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.

Have you never heard of social mobility??!!

Some of the way they present may be an affectation - that could apply to anyone.

But the labels and judgement are all yours.

Put the glue bottle away

Many people I've met in the past who flaunted their middle-class/upper-class status were actually just creating a false impression. They had very little assets behind the projection. The banks owned it. It was a case of Keeping Up with the Jones. It is an act.
I know a millionaire who drives a 2004 car. She couldn't care less about how she looks. There is a humility there that I admire.

This. Sounds like she needs to get a hobby.

Well we don't know how many generations removed from being working class the OP is. Maybe her stance on this is due to her own insecurities.

What exactly is your issue here?

You are being ridiculous. There are also plenty of MC people from working class backgrounds who do not behave like pretentious twats or deny their origins. But you know this already.

People evolve, it's normal human behaviour to change your speaking voice to fit in with those around you. What is surprising about that?

Very odd obsessive observations of other people.

😂

The doctor should have introduced herself as follows "Begging your humble pardon sir. My family were steelworkers sir."
I'd like to see this "Their son went to a private school and struts around like he is prince of the county!"
He struts does he? Does he look like this

I love this post. I am actually MC masquerading as WC. I've had some strange looks at the local Bingo when I shout 'Mansion' instead of 'House'.

What does their parents occupation have to do with current situation? My dad was a builder, what difference dies that make to the way I live my life, I earned my success myself as did my ex (born on a council estate) were we meant to not get above our station??? Were we not allowed to make A or Elite on the class scales?

Oh and I've since married into old money, shocking I know!

I think the problem here is with your assumptions and perceptions, OP.

And the concept of class is bollocks anyway, outside of social science and political theory, where it's a kind of useful shorthand.

My early childhood (late 50s/early60s) sounds like a character from Monty Python's "Yorkshiremen" sketch. We lived in 3 rooms in a flat that wasn't self-contained, had no bathroom or running hot water, so outdoor lav and a tin tub in the kitchen once a week. We were dirt poor so had no tv because we couldn't afford it. As soon as I was at school, my mum went back to work part-time as a school dinner lady. She didn't go back to nursing because they wouldn't have been able to afford child care in the holidays. She gave that up when she was expecting my brother and when he was born we got a council flat on what was, at the time, the roughest estate in Croydon, because our home was unfit for a baby. No-one could have described us anything other than working class.

But then my dad's career started to take off and I passed my 11-plus and got a scholarship to an independent girls school. Did that make me middle class? Or was it when I skinted myself to buy a house when I was 27? Did I go back to being working class when I had to have a lodger and two cleaning jobs to cover the mortgage when interest rates hit the teens?

And who gives a shit anyway?

Heaven forbid that someone, either through hard work or good fortune, lift themselves up above what their parents were able to achieve. Get back where your belong you working class oiks. Jeez!

Your post reeks of envy 🙄

Felt like I was reading an excerpt of an Austen novel there, with the characters gossiping about people being in (gasp) trade.
Haven't you heard of upward mobility?

This.

90% of private school attendees these days are full of these offspring. Parents of working class background have done well professionally and they offset the class chip on their shoulder by doing what they think the Middle classes do: private school, 4x4, camping in Cornwall or Dorset, Glastonbury with kids, rugby A team, Ironman challenge, obligatory marathon, cheese connoisseur, side return extension and loft, etc.

My grandparents were - gasp - a shipyard worker and a barmaid! And here's me with my three university degrees and professional job pretending I'm middle class. I'll have a word with myself 😂😂

In this context it means not ashamed. Angela Raynor has said she’s not going to smooth her rough edges to be accepted in politics.

People who care about the jobs of someone's parents or grandparents more than they care about the actions of the person now, or think such things are important, are called "snobs".

Gosh, I truly do know people who behave superiorly. I had a friend who liked to mingle with friends who had money and property. She wanted to mingle with a certain class. Even though her family had nothing behind the facade. I remember people in school being like this too. Addresses and houses were compared. Disgusting.

Coming from nothing is nothing to be ashamed about. That's the point I'm making. My grandparents were desperately poor but they were decent people. They would not avoid others because of status. Everyone was equal in their eyes.

How vulgar!

Honestly who gives a shit.

Ahhh aka Wolfia Smith? POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!
Rise up against the private school children and those who step out of line!!!

As for behaviour and accent shift? How do you think working classes act? My grandparents were dirt poor but kept a spotless home, children went to private schools on full scholarship (assisted places scheme) were they meant to have thick kids???