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?

Do you think GeePipe. I don't agree, someone who comes into money suddenly doesn't become upper class because they've got money, look at the footballers for a start, 90% of them are class less and chavy themselves. I think you can move up the classes with money but it takes a few generations and a change in your mindset.
It's hard to explain but you can be from an upper class family and have no personal money yourself but still have class.

Yes if an aristocrat loses all their money and goes into a low paid manual job then yes they become working class.

We all know that this is not how the sticky web that is the British class system works.

“Yes if an aristocrat loses all their money and goes into a low paid manual job then yes they become working class.”
Hmm. I suspect the working class people working beside him would not agree.

Why are you so offended OP? Is your name Nevaeh?
^So so so mean

The word supposedly comes for the old word for ‘gipsies’ so I’m not sure that it’s as welded to the working class as people think. Gipsies or Roma are really outside the UK class system.

It came back into fashion describing a certain type of antisocial, brash, vulgar, blingy working class - but I don’t see technically why it couldn’t be applied to anyone.

You can not seriously think that the Rooneys and KP are working class?! If people still think that our class system is that rigid and social mobility is clearly impossible, then we have far bigger problems than the word chav!

Chavs are people congregating in odd places, spitting, smoking and swearing. They wear trackies, hoodies, ugly trainers and usually have their hoods up. They have absolutely fuck all going for them, they are not bright or intelligent. All they're interested in is smoking weed and drinking Stella. Big drama llamas too.

Oh and quite often they have a massive dog (or 5) who they don't give a shit about. And several children who are given coke in their baby bottle, have rotting teeth and can outswear any grown adult.

Yep I think that's a very light summary.

Metoooo Oh dear, could you get Any more snobby

Not offended but am surprised at the term being used by grown adults. It's a slur and I don't think kids should use it let alone their parents.
Surely use better vocabulary? Without being derogatory along the way.
I'm shocked it's seen as ok and to be honest it grates with me when grown adults use such a slur and by the looks of things and this forum are proud to use it.

@Diamond88 what word or phrase would you use for the kind of people I described above?

Surely use better vocabulary?

Such as?

chav - council housed and violent

V derogatory

Of course it’s derogatory!

@SwishSwishSheesh I disagree, for me a Chav is someone who thinks they are a bit classier than that, they wear too much make up and pour for selfies like a trout, they get there body out in skimpy clothes that they think are classy and fake tan to within an inch of their life. All the chavs I know do not wear trackie bottoms or trainers unless at home, and their boyfriends wear Ralph Lauren polo shirts with skinny jeans and decker shoes, sometimes a checked flat cap too!

Pout!

Their...sorry about my typos my son was trying to read my post so I rushed it!

CHeltenhamAVerage - ie someone who didn’t go to the posh school

@BusterGonard that's interesting, isn't it? That chavs mean different things to different people? The kind of people you described, I would just think of them as tacky or something.

Ultimately it’s a word to describe people you consider lower or of less importance than yourself.
Which is why I think it’s such a vile word.
I have definitely been guilty of using it in conversations with my husband in the past, but that was wrong of me. I wouldn’t use it in front of my daughter and I wouldn’t use it on this forum. It is unnecessary and it makes me shudder when I see it being used to easily.

@SwishSwishSheesh interestingly I would describe people like that as neds not chavs.

chav - council housed and violent

Which is a false etymology.

Ultimately it’s a word to describe people you consider lower or of less importance than yourself.

I don’t agree at all. Who actually views other people as less important than themselves?

For me it just signifies a certain kind of brash blingy style like the TOWIE cast, with a slight hint of potential antisocial slash criminal behaviour.

Whether chav is an acceptable way to describe peoplewho engage in deviant behaviour or not, most of the time when people call a name chavvy they do not mean that it is used by criminals. They mean it is used by people who are poorer and/or less educated than them. Which is shitty.

Nevaeh, for instance, I would say probably is more used among people with lower incomes, yes. But in my experience, it is not specifically more used among people that engage in particular anti-social/criminal behaviour. So calling it chavvy is offensive – as if it is inherently a bad name simply because poorer/less educated people use it more than richer/better educated people.

tatianalarina people who sneer and use the word as an insult when discussing other groups of individuals. I can’t think of any other reason to categorise people and talk about them in a derogatory way, unless you consider yourself better...

I don’t really think people do walk around looking down on others tbh, or if they do they’re wasting their time.

tatianalarina Surely the responses on this thread and other threads on mumsnet have shown you that people really can, and do, consider themselves to better than others?
Calling someone or something chavvy isn’t a term of endearment is it? You wouldn’t call someone you cared for that. Because the meaning and the image it conjures up for you isn’t something you want to be associated with.
It can be hard to admit but everyone holds their own prejudices, and when you are critical of groups of people, and use a term to insult them, yes you are doing it because you consider yourself to be better.
Frida was much more articulate than I am being but I think she hits the nail on the head.