Inverse snobbery

[cosywolf 10]

Many many people do it: hotly deny an upbringing in a middle class area, insist the school they went to was pretty rough, argue all the points of why they're working class and not middle class, and get upset when someone insists that they are after all middle class. Do you do it? Have you in the past? Why?

[DaBouncer 13]

No, mine was deffo a working class upbringing. I have nothing against middle class though.

 

What would YOUR class upbringing be Cosy?

[Phanerothyme 12]

never tried to pretend I was working class.

 

middle class people who do are just being middle class (i.e trying to better themselves). The reason that they will talk up their working class credentials or their upper class credentials is that they perceive them to be somehow superior to their own values.

 

Working class conjures images of honesty, straighforwardness, reliability, community.

 

Upper class conjures images of wealth, privelege, connections and leisure.

 

Whereas middle class conjures up images of mediocrity, anonymity, diy, 2.4 kids, frivolous nik naks and poor taste.

 

So it's no surprise.

 

Having said all that what do we mean by class? It's a tricky concept.

[halevan 11]

I was brought up in poverty, because my father died from an industrial disease when he was 37 yrs. of age. He went from riches to rags because his trade ( A spring knife grinder ) killed him when still a young man.

 

In 1910 he was taking £100 per week home, running his own business, a factory in endcliffe woods untill ill health claimed him.

I have always regarded myself as working class and proud of it, but I do not have any problem with any other class, either middle or upper class.

 

I am not jealous of other people's wealth or envious of what they have, in fact I am happy for them and wish them well, all this being angry because of other peoples possessions is fruitless and a waste of time. I am not going to pull myself to peices over something that is beyond my reach and can't do anything about!

[cosywolf 10]

Don't know, honestly:lol: From the swamps of Louisiana to the oilfields of Texas...things change. I didn't have a static upbringing.

What interests me is watching people argue heatedly about it. Never making their lives out to be more comfortable than they are, but instead fighting to see who can beat who at the 'well i had to walk twenty miles barefoot every day, well we ate shoe leather when we couldn't afford anything else' stakes.

Is it because people believe adversity breeds character?

 

(or are all my friends just really odd:lol: )

[Phanerothyme 12]

Either they're odd or they've watched too much monty python.

 

"When I were a lad we'd get up at 2am , half an hour before we went to bed, eat a handful of hot gravel and then father would cut us in two with carving knife"

 

(or something)

[cosywolf 10]

I don't get class at all, really. Are you what your parents were, or do you get a promotion for doing a bit better yourself? Can you not split all the classes down into further classes? What if you own your own home and both work but have no money at all left over for anything else? Are you middle class? Lower middle? Working? Who apart from maybe those who've inherited vast family wealth or who reckon the state owes them a living, doesn't work? So in that case isn't everyone who works in some way working class? Or does it depend on whether it's 'blue collar' or 'white collar' work? What if you work in jeans and a t-shirt and don't own a collar at all? Does it have something to do with your salary? Etc etc etc....

[DaBouncer 13]

No, I reckon it's like Phanerothyme says it's a stereo type thing.

[cosywolf 10]

Originally posted by Phanerothyme

Either they're odd or they've watched too much monty python.

 

"When I were a lad we'd get up at 2am , half an hour before we went to bed, eat a handful of hot gravel and then father would cut us in two with carving knife"

 

(or something)

 

Both those answers hit the mark:lol:

I'd forgotten those particular sketches. See, I'm not the only one who's noticed it!

[cosywolf 10]

If it's a stereotype, why pick a class at all?

If we don't like them, couldn't we just make up new terms?

Like 'mostly comfy' if you live all right but don't have much spare cash for a life.

Or 'shoe chewing' for those years when you're living on the edge and don't know where the next meal is coming from.

Or 'Living it large' when you can afford to throw some money around

:lol:

Then we could change our descriptions as quick as we change circumstance

[Phanerothyme 12]

I think you might like "Making of the English Working Class" by EP Thompson.

 

Definitions of class depend on who you're talking to. A marxist historian will say one thing, Burkes peerage another.

 

Some define class simply in terms of profession. In this country the Ad men and the government use the A-E system based on profession and disposable income.

 

I think the terms working class etc, have ceased to have any meaning beyond being loose stereotypes for sectors of society, whereas a hundred years ago your class totally defined what you could do with your life. That's still true to a certain extent, but class mobility is much easier now.

[cosywolf 10]

Working on my 'New Terms for Your Niche in Society':

I may be about to illustrate how much more wonderfully flexible my new system could be by personally dropping straight from Mostly Comfy, past Shoe Chewing, all the way down to Oh No This is Bad.

 

Everyone out there who said they didn't support charity - well, it's personal now. I'm coming to get you.