Chav-tastic

[dreamer_easy]

Oh, now I get what the hell a "chav" is. They're the young people in Britain you're supposed to be afraid of and allowed to sneer at. It was a reference to "the national sport of chav-baiting" in a news item that tipped me off. The Australian equivalent at the mo would be young Lebanese-Australian men.

Comments

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Except Chav is a class/taste distinction, not an ethnic one. So it corresponds better to 'bogan' or 'westie'.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oh, but the feared and mocked group is often a mixture of class and race, as in the US, where it's poor young Black men. There's always some group of The Kids for the media to tell us to bolt our doors against.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Sure, but chavs aren't really feared much - there is little of the scary 'other' about them, rather they the other that differs from us only in style, taste, class, and education. You don't bolt your doors against chavs particularly, you sneer at them.

Becks and Posh are the King and Queen of the Chavs. They and their fans aren't feared, and the media loves them - but they sure get sneered at a lot.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of the panic over happy slapping.

[melata-fic.livejournal.com]

Does it really? Changed since I last used "Westie", then.

Back in the day, it used to mean a guy who had a mullet and lived out in Henderson-way.

And it was mostly used as a joke.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Class/taste - ie the sort of person who thinks its tasteful to have a mullet, and who will generally be of a particular of a particular social background as well (that in Sydney, happens to be associated with the Western suburbs, but the same stereotype goes by a different name and is less geographically specific in other capital cities).