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?

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?

Seriously?

I don’t agree with Frida at all.

I wouldn’t use the word chav to describe someone poor and badly educated. It denotes style and behaviour.

I’d say Katie Price is chavvy in style but she’s certainly not poor.

@TatianaLarina I agree re Katie Price. I would also consider a lot of footballers wives to be quite chavvy and they could buy and sell me!

When I hear someone being described as a chav I don't think working class or poor. I think antisocial, scruffy and work shy. Maybe it is derogatory as certainly not polite but the word does serve a purpose. How else would you describe people like this?

I think antisocial, scruffy and work shy. How else would you describe people like this?

The way you just did?

I would also consider a lot of footballers wives to be quite chavvy and they could buy and sell me

So why do we need a derogatory word to describe them? Just to sneer at a group of people for how they dress/talk/etc.?

I agree with SleepHead1 - Chav is not a class it's a behaviour/ attitude.
You could be as rich as Croesus but still be chavvy and as poor as a church mouse and not be the slightest bit chavvy.

"I agree with SleepHead1 - Chav is not a class it's a behaviour/ attitude."

It absolutely is and it's not a matter of opinion.

I mean, it's a class based insult, not a class in itself.

"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."

I'm sorry to say that they're not. What do you think the word gyppo means?

Chav doesn't mean "lower-class" it means people like Lady Sovereign or maybe Vicky Pollard, or it did when I was a teen about 7 years ago. Chav's usually listened to rap music, liked loads of heavy fake gold jewellery, getting drunk in the park, smoking, and saying "shut up before I knock you out init" and acting hard, with a very obviously put-on "rudeboy/girl" accent.

And I am working class btw. I don't see it as a class based insult at all.

I agree it’s to do with attitude/persona.

At my son’s school it’s reserved for a certain type - those that in my day, would’ve been called ‘townies’. It’s no more offensive than most other derogatory terms. 🤷‍♀️

The word 'chav' is also used to describe someone who aspires to be 'classy' but misses the mark by misunderstanding social mores eg Daniella Westbrook kitting her and her children out in Burberry clothing and the likes of oasis dinning berberry flat caps etc, which then earned Burberry the unenviable nickname 'Chav Check' - Chav in this sense has nothing to do with money and everything to to with what is perceived to be a vulgar lack of class (in a style sense rather than a social sense).

It's a descriptor. Quite controversial perhaps, but it's shorthand for a certain type of person who behaves in a certain way and presents themselves to society in a certain way

I agree that it is derogatory mostly but when a name is posted people are looking for opinions, and what associations people make, not for people to say "well its only a name and i couldnt possibly infer anything from it". Name threads would be very dull indeed!

When discussing names, of course its based on assumptions and prejudices. A name might be chavvy or people might say its very snobby, or used by the 4x4 mums or is younique or hippy.

I'm sorry to say that they're not. What do you think the word gyppo means?

And what do you think it means? It’s a derogatory word for a gipsy.

However the Roma are not British in origin - they’re nomadic peoples whose language apparently derives from Asia.

So many people on this thread not understanding that income is not the equivalent of social status in this country. I'm working class and chav is definitely a word that refers to a subset of the working classes that people enjoy looking down on.

Mumsnet is pretty obsessed with class so it doesn't surprise me that so many posters are happy to see themselves as better than others.

As a non Brit, I d love to know what DOES determine class, if not income?

Is it the level of education? Your job? Your style?

Btw I don't like the idea of class and very happy not to have to 'conform' to a specific class (I'm continental European but live in the uk)

I'd say it was much more to do with class and taste than behaviour. More to do with the way people dress, what they talk about, what they spend their money on etc, not about being violent or loutish necessarily. Nothing whatsoever to do with how much money they have. Yy to it being a subset of the working class, including some working class people who have made a lot of money. Money does not equal class - that is surely pretty obvious? Of course it's a derogatory term and not one I'd use about someone. But I suppose it's 'useful' shorthand for a bundle of social characteristics.

My first 3 children have old English traditional names.
My 4th has a classic "chav" name!
I wasn't aware of this when I named him (this was pre mumsnet) but when the pan hit the fire I must admit I was tempted to change his name!
I'm so glad I didn't as it just suits him perfectly and I can't imagine him being called anything else.
I couldn't care less whether it's chavvy or not.
It's just his name. He loves it and so do I.

Fullmoons you are generally born into your class. So I was raised in a council house and my dad was tradesman, his own parents had traditionally been working class jobs too. Neither of my parents went to university.

I do have a degree and a relatively professional job but also live in social housing and I'm a single parent so will probably never buy.

If your parents had professional jobs, teacher, lawyers, Drs, you were brought up in a home you owned and went to a niace grammar school in a niace area, or were privately educated you are middle class, even if you end up skint in a scummy housing estate, you'll still be middle class, probably have a nice accent that to me sounds a bit posh and call your kids "classic" sounding names.

If your parents are landed gentry you will always be upper class.

Thanks twattymctwaterson! That's really interesting and well explained. Hopefully people can move between clssses, especially upwards if they get a good education and work hard.