chav--explain to a confused expatriate please

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Well, I am not British and Chavs were a British phenomenon in the 2000s so in my point of view asking bout them in 2017 isn't that weird

it's not a weird question. i'm just saying that they do, but it's not black and white. it's not as definable as it maybe once was.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
'Chav' is only a synonym for 'poor' if you decide that it is. It's got much more to do with an attitude and a type of behaviour, in my view. When I was at high school they were called townies rather than chavs and plenty of them came from financially comfortable families (and then again, plenty of them didn't).
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. ... "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less."
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
A stereotypical 'chav car' is a souped-up sports model with custom wheels, rims and exhausts, blacked-out windows, a flashy paint job and a massive powerful stereo. From the POV of anyone who's not a member of Saudi royalty, that is not a "poor person's car".

And do I really have to explain how, in the UK in 2017, wealth and class do not map onto each other in a linear fashion?
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
And what about the "brash and loutish behaviour" bit? Do all poor people behave like that?
 

john eden

male pale and stale
A stereotypical 'chav car' is a souped-up sports model with custom wheels, rims and exhausts, blacked-out windows, a flashy paint job and a massive powerful stereo. From the POV of anyone who's not a member of Saudi royalty, that is not a "poor person's car".

No.

Vauxhall-Corsa-655x409.jpg

chav4.jpg

chav1.jpg

And, palpably, the whole reason why the term "chav" is used by wankers, is to denigrate the lower orders. Especially for their garish displays of wealth.

Everything else is defensive nonsense used by liberals as a smoke screen because they are in denial about mocking the poor. "Oh ho ho ho isn't the Queen a bit of a chav with all that gold and Donald Trump as well."
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I do agree that we are not talking about absolute levels of poverty like in a Dickens novel here. Being working class or even in an underclass isn't the same as absolute poverty.

But it is relative poverty.

They don't save up, they blow all their wages on weed and jewelry. They live in a council house with their Mum but they have a massive car stereo and a big telly. I can't afford a massive car stereo and I work every day as a supermarket manager and I see these cunts come in with their tracksuits in the middle of the day smelling of marijuana. It's not right is it.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
And what about the "brash and loutish behaviour" bit? Do all poor people behave like that?

No they don't because Chavs are a subsection of the working class, not the entire class. In fact the hatred of chavs which I can most understand is from other people who live in the same community.

Also - nobody has called the Bullingdon Club chavs with a straight face, have they? Their brash and loutish behaviour is characterised differently.
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
Is (or rather was) Victoria Beckham a gentrified Chav?

Kind of. She was what people would call "Nouveau Rich" previously.

Which is similar - in that people are said to be displaying what wealth they have (in her case considerably more than most) in ways which give away their "poor" taste.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It's not a word I use myself, precisely because so many people consider it a synonym for 'poor' - which you're doing, right now. And as I said, I knew people growing up who were certainly not poor, but who would fit the description of 'chav' (even if we didn't use that word) on account of their appearance, tastes, attitude and behaviour.

Not sure what the Bullingdon Club has to do with all this. Sure, there's always been a tendency for toffs to behave like antisocial pricks. There's a great many people who aren't toffs but aren't on the breadline either - the great majority of people.

In fact the hatred of chavs which I can most understand is from other people who live in the same community.

Now you're onto something. The flipside of not all 'chavs' being poor is that most poor and/or working class people are not 'chavs'. Most of the kids I grew up with who had long hair, owned a skateboard and listened to punk rock - the very people the townies loved to yell homophobic insults at, chase down the high street and occasionally beat up - were from pretty humble backgrounds themselves. Wealth and income levels, in absolute terms, have less to do with it than you're making out, I think. The idea that it begins and ends with middle-class people disdaining working-class people is grossly inaccurate, anyway.
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
I think you're misinterpreting what I am saying and have a woeful understanding of class.

Which is consistent if nothing else.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
You implied "chavs" are just what the media were calling "poor people on estates" a few years back. You then decided to school me by posting a dictionary definition that specifically mentions antisocial behaviour as a defining characteristic of chavdom. But apparently I'm the one who's confused here.
 
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