To think that the middle classes are liars and actors?

[MargaretBrewer]

I know this woman who I always assumed was middle class. Everything she says and values is a walking middle class stereotype. The couple live in a nice house, everything is nice. Forgive my surprise, then, when I found out that she was born on a council estate to parents who were often jobless. After some snooping around, I learned that her husband comes from more money, but his father actually began life as a builder - yes, a construction worker! - who rose to manage the (small) company before buying up a number of local estate agents. I never knew what the couple in question did until I learned that they are landlords to some shops in town. Their son went to a private school and struts around like he is prince of the county! When none of his grandparents were posh! And how is it that the husband and wife own so many properties in town?!

It reminds me of a doctor and his wife I know. I always thought they must come from solidly middle class, if not upper class backgrounds, given how they talk and behave. It turned out that both of them come from families that worked in steel!

And and and there is a writer who lives nearish to me. Single woman, carries herself with this gait and artistic flair that I assumed she must come from an UMC background. Turns out her father was a welder.

Why are these people so MC presenting?? I would never have guessed they had come from unglamorous backgrounds, and there are a few other 'friends' I suspect might be similar. Are the middle classes inherently actors? If so their snobbery is alarming to me!

Had to change my name for this.

Bloody hell, who rattled your cage.

Get a grip of your inferiority complex.

what makes you middle class? From looking at the standard definitions I would think the majority of UK is middle class.

I get referred to as middle class because I suppose I live a middle class lifestyle. People
can’t believe it when I tell them I’m actually from a working class background. My father built up his business and we lived a good life growing up but we’re still working class. My friend went to boarding school but her family were working class, she has a different accent to her parents so people are shocked when they find out she’s from a working class background.

WTF?

The only things that are weird, are your preoccupation with class, and your inability to realise that people, who may have what you think are menial jobs, are often highly intelligent and can improve their own financial situation and that of their children. Which leads to a better education and more opportunities.

Exactly what I was thinking

Good grief! 😅

The 'middle class' didn't exist until the Industrial Revolution when a number of people who made money through industry decided to tried to emulate the lifestyle and tastes of the upper classes in order to desperately distance themselves from their working class origins and appear better than others.

Everyone who claims to be 'middle class' is terribly conscious of what they are doing, wearing, saying, where they holiday etc lest they be perceived as <shudder> working class.

That's why the whole middle class debate that crops up on MN is so entertaining - it reeks of insecurity. And it's all smoke and mirrors...

The majority of the Uk 'works' surely?

@MargaretBrewer perhaps a bit jealous???

It's also somehow one of the most MN OPs I've read here on MN.

I’m not sure what your post is meant to be getting at. Are you expressing annoyance at people pretending to be posh when they aren’t? Like Hyacinth Bucket. A lot of people do that, not only who you would deem middle class.

Is it okay then for people to be snobby if they are from an upper class background? (I don’t think you are saying that) I mean I don’t like people who pretend to be better than others, but I think you get that from very rich but also very poor people.

Are you saying that if you were born working class those in the next generation should also stay within working class? I am from a working class background, but you probably would describe what me and DH have as middle class. But then we don’t go around pretending to be posh.

Am really not getting the point of your post

Ummm

Op you need a hobby!😂

Jane Austen was an intelligent and perceptive observer of manners and social life. She was not bitter or had rigid ideas about what people should be like. OP you come across as not only extremely snobbish - inverted snobbery - but also judgemental and critical and jealous. If someone has become middle class why should they not be middle class? Why do they need to reflect their grandparents' background? It makes no sense.

How much does your own class depend on your parents'?

Is the woman with the nice house not mc because she grew up in a council house with often unemployed parents?

This is the most ridiculous post I’ve read in a while. God forbid people want to do well for themselves and improve their lot. Do you expect people to walk around with a banner saying ‘I’ll never forget I was born on a council estate, pinky promise’. It’s not a club!!!!! Get a grip OP. Your post stinks of resentment.

It's called social mobility 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

My guess is we have a very bored student who has devised a new drinking game.

Every time he/she/AI says something controversial/ignorant/ridiculous take a sip, Every time somebody gets sucked in and replies in the same vein, take another.
It’ll soon be Christmas, and not a street wise man in sight..
Cheers!

You aren't being unreasonable......you are going wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy beyond unreasonable.

Most likely a joke but on the off chance it's not this is probably the most unreasonable post I've ever seen on MN. 🏆

Well blow me, you'd think that people who were born into impoverished backgrounds would at least aim to stay that way for the rest of their lives. How dare they mix with the middle classes when they weren't born into it. They've obviously been faking their status ever since! I mean, it doesn't even count if their parents had money, if the grandparents were lower class, then every subsequent generation should be too, otherwise they are all just faking. Know your place.

Lol, OP, you will find that you are in the minority to be surprised that a lot of middle class people come from working class backgrounds. Most people are not surprised by it. The whole point of capitalist democratic society is that people can have opportunities to improve their lot if they are of a mind to. Nobody is 'fake' because of it.
It looks like you are mixing middle class up with 'upper class'. You seem to expect that subsequent generations will stay in the same class and that's that.
That their past times change too, just shows that if lower class people could afford to ski and go to the theatre, then they most probably would - and do once they start earning enough to become 'middle class'.
I recommend you lose the 'class box' altogether. There are people with money, and people with less. All of which might like to ski or go to the theatre given the chance, and so it should be.

You sound a bit mad TBH.

Loads of my friends have what you would obviously be very surprised (!!!!!!) to hear are lower middle/ working class parents. My gran cleaned for a living and my grandma ran a shop. But I had a supportive family, worked hard at school got a good job, earn decent money and I imagine am what most people would think of as solidly middle class but it’s through education and my profession rather than putting on airs and graces.

So yes absolutely, very very often kids of working class parents will probably appear to be posher than their parents. I’m surprised you even have to ask if it’s a thing.

Incidentally my own view is that class is very much more about behaviour, culture and education than money.

WTF have I just read?

YANBU. Every time I make an acquaintance I ask for proof of their mother and father's occupations, and their grand parents too, along with any title deeds they own, newspaper preferences and how they pronounce certain words.

I need to know they are properly classified on my social class wall chart. I have different marker pens for all the different classes.

"Are the middle classes inherently actors? If so their snobbery is alarming to me!"

But surely what you've described is working class people adopting the mannerisms associated with the middle classes - so it's the workng classes acting/lying/being snobs?