…Would still look and act like a chav.
Some woman from the Guardian is in Breakfast tlling me that the word ‘chav’ is derisive to the working classes. It isn’t at all. She is making the (frankly disgusting) assumption that all working class people are, ipso facto, chavs. What complete rubbish.
When I was a teenager, we used to call the sort of people who walked round in tracksuits starting fights and nicking phones ‘townies’ or sometimes ‘kevs’. As Tom Harris notes, in Scotland they were called ‘neds’. Now we call them ‘chavs’. Not all chavs are working class, not all working class people are chavs. The only people who are referred to as chavs deserve the name.
What was the reason for giving this publicity all over the MSM in the first place? The Guardian article by Tom Hampson and Jemima Olchawski, both from the Fabian Society is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/15/equality.language
Good to see they are putting their heads together and telling us about the meaty problems we must deal with without further delay.
Personally, I never considered someone who would fit into my interpretation of chav as belonging to a particular class. Rather, it was the attitude they displayed to PLU.
Tizzy
July 17, 2008 at 7:53 pm