Derogatory using the term chav?

[Diamond88]

So I've noticed a lot of responses to disliked names will immediately use the put down of 'chav' or 'chavvy'
I find it a very derogatory and those using it using it as a put down.
Are ppl referring to the lowly working class? Or those who don't have as much money?
Why is ok to use this term?
Or can anyone tell me what the term even means if I've got it wrong?

I think most people who aren't chavs themselves know what chavvy behaviour is. To try to claim that you don't seems disingenuous.

chav is class related,because no one calls posh people chavs

Isn't that because posh is the opposite of chav?

Nothing to do with 'class' !!!

@LolaSmiles "Chav/chavvy are words that bring out the professionally offended who like to pretend that there is so social group who are chavs.

The thing is some well intentioned bleeding heart middle classes decide they need to protect those of us who are working clas or from working class backgrounds by pearl clutching falsely claiming that the word chav is mocking 'the working classes'.

In reality, most working class people and people with working class backgrounds know fine well the difference between working class and chavvy. It's just cool and woke for people to pretend otherwise."

Agree with you and @BertrandRussell. I'm from a working class background (parents brought up in council houses but bought there own home) and I am not a Chav, I've done okay for myself but that's not the point, I've had friends who are also working class in back ground, who've also done well but are as Chavy AF and I find them a big embarrassing tbh. They look like they've just walked of the set of TOWIE and I can't bear it, their Facebook posts are all about Love Island, fake tanning and just mundane shite which is so mind numbing.
I like the word Chav as sometimes it's the only word that'll do!

And none of it has to do with money!

There must be as many nouveau riche 'chavs' (with expensive Louis Vuitton bags etc) as there are poor intellectual 'posh' people who dress conservatively, who are well read and educated.

Someone with millions of pounds but dresses head to toe in Burberry for example could be called chavvy. Or commissions a bright pink Range Rover, wears tons of gold chains and has gold hoops in their ears etc etc. People who wear football tops look chavvy in my opinion; though they could be loaded or broke, it makes no difference

Yes. They might also spend lots of money on fake tan, cosmetic surgery, etc etc

BusterGonad
That sounds similar to one of the schools I went to as a child.

I think for me I think working class people have more in common with lower middle class people than they do chavs. It's a whole attitude, lifestyle and set of values that doesn't resonate with most people.

Fiddle Ho ho! I would put a grin picture up but can't do the twiddles.!

Yes it’s derogatory - lots of descriptors used here are: snobby / pretentious etc.

Chav, unless being used in the Romany context, is a horrible sneery insult. Gay?! That is bloody homophobic in anyone's book. I want to add try hard to the sneery nature of some posters. It's a name. Like it or loathe it there doesnt have to be a looking down on an OP who is wondering whether to call her baby that name. A little kindness goes a long way.

I don't see how Katie Hopkins could be described as "chavvy". Unpleasant and a racist yes but not a chav.

Are you thinking of Katie Price?

@Tillygetsit I cringed at the gay comment also - it’s one thing to be sneery & call things try hard etc but gay as an insult? That’s way beyond a sneer.

I agree that the word is unkind and prejudiced.

What word or groups of words could you use instead though? Is there a similar word that is inoffensive? Like posh for example when describing posh people. No one would get offended by posh would they? I do think we need lots of inoffensive word to describe groups of people just to make communication easier.

Are ppl referring to the lowly working class? Or those who don't have as much money?

No they are referring to people who display a certain set of behaviours. As a child these behaviours were referred to as 'common' or 'common as muck'. Chav is simply the current description of those people that display those behaviours.

Baby name boards allow people to hear what others genuinely think of their baby names. While some feedback might be harsh, it is what some people in your life will be thinking in their head and not saying to your face.

I know young mums from DC's former primary school who were WC and would still refer to 'chavs' (I think it was at the school gate that I first heard the term) - the type of people who would go out in their PJs and dressing gowns.

This thread is such a great dissection of British anthropology! Hope Kate Fox is lurking!

I use the word chav and to me it has nothing to do with class or money but more to do with taste or rather a lack of it. Wayne Rooney epitomises chavvy to me as do the names of his children - Kai and Klay.

If you don't like the word, you don't have to use it.

In these parts Chavs used to be called Townies. They dress in a certain way and hang out aimlessly in the town. The males seem to favour grey jogging bottoms.

Actually the Rooneys are an excellent example!

Owen Jones wrote a book called Chavs that is really interesting & covers the history of the word & how it’s used. It is predominantly used to describe a subset of working class & it is usually used a heavily derogatory way to look down on that group - which is usually very poor / unemployed / lacks education with stereotypes including tracksuits / smoking / asbos etc.
It really is a fascinating book.

AverageMummy
I've read the book. It's interesting. Like it or not though there will always be a word to describe groups of people. We can't start saying it's fine to identify groups of people, but not if we view that group negatively. That would be daft.

But the more I read Owen Jones, the less time I'm having for him. On one hand he takes issue with a word used to describe a sub group of people and then on the other hand he seems to be straying into professional wokeness mansplaining womanhood and telling us to be nice dear when concerned about women's rights.

Chav is derogatory but if we say people can't use the word chav, how else will they describe that kind of brash, uncultured, classless person? We'll just find another word that will equally offend the OP.

Words are used to describe things and you can't ban that.

Of course chav is derogatory.

On the subject of Owen Jones, I do sometimes wonder if he is actually some sort of hologram or android with two completely different algorithms programmed into him. There isn’t a single other person in my own life or in public life that I can agree with so wholeheartedly and despise so very much in the space of 5 minutes. It’s very odd indeed.

"Chav isn't a description of class or financial status. "

It absolutely is to do with class. Not money necessarily, but class definitely. It's used in exactly the same way the word 'common' was used when I was growing up.
It absolutely is derogatory and I don't use it myself.
However, I don't see the point of trying to stop people using it on the names board. If that's what they mean, they may as well use it.

Bertrand - I've got Owen Jones's Chavs book. Very interesting and I totally agreed with him in a recent video about Boris Johnson.
Where he lets himself down, imho, is his blind devotion to Corbyn, even becoming a bit of a Brexiteer and spending time dissing Remainers.