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Don't say "chav"
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
That's the message of a "think tank." What the fuck is a think tank, incidentally? Do they just get together to think? In a tank? Anyway, I digress:
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People should stop using the word chav, a left-wing think tank has suggested.
The widely-used term is, according to the dictionaries, derogatory slang for a young person of low social status, often wearing designer sportswear.
The Fabian Society's Tom Hampson says the term betrays a deep level of "class hatred" and is "deeply offensive to a largely voiceless group".
But Simon Donald, the co-founder of Viz Magazine, said the word was meant to be an insult - and that was fine.
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I think these uber-left-wing plonkers need to stop deciding for other people what offends them.
But then how would we know when to be offended? We can't make big decisions like that ourselves, our brains will explode!
Fabian Society's Tom Hampson
Middle class have a 'hatred' for the 'working class'? That sounds a bit extreme. :rolleyes:
Furthermore, most of the 'working class' I know, refer to 'Chavs' as 'Chavs' anyway. Being 'working class' does NOT mean that one is automatically a 'Chav'.
The Fabian Society is hell bent on causing 'class' rifts on this, when there clearly isn't one.
quite, when i look at the govs attitude i think DAMN that 1960's song hit the nail on the head "in the year 2525" he just misjudged by 520 odd years thats all
Do you still get offended if someone who's working class uses the term? The way most people use the term has nothing to do with class and everything to do with willfully stupid, anti-intellectualist, anti-social and detrimentally conformist attitudes and behaviour. Besides, aren't chavs stereotyped as being dole scoungers? You're not really 'working class' if you don't actually work.
If people are going to choose to conform to detrimental stereotypes they shouldn't be surprised or offended when they're labeled accordingly.
It is far more offensive to continue to equate anti-social behaviour and willful ignorance with the working class.
Long time no see :wave:
:yes:
All you have to do is take a look at the Chavscum website to see that. It is generally aimed at the working class.
A lot of people beleive define a chav by how somebody dresses and where they live eg groups of youngsters from council houses wearing Burberry and Soveriegns.
Chav is a lazy word and given how many definitions it has, rather useless too.
It's a common word amongst Romany gypsies to refer to a young boy or girl and this is abviously were it's been adopted from. It's no different than calling somebody a gypo.
I don't agree with the term working class and putting someone i class as a "chav" in it.
So you assume that people that dress a certain way, also act a certain way?
They have a similar term in the US. Trailer Trash. Which is also offensive.
Also everyone at my school used to say "townie" and then that got changed to chav.
Sorry, guys but that is such a load of bollocks. Normal working class people, like me, are not Chav's. Chav's may be working class, but they do not represent the majority of working class people, who would find your statements offensive. Don't get confused with proud working class people and people who are just plain 'common'.
You said yourself.
People that are gernerally labled 'chavs' tend to be working class. People tend to associate chavs with council houses estates.
Never said they do.
What makes somebody 'common'. The word common, like chav, is bollocks.
It comes down to what you think chav means. Many think it does mean working class who wear Burberry, drive Nova ans listen to trance for example.
Much of this 'chav' bashing is just snobbery.
Well then you should really disagree with the term chav. It's a class thing. And it's wrong and offensive.
Just read some of articles on there if you want to see how 'Chav' is a term used to describe t
It is a class things. It's a snobbery thing.
Aren't you missing the point though? I don't think anyone is suggesting all working class people are chavs - yet all chavs are working class. There's a distinct and important difference.
A class thing, Skive? Theft and violence?
Surely the point about "chavs" is that they aren't "working class" at all - to be "working class" implies that you actually work. "Working class" means to me respectable and dignified (although perhaps not usually well educated), law abiding people who are employed in low wage sectors/manual labour/semi-skilled service sector jobs. They are not financially dependent on the state and are probably proportionally hit hardest by taxation etc. They wear cloth caps, live in red-brick terraced houses and spend their spare time fishing, playing football, growing vegetables on allotments, raising their kids, and drinking ale in the local pub.
"Chavs" on the other hand are unlikely to be employed (this is partly because they are for the most part disadvantaged young people). Possibly on the dole or living off the proceeds of petty crime, but yet extremely materialistic, signalling their peer-network/kinship status by spending what money they have on distasteful clothing and jewellry. Prone to arbitrary violence and obnoxious behaviour, ignorance, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and generally threatening to the law abiding. They aren't "working class" because they contribute nothing to society and little to the economy, I'd hesistate even to call them a "working-class subculture" - more like an underclass or classless stratum. Having said that, "chav" aesthetics (sic) can be present in very rich people as well, usually through lack of taste, as evidenced by some footballers, lottery winners, musicians, etc.
That's not what I'm saying.
'Chavs' arn't simply defined by there actions. Many people link 'chavs' to council estates and the disadvantaged people that live there and are defined by the way they dress. It's ignorant and it's snobbery.
Just because somebody live on a council estate, wears trackies and burberyy doesn't mean they deserve to be called the dregs of society. It's an offensive sterotype and it's bullshit.
There are so many definitions of what chav means that's it's a pretty redundant word.
Not as simple as that. The term can incorporate references to education, occupation, culture, and income.
What has respectability and dignity got to do with class?
This is sterotypical nonsense though.
Which makes the term completely useless.
Dolies who steal to pay for there drugs and wear designer clothes are Chavs. But hang on, the rich who don't steal anything are also fair game for us to label chavs?
It's a load of bollocks.