by I'm With Stupid wrote:alienpresence wrote:Chavs are a middle class construct. Council estates are dumping grounds for the physically and mentally disabled, the poor learners, the criminal element or anyone else who just happens to be unlucky to not fit in the mainstream. Is there any wonder that there is multi-generational low aspiration? Then this chav construct is placed on top to save the middle class from feeling shame for their ignorance.
http://tinyurl.com/cmwn2b
That's not actually true. The chav phenomenon has existed for far longer among working class people, under various different names in different parts of the country (townies, neds, charvers, scallies, etc). It has since been cottoned onto by a bunch of middle-class media types, who have used it to engage in a really unpleasant type of snobbery. It now means things that it never used to mean when I used to use the term even in the early 2000s. It used to be (generally) groups of lads who would hang around in modified, but ultimately shit cars like Vauxhall Novas and Citreon Saxos, with speakers more powerful than the engine, and exhausts that are louder than the speakers, wearing tracksuits, oversized brand logos, baseball caps, trainers, hair gelled right forward, oversized jewellery, etc. It really was quite a specific thing, like calling someone a punk or a goth. But it has since started to be used to basically mean anyone who lives on a council estate, anyone who has a baby young, anyone who shops at Iceland, anyone who claims benefits, anyone who does any of the things that shock Daily Mail readers, essentially. But make no mistake, the origins of the social phenomenon are certainly among the people who might have actually set foot on a council estate in their life, not with a bunch of overpaid journalists sat at their desks in London.
But the article does a good job of explaining why such a thing resonates with the middle-class readers of the Daily Bigot.
I used to be a Townie in 1994!
Well it was Townie or Geek where I grew up. And being a geek was just the end of the world, so Townie it was, for a while!
I find it funny that the most judgemental person on my street (I live on a council estate btw) is a lady in her 60's who's lived in the same house for 40 years. She bought it from the council 20 years ago. There are 3 council houses left on our road, and although there are some shady dealing that obviously happen between these houses (one bloke from one of them just went down for 3 years for dealing) the council tennants do not cause any problems or trouble for anyone else in the street. But the lady up the road actively seeks to get the council tennants evicted every day. She told me herself that she deliberately leaves her bedroom window open at night to listen incase of any trouble so she can call the police. She's a typical Daily Mail reader and is such a nasty piece of work that she doesn't speak to her 3 grandchildren who live in the adjoining house with her son and his wife. Apparently because she didn't approve of her son letting the kids play with other kids in the street. These are people who have the "nicest" houses with extensions and conservatories, loft conversions and decking. Trying to remove themselves completely from the "typical council house" type of person. It's very sad sad the kids have to suffer due to petty snobbishness. We all live in the same street, dammit. If she's so bothered about what the neighbours are up to, why the hell doesn't she sell up and move?!
