Chavs were made up by a middle/upperclass newspaper in 2004 to paint the working class as all animalistic thugs. They never actually existed, and like with The Loch Ness Monster, the stories of run-ins with them were always too ridiculous to be true
Chavs were made up by a middle/upperclass newspaper in 2004 to paint the working class as all animalistic thugs. They never actually existed, and like with The Loch Ness Monster, the stories of run-ins with them were always too ridiculous to be true
Chav is not a term to describe a working class person - it’s a term to describe a subset of youths who are pretty much feral.
By feral I mean aggressive and “antisocial” in the “are you looking at me pal” kind of response to eye contact. In essence, a youth whose primary strategy is to escalate to conflict by the shortest possible route in the hopes of winning status.
What that has to do with coming from an honest working family is beyond me!
Hey, ignorant Yank here, and I’d like some clarification. Is chav the bri’ish version of redneck?
I’m not from the USA so I don’t really have a clear idea on what a redneck is.
However, going from media representations (dodgy ground) I’d say no. There isn’t the strong streak of racism, and the demographic is uniquely young for chavs (since most grow out of it).
Fair enough. The racism isn’t a necessary component to being a redneck but it is fairly prevalent. Rednecks don’t outgrow it typically either. Thanks for the straight reply.
i don’t know much about usa subcultures either but it might be somewhat similar to guidos? i’m not sure how well they are known for antisocial behaviour. the closest international comparison i can think of is russian gopniks
No Not even close
This isn’t true. It was always a word that middle class and upper class people used to sneer at and demonize the working class.