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?

Yes, tbh I think smoking anything is chavvy and for medicinal purposes you’d take it a different way because smoke isn’t good for your lungs.

I’m far from being a millionaire but I find the idea of someone thinking I’m a chav quite funny 😁 I actually worry about people thinking I’m a twat because my accent is too posh!

Yep 🤷‍♀️

I definitely don't think it applies to working class people and where I come from it never did!
It was always used to describe the people most likely to end up on Jeremy Kyle....ie long time benefits claimants that had never worked a day since leaving school but bought relatively expensive sports wear out of whichever catalogue would still give them credit.
I can see a few people like that around me now, acres of white flabby flesh on display (because the sun has been out for 24 hours) sat in their front garden with a can of Stella and a fag. The wife/girlfriend is at least a size 20 and has an almost see through black vest top on with matching cycling shorts and white/grey underwear(I can see every curve...) Both kids are obviously playing out front on the pavement very loudly despite having a rather large back garden that is infinitely safer than the road to play in. Everyone knows/sees people like this regularly and it was a pain typing out the description, if I had just said 'chav' most people would have been able to describe the above as it is a well known word. It is only offensive if it applies to you, and if it does perhaps do something about it!

Chavs by the nature of being a chav wouldn’t care if they’re called it. If you care you most likely are not a chav.

It's a horrible, judgy word.

It's absolutely rife on the Baby Names board. I call it out or report it when I see it, but it's like trying to swim against the tide.

I don't like the word and I judge people that use it

I agree. I did use the word maybe ten years ago but I have wised up since then. Not acceptable.

I can't see the issue tbh. If the cap fits and all that 🤔

YANBU but I'm a bit puzzled about this...

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

Snobbiness is more than a bit horrible, and shows the 'snob' in question to be generally uneducated and lacking in awareness.

So 'a bit horrible' makes no sense.

Karen is older women specific so feels
unfair as you can’t help your age or sex. It is remarkably easy to avoid wearing EDL t shirts and chanting “shagaluf” repeatedly whilst drunk at an airport which is behaviour I witnessed yesterday and yes did cause me to conclude the chap was a chav.

@PattyPan of course they would be wrong to look down on you but they would. They tended to ignore me until they saw me going into a house on one of the posh roads in our area & I then got a dinner invite 😆😆

Same. I often call it out on the baby names board.

It's no worse than the other multitude of judgemental, insulting names people get called. I'd argue it's better because unlike being old or female or of a different race, people can usually choose not to be/act like a chav.

@Teentaxidriver I think you mean Chatham?!

Yes it’s calling out behaviour which is easy to avoid. I internally judge a couple having a drunk screaming row at 3am and waking everyone else up as chavs - low class selfish grim behaviour.

The gentle souls who dislike the term have no doubt led sheltered lives away from such behaviour- lucky them!

The gentle souls who dislike the term have no doubt led sheltered lives away from such behaviour- lucky them!

l grew up in a then pretty rough part of inner London. Definitely sheltered, lol!

That’s quite a reach.

What else would you call someone who is clearly a chav? Can't stand the lot of them!

It is an insulting name for poor people. If you dared to say anything about middle class or upper class people as a group you would be pounced on and probably banned. But calling poor people names is fine.

It's not about being poor. It's about behaving in a certain way. Not all poor people are chavs. Some rich people are. HTH.

I've just come back from our local town and they're out in force here. Tats on show, nasty looking dog and a can/bottle of something alcoholic.

@user182937 but what exactly is "a chav".
People seem to use the name for different meanings.

I can't help but agree, you can spot a chavvy name a mile off, Kaiden, Hunter, Cairo, and pretty much any girls name that's spelt weird and double barrelled, Lexie-May Skyla-Rose

Jeez the pearl clutching. 🙄

Only the middle classes would find offence in a term that working class communities use freely to describe the arseholes - feckless, shit for brains, no manners, usually criminal tendencies, no consideration and brash with no taste or sensitivity.

It distinguishes people who may be poor, from those who are poor but act like anti-social dicks. As a WC person who has experienced class prejudice on the daily I totally get why this group is labelled like that.

Middle classes never get it and by throwing a fit of vapours they massively reveal their own power privilege.

Let them have chav ffs! it works perfectly well and we all know what it means.