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Original poster

Now we know who is middle class - next, who is posh?

251 replies

Takver · 14/04/2009 20:13

following on from this thread I was tickled yesterday by two definitions of what is posh:

  • talking to a friend about croquet, which I think is a really tedious game, her answer was that only posh people play croquet, and that the problem was that I was not posh enough . . .
  • and description by dd's friend (age 8) of the woman her mum cleans for that she is 'really posh, she has double sky that you can record on as well as watch, and a fountain that looks like stone but is really made out of plastic, and loads of trophies from horseriding' So now I want the collective wisdom of MN - apart from croquet playing and fake stone fountains, what is really, really posh ?
OP posts:
ABetaDad · 14/04/2009 22:46

Callipygia - "UC women are also, in addition to Bunny, called things like Plum and Pumpy"

Some of them also call their wife by a man's name like "Alf" or "Fred" because he went to a boy's public school and never really met any girls until he was 18.

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 22:47

call husbands half their surname like 'Og'

LotsofLovelyShoes · 14/04/2009 22:50

loving all the posts where MNers subtly try to prove either they are posh or live amongst the posh!!!!

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 22:50

incredulous that friends could not have staff

FiveGoMadInDorset · 14/04/2009 22:52

ME

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 22:52

have an old man who hangs round the garden doing very little - only occasionally emerging from the potting shed

hmc · 14/04/2009 22:52

I appreciate that this is a light hearted thread, but there is a lot of sycophantic hero worship of the 'genuinely posh'.

I don't buy for one instant they they don't need to try hard and don't need to prove anything to anyone (as attributed to them by a number of posters)....they are as hung up on class as everyone else (except me - I'm not hung up on class, I just have a thing about people who are hung up on class ), acutely aware of where they precariously teeter.... on 'the top of' (their perception) the social hierarchy, and have all this socially exclusive non-u stuff which they use to syphon out the arch pretenders from the dyed in the wool true blue-blood toffs.

So they may have invited you to 'supper' around their mange infested aga and appear to embrace you to the bosom of their hearth and home, but actually they wouldn't want to 'breed' with you or have a serious long term relationship of any sort.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 14/04/2009 22:53

Family own an estate which they have had since 1642.

They have restored the family castle which is now open to the public.

Anything else required?

FiveGoMadInDorset · 14/04/2009 22:54

And we all work bloody hard.

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 22:55

lol hmc but i dont think that is strictly true

lots of nouveau riche go to posh schools you know - who knows who Sebastian may shack-up with

5gmid

LotsofLovelyShoes · 14/04/2009 22:57

hmc - you got it! I get really irked by those that need to discuss class. Be happy and confident with who you are (yes yes I am aware also that this is a light hearted debate but that never stopped anyone else on here having a 'go').

find it really sad that alot of posters are so eager to make their claim to their own little bit of 'poshness'.

hmc · 14/04/2009 22:58

Would Sebastien be 'allowed' to shack up with a nouveau?...or would pressure be applied to find a more suitable consort?

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 22:59

what's wrong with a little jest ?

gosh don't be so...so... British!

FiveGoMadInDorset · 14/04/2009 22:59

And my Sebastian (DS) will be allowed to shack up with whoever he wants to as we were althoughn SIL is now so up her backside it is unbelievable.

hmc · 14/04/2009 23:00

I think I made Sebastian french then with a rogue 'e'

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 23:00

well dont ask me i am not posh?

but hey ho - neither is this the 1950's

twinsetandpearls · 14/04/2009 23:01

5gomad dd thinks you are very posh. She was talking on the phone to her Dad today and said she may pop over to see her friend with a castle.

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 23:02

never doubted it 5gmid!

ABetaDad · 14/04/2009 23:07

hmc - quite right too.

Bottom line is that this thread is all a bit of fun but really all the definitions are gross characatures. I fit 97% of them so am I 'posh' because of that?. OK maybe some people would think so - but I belong to no class and definitely not the upper class.

hmc · 14/04/2009 23:10

It may not be the 1950's, but I have a sneaking suspiscion that any nouveau marrying a genuinely posh toff would never be allowed to forget it. Probably made to eat their dinner in the boot room (or whatever incomprehensible title a simple fecking room is given - sheesh!)at family gatherings etc...

Actually I do have issues with class - I was disingenious before. I have decided that I don't like: the posh, the aspiring middle classes (ugh - the worst by far...and this is problematic for me since it is where others would place me by virtue of education, profession etc) and those sub sets of the working classes typified by inarticulate, hoody sporting disaffected, types (lets trot out all the stereo types) ...

The folk I do heartily approve of however are the 'decent' working classes. They are mostly hard working, friendly, open, have no petty affectations, ambitious for themselves and their families etc

hmc · 14/04/2009 23:13

Ah you agreed with me and then I go and contradict myself - sorry!

Actually, I am all for a movement to promote the concept that we are all just people and of no class, but I fear it won't catch on. Humanity seems hell bent on stratifying, classifying and differentiating in a bid to gain advantage

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 23:23

it wont happen hmc

you have to be soooo secure above all else to really not care about where you are in society...

twinsetandpearls · 14/04/2009 23:24

I don't think it is just about insecurity I think we like to feel part of a group. I am very proud of my Catholic working class heritage and would not want to lose those labels they are part of me.

SuziSeis · 14/04/2009 23:38

i am proud of nothing and fit in no where

but like my life !

helena99 · 15/04/2009 00:08

So hmc doesn't like 'aspiring' middle classes but heartily approves of 'ambitious' working class.
I think your roots are showing, luv.