you. Absolutely not angry. I’m too classy to get angry at nobodies online 😉

Or maybe Klassy. Since I’m a Kardashian super fan and all.

She has “middle class tastes” and went to uni which makes her upper middle class, despite the fact she isn’t remotely wealthy.

“Very rude” 😂 bless your heart. I was not rude. You were rude, snobbishly looking down on everyone who wasn’t “upper middle class” like you.

I also did not defend the Kardashians. You first mentioned the Kardashians and stated they only had high school level education and I simply pointed out that you are factually incorrect. You then tried to double down by saying that you didn’t mean “those Kardashians” despite stating that “none of them are educated beyond high school level” and not clarifying which Kardashians you actually meant.

I simply googled “which Kardashians have degrees” - literally have never watched anything with them in it (intentionally) not do I follow celebrity culture - not for snobbery reasons, I simply don’t have time.

Wealth and class are of course linked and it’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Are you suggesting that to become socially mobile you must simply listen to Opera? Is anyone with a degree who visits the theatre middle class?

To be fair, those are Upper Middle and Upper Class signifiers. Except Upper Class people would have a drawing room as well as a sitting room.

According to my ex-boss (Welsh, chip on shoulder character) I’m middle-class because I have a Home Counties accent (what can I say, I grew up there) and I own a house in an area that has, since my mortgage was paid off, become gentrified beyond 800% more than from when I bought it.
The fact that I am asset-rich but cash poor doesn’t seem to have struck him - entrenched as he is in his belief that I somehow got the silver spoon (nope! -parents didn’t have a pot to P1$$ in, much less to leave me with more than £500 when they passed) but to him, it’s all based on speaking “properly”!
And there I was just thinking I was… normal?

I'd say I was of working class roots, but hate football & have never watched it (I'm male so a bit unusual) yet knew Kate & Pippa pre William, there's a juxtaposition!

Does that make the late Queen working class? She used to say 'telly'.

haha what is that really a thing 😆

Yes, to people looking on from other countries it's all just ridiculous. However, it appears from the threads on class which crop up all the time on MN that some posters take it oh so seriously.

@IloveAslan @PinkPelicans
Poo pooing class as irrelevant reveals you are either:

A) foreign - in which case just scroll on by - I'm sure you have plenty of ingrained social constructs which we would find equally boring; or

B) deeply uncomfortable with your own station in life - in which case, sorry you feel inadequate, but being supercilious is twattish so stop it.

I'm A, and I can assure you there is absolutely NOTHING like the nonsense I read about on MN where I live. The majority of people couldn't care less, and those who do aren't worth bothering with.

Those of us who don't have to live with this rubbish are still allowed to have an opinion btw.

I don't think class is irrelevant. But, I do think it's changed so much, as has society itself that I'm not sure it's as easily defined or definable.
As this thread proves, people have vastly different ideas about what makes someone middle class, or indeed working class.
I still personally think it's linked to your profession. If you're an academically-trained professional, then you're middle class. If you're a blue collar worker who didn't go to university, then you're working class. But, obviously others see it as something very different. I also believe you can change your class and be class mobile (up and down) within your own lifetime. Most sociologists agree; but many on this thread don't!
So, it's not clearly understood and there doesn't seem to be a consensus.
I'm not uncomfortable about my station in life, but totally confused by which class I am?! Working class doesn't really fit, as I've had so many middle-class influences. My parents were probably lower middle. But, middle class doesn't really fit, as I dropped out of college (mental health) and have ended up doing zero hours minimum wage type work, not a home owner, poor as a church mouse. But, I prefer to read than watch telly, I buy fair-trade tea and cocoa powder! On a good day I buy or make my own organic sourdough. On a bad day I buy cheap fluffy bread for 45p!
I say sitting room and sofa, but also talk about dinner and tea!
My parents were northern Irish, so I always felt a bit different in England anyway.
Genuinely no idea?! I do feel kind of classless, and some of us are, though we're told we can't be.
That expression - I can breakfast with paupers, and dine with kings - that's me! I genuinely can chat equally with people of all classes, and don't feel 'other' than any, based on class alone. I just like nice people. That's the thing that matters to me 😊