What social class am i? :/

[user1499695642]

This is something that really bothers me. I feel like i'm slipping and not following my parents' example.

I wish class didn't but I've been made to feel out of place before. What social class would you guys say I 'fit into'? I know it's shallow to ask, please don't judge me for asking. I'd just like to know what you guys think based on some info.

Age: 23
Ethnicity: Mixed race
Occupation: Graduate officer in local government
Salary: £20K
Live: With parents in (owned) 4 bed detached house in home counties (average price in village - £1.5m)
Parents: Civil Service Director/Housewife - just one went to (Russell Group) Uni
Education: Non-selective, comprehensive academy then Oxbridge (2.1 (2015))
Accent: More standard south-eastern than 'posh' (e.g. Joanna Lumley)
Hobbies: Museums, art galleries, theatre, TV
Social: I only made a couple friends at uni so my social group is very small. I only know 1 or 2 people in influential/ 'elite' professions

Am I middle class or does the following make me working class?:
Non-private/grammar education
Low salary/career sector
Non-house ownership
Social group
Accent

Does my parent's social class affect mine a lot or not so much?

Again, please don't judge me for asking. I'm genuinely just curious to know what others might think.

You're highly educated and you have a job with prospects. And you're articulate.

To me, class is a lot about expectations in life. The things you aim for and hope to have. Your priorities for yourself and children.

I am not an expert though, and I'm sure someone can offer a fitting definition.

Lol all these questions!

That's intersting - I always thought fish knives were sophisticated because we had them at black tie dinners at uni?! Cambridge's standards are clearly slipping!

We call an evening meal dinner or supper, depending on what time we have it?

Napkin, haha.

I always think the same thing about myself (so not odd at all). Difference being I was born abroad and one side of my family was proper aristocracy (if that matters??) - I also was used to having a nanny, a maid and a gardener (full time). Here, I have a decent professional job, married to an academic, Oxford graduate, drive a land Rover and shop at Waitrose... I often think I'm a caricature of what middle class is supposed to be (minus me being a foreigner of course!)

revolution909

I would consider you very upper-middle class. I can imagine you being friends with Sam Cam or a Mitford sister (in the past, at least!).

Ooh, do me.

Nearly 40
Grammar school, 2.1 from Russell Group uni
Renting, have never owned
Earn minimum wage
Smoke
Shop at Aldi and Primark
Labour Party member
Bookcase bigger than TV
Parents professionals
Very invested in DD's education
Holiday in France.

I'd say you were middle class, but I have no idea really. It feels like there's this idea that people move up but not down. The class thing intrigues and baffles me though- again from the POV of observing people's behaviour. I feel the same as INeedToEat

All 4 grandparents in fishing. Parents both worked two jobs; fishing, baking, in a care home. I remember sleeping in a repurposed drawer in our one bed flat. However when I was about 7 they went to uni and mum became a teacher, dad a scientist. By high school we had a nice house in a nice rural village. I'm now a doctor, own my own (heavily mortgaged!) house etc. All my furniture is inherited but that's because mum and dad are obsessed by Ikea - am I middle class now?

I was shocked at how offended I was recently when someone told me one of my preferences was "really chavvy". Got me thinking that maybe people (me) do think/care about class more than we'd let on.

Seconding the recommendation to read "watching the English"

I think you are firmly middle class. Non-home-ownership and low salary is perfectly normal for a 23yo and state education is also perfectly normal without redefining your class - only 7% go private and that's a mix of upper and middle. Class does not correlate to wealth. Your hobbies and interests make you unarguably mc.

BBC's class calculator quiz here

Interesting but very simplistic test . Says I'm in the Elite class.

Firmly working class family but dad educated and in management. I dropped out of school at 17 to have DD but have done very well in my career.

It seems silly to say having more savings and property and going to museums and galleries raises your class, but then I'm firmly working class regardless.

Hmmm. You're middle class, definetely. I often think about this- I think it's certainly relevant today.

Ooohhh that quiz was interesting @Rainy. I got 'Emergent service workers'

'This class group is financially insecure, scoring low for savings and house value, but high for social and cultural factors. According to the Great British Class Survey results, lots of people in this group:

Are young
Enjoy a cultured social life
Rent their home - almost 90%'

Yup. Pretty much sums me (and most of my friends) up.

Ha ha ha.

Love that this went from 'You are middle class' to 'Very working class' within about 3 posts. So...nobody knows, then?

I'm Australian and find the British obsession with class bonkers. And a bit cringeworthy.

I find it very odd that you are asking this question. Not because it's an odd question (though it is a bit) but because you are so obviously middle class I'm surprised you felt the need to ask! You went to Oxbridge, your hobbies are cultured, your parents live in an expensive detached house in a village and one of them is a director in the civil service. It is irrelevant what job you have at the age of 23!

What I would say which is slightly unrelated is are you sure about your career choice? I've seen plenty of highly intelligent people from great unis slip into jobs without much forethought - and in 10 years time when their contemporaries are rising in their respective fields they are struggling to remember why they went on their particular route. If it's a very conscious choice then ignore me.

We are middle class apparently. Own large detached home in the South East, DH is a professional earning ze big bucks, I'm a SAHM. We read the Guardian and go to the theatre. We listen to classical music and shop in Waitrose.

I'm ever so common though, I have pink hair and tattoos and smoke and swear a lot. Dh drops his t's and aitches but I sound quite plummy. The kids do riding, music and rugby, but also spend a lot of time watching telly.

It's a minefield, I tell you.

I find it interesting that Australians laugh at notions of class. My best friend is aussie, old money married into even older money. They have four children, all at single sex private schools, she works in politics and her husband in law. From her 4m dollar north Sydney home she is adamant that she is the same class as someone her age living in a one bed unit in Parramatta. I day Let's go to Paramatta and ask them if they feel the same class as you. It is a wilful denial of privilege.

I am MC; girls' boarding school, still play lax and use U vocab. Children play rugby etc and are privately educated. We eat dinner or supper, time dependent. Have never used a fish knife.

It is a wilful denial of privilege.

No it's not. It's a denial that people can or should be neatly slotted into a series of categories called 'upper', 'middle' and 'working'.

People here are either educated/high earners, or they're not. We all know it. But actually labelling people as being from 'X' class is repugnant to us.

I'm sorry you were made to feel out of place at uni. Sadly, I wonder if this has more to do with race than class? Both Oxford and Cambridge have shocking statistics for racial diversity, especially for black women. (I've heard Zadie Smith, also mixed race, say that she was one of about five black women in the entire university in the late 90s, and not much has changed today.)

You sound fairly solidly middle class to me. But of course Oxbridge colleges are also full of lots of upper-middle and upper class people, and it's an easy environment in which to become class-conscious (lots of your peers probably were too). I blame the fish knives and the gowns...

Middle class, definitely. Even though you don't earn that much now, it is a good salary for your age and you are obviously highly educated and will probably earn more later on. But really, the main thing is your family background, this again is middle class. Even if you were currently working in MacDonalds you'd still be middle class just because of where you came from.

I'd say though, that you were middle middle class. People like Joanna Lumley and Stephen Fry, whose families have been professionals for generations, and who have family traditions of sending DCs to private and public schools (and who 'talk posh') - they're upper middle class.

Upper class is the aristocracy, and people whose families have been very wealthy for generations. There aren't that many of them.

I think I'm lower middle - family members usually own their own homes, but they're not massive, own shops, or work as teachers, nurses etc. Or is that upper working class?

I find the class system mad too.

I was a sahm married to a very high earner and living in a big house, with four dc at private schools and a holiday home abroad.

After ending the marriage I'm living somewhere tiny and earning a low wage to support myself.

So I used to be middle class but now I'm working class I guess.

Rainy, no, your class doesn't depend purely on your income.

You sound middle class OP.

Do me!

Parents from very working class families, both on disability benefits (until my dad died recently), housing benefit pays rent.

Me? Working in a professional job, masters degree, avid reader of all kinds of books, earning in the thirties (about to start a higher paid job). I am a lodger at the moment but about to move in and rent with DP. No savings yet but the new job should solve that. I like art, poetry and going to open mic and spoken word events.

On the other side, I love the X Factor, singing, football, drinking beer and the odd sneaky pot noodle. I'm relatively well spoken but have the tendency to slip into my original (slight westcountry) accent when talking to my mum.

I'd assume I was working class but I'd be interested to see what you think!

What age do you become your own class and not your parents? Or do you ever really?

I'm a very mixed bag,
My mum definitely raised middle class, lawyer dad, sahm, both oxbridge educated. Attended private school etc! Then got pregnant at 17. Worked in childcare did her degree later.
My dad most definitely raised working class, both parents worked low paid jobs, factory, cleaning grew up on a council estate, state education up to gcse. He works in music, not mega successful or anything.

I'm 19, live with my bf and dd. Mortgaged house typical first time buyer one, middle class area. He's an electrician and I'll be going to uni in September. Both state school educated, me a little bit a very good one.
I'd say I'm working class, definitely feel I was raised that way. But I have a trust fund and sizeable inheritance and feel a bit of a fraud claiming to be working class!

Labels YUCK!!!!

I think you're middle class.

Do you really think Joanna Lumley doesn't have a posh accent?