To think 'chav' is not an okay thing to call people?

[enternow99]

I find the use of chav on Mumsnet shocking. Is this name chavvy? Is this holiday destination chavvy? Is this outfit chavvy? Chavs moved in next door (I'm a leaseholder, they rent!!!!)

I understand its snobbiness but isn't it a bit horrible?

They are some of the things, yes. But depending on who you ask, others include: wearing sportswear, buying designer items, driving a 4x4 if you dont live rurally, going to Butlins not Centre parks. Going to Centre parks. Hot tubs. Calling your child a name beginning with J, tattoos, being overweight. Being thin. Not working. Working and earning a lot of money....In short, pretty much anything done by people the person using the term has identified as a group they can punch down on. Its used so subjectively its meaningless as a description of a subject. (Although a useful indication of the character of the speaker.)

Absolutely @5128gap

I still hear it from time to time, mostly by 30/40 somethings. I never considered it a label for 'the poor' but rather a derogatory description for those displaying certain antisocial behaviours. They are the arseholes driving around at speed at 2am in their modified cars doing doughnuts and blaring music. They are the ones sitting on a sofa in their front garden drinking all day. They are the ones who keep 'hard' dog breeds but don't bother to actually train them. They are the idiots causing all the trouble in town centres at kick out time. They are the ones who operate in the grey economy, seemingly jobless but somehow always got money.

That's a backronym. The word and its use predate that.

Sorry but I love the word chav. It's uniquely British and conveys perfectly a whole sentiment that's almost impossible to define with other words. Long live chavs. Lots of people use it to describe their own tastes too.

For me chavviness is about how people behave and I use it quite a lot because there’s plenty to warrant the description where I live. Eg ‘I didn’t sleep well last night because of those chavs shouting at each other in the street’ or ‘it reeks of weed around here, I’m sick of these chavs’. If they don’t like being called chavs they could behave like civilised people 🤷‍♀️

@5128gap yeah, you're not wrong.
I just know that people do make those judgements, and I'm wondering if there could ever be an 'acceptable' word to use, while showing you believe it's uncouth or whatever, without seeming so unartful and snobby.
I guess there isn't. But the perception by some of people being 'lower' won't ever go away just be removing chav from popular parlance.
I used to live in the states and the equivalent there was 'oh, that's/he's so ghetto'. Just as bad really.

What is the social class ?

Well there's some dispute about exactly what kind of person the term refers to - variously working class or sub-working class ('underclass'), but sometimes it includes a particular way of dressing, and sometimes it refers to people who have the temerity to flash money around while daring not to be middle class. But it would be odd to try and claim that class isn't a big part of it.

Chav isn't a social class descriptor per session though. It's not the equivalent of working class if that's what you're trying to say. Or do you mean underclass? It's perfectly possible to be working class ( which can't be helped) and not be a chav.
Many attributes which make someone a chav are personal choices eg the type of clothes, make up, hairstyle, jewellery, rudeness, aggressive behaviour, lack of aspiration etc which can all be helped, so by your own reckoning chav is just as acceptable a word as snobby.

Always found it a horrible snobby word. I'd never say it and nor would any of my friends. My family's working class origins with middle class people in the younger generation (me included, and my cousins, all first generation to go to university etc). A few older, working-class family members still say chav about various neighbours etc and I cringe every time - they see themselves as a cut above the other people on their estate and they're keen to point this out. It's a very British thing to punch down at the people immediately below you in the pecking order, I suppose.

or ‘it reeks of weed around here, I’m sick of these chavs’. If they don’t like being called chavs they could behave like civilised people

the people smoking weed on my street went to private school & live in a 1.2m terrace…

No, they don't.

They are dicks

It’s a horrible sneery word.

An old friend I hadn’t seen for years used it when she visited me and overheard a few neighbours who were, at the time, a bit shouty and sweary.

She asked who lived in the flats behind me and then said ‘they sound a bit chavvy’.

It’s not just descriptive of certain styles, mannerisms and income…it’s description plus a combination of a laugh and a sneer. It’s a code used by middle class or upper class people to convey a negative attitude to working class people or those they deem to be working class

Horrible thing to say or think. I would never use it (and was disgusted with my friend)

It's a very British thing to punch down at the people immediately below you in the pecking order, I suppose.

thats true

I’m from a very WC background. Do you not think they sneer back?

The price of their house or where they were educated doesn’t stop it from being chavvy behaviour. There are plenty of rich chavs.

This thread proves that chav can mean anything 😆

No one would call a MC kid smoking weed a chav.

I was told it came from Council House And Van so a typical labourer type job. But it seems there are lots of meanings across the country

The price of their house or where they were educated doesn’t stop it from being chavvy behaviour. There are plenty of rich chavs.

But people wouldn’t look at them & call them chavs which is my point, they likely would label you one though regardless of your behaviour.

I thought it was used to describe the unemployed dressed in designer attire in an attempt at the appearance of wealth