The whole fascination for charvas/chavs, it wasn’t always like this, was it?
Didn’t we used to be more politically correct than this?
Because, when we say “charva” do we really just mean poor people? When did we get so snobbish?
Is this the effect of nearly three decades of Thachterism? Is the gap now so wide that “we” have nothing in common with “them”.
Swtich on the TV and comedians do chav impressions. People even justify overcharging at events because it keeps the “Chavs away”. When did it become okay to ridicule and exclude them?
Sometimes it feels that whatever class system we have left is now reduced to simply the haves and the have nots. And maybe we don’t like being around the have nots because it reminds us of this.
Have we failed them?
I’m not entirely sure why but the whole thing makes me feel a little ashamed.
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June 25, 2008 at 3:20 pm
L.
I certainly don’t use charva to mean poor – it’s indicated by a particular style of dress more than anything else. Many of them are “have nots” but not all of them by any means.
June 25, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Mosh
You’ve obviously not lived next to one of the filthy scummy bastards. It’s nothing to do with poverty – the sh*t who moved in next to me was funded by mummy and daddy… and he made my life a living hell to the point that I was spending nights at friends’ houses to get away from the thudding “music”, trespassers, people pissing on my back door, screams of “don’t hit me” from his pregnant girlfriend…
Chav/charva doesn’t – in my book – equate to “poor”. It equates to a *type* of person who isn’t fit to breathe the same oxygen as me.
June 25, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Will
This weeks Economist defined a chav as “a snooty term for people with flashy bad taste.” I think its a new version of “noveau rich”. Rich people who see themselves as “decent” and “sophisticated” need an off the peg phrase to put down the increasing band of moneyed, or perhaps indebted, working class.
“Flashy bad taste” might decline if people stopped reading and watching all this celebrity rubbish, that might even force the media to move on to something new – if only! The term chav could then be put in the bin along with yuppy, beatnik and various others.
I wonder how many people still suffer from “yuppy flu”?
June 26, 2008 at 8:37 am
ourmanwhere
Interesting – Will I wonder if the Southern Chav is not the same as the Northern Chava. Nothing flashy about our lot.
Maybe they’re spivvy and ours are (as Mosh puts it) “filthy scummy bastards”. Then you’ve the Scouse scally or the Glasgow Ned.
I almost included it in the post above (but didn’t because it didn’t fit the poverty angle) but look at the recent sneering at the Rooney wedding. In the media’s eyes being rich and working class is something to laugh at..
Mosh, I feel your pain. I’m not so much standing up for chavs (you’ve no idea how much I hate them when they’re spraying lager round the back of the number one bus) but I still wonder: How did we get here? I am sure this divide didn’t used to be here. In other words – we know what they are – but how the hell did we get here.
I think L has a point to – they aren’t all Have Nots but there is a level that are. Not so much designer labelled trackies as Woolworth sports wear – and grubby stuff at that. With tongue in cheek – for some its a fashion, others its a way of life.
Either way – the sneering is horrible. It feels like its time we looked at ourselves and moved on.
June 26, 2008 at 2:24 pm
diehard geordie
Twenty years of Thatcherism is the answer.
We watched helplessly as she ruthlessly destroyed social cohesion and promoted self self self.
The ‘me’ generation is here and now hitting its twenties.
It will take years to undo the damage if ever.
I was always told that the Working Class had one thing in common with the Aristocracy – both classes hated the middle class. And that if ever the middle class gained power we would both suffer. We did.
Now the next post you do – I want a happy one – enough with the grumpy or you will not see the wood for the trees and both are beautiful in their own way.
June 26, 2008 at 2:42 pm
ourmanwhere
Oops too late DG.
However, there is some very very good news just around the corner. I am just waiting on details and confirmations. Keep it here DG – it’s all going to get a whole lot better very soon.