dreamer_easy: (currentaffairs)
dreamer_easy ([personal profile] dreamer_easy) wrote2006-04-28 06:55 pm
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Chav-tastic

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.
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[identity profile] purrdence.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
Vicky in Little Britian is an example of a chav.

[identity profile] strangedave.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
Except Chav is a class/taste distinction, not an ethnic one. So it corresponds better to 'bogan' or 'westie'.

[identity profile] jblum.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 09:14 am (UTC)(link)
It's more an urban variant on the "white trash" stereotype, even though it crosses racial lines.

[identity profile] adrian-middle.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
Chav is one of those things that changes over time. I first came across the word around Sunderland and Newcastle, where the term charva was used to describe single mums on council estates who had lots of kids by different men and wore polyester tracksuits all day. That was the "white trash" analogy.

When it moved southwards the word chav came to be used unisexually, amd implied that someone was aspiring to join the nouveau riche without having the skills or education to be middle class. Track suits were jazzed up and started to be bolstered by "bling" (cf. Ali G), and around Essex the chav culture's love of Burberry began to create a very distinct class.

Chavs these days are seen as poorly educated people who have the wealth of the middle classes but the social characteristics of the unemployed. Sample chavs are Michael Connelly ("King of the Chavs" - a lottery winner) and Daniella Westbrook (ex-Eastenders actress renowned for disintegrating her septum on cocaine and wearing lots of Burberry).

There's a reasonably detailed explanation at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav but some of it's a little suspect.

[identity profile] slemslempike.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 10:02 am (UTC)(link)
Pretty much. The fear is mostly about upstarts upsetting their place in society, I think, rather than physical fear, although that's there too. It's great, because it's presented (by the meeja etc) as a choice of these young people, so you're allowed to be utterly vile in a way that you wouldn't dream of if you realised you were talking about class.

I don't know anything about Australian society, I'm afraid, but I think that one difference between Lebanese-Australian men and chavs is not so much race, but nationality. The chavs are British, so they can't be talked about as not assimilating in "our" culture, as immigrants and refugees are. I think that's a major cause of the fury they inspire in people.

[identity profile] vindaloo-vixen.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Me: She's like a...like a...do they have chavs in Australia?
Sister: Yeah. They're called bogans.

Descriptive? I guess if you were to call someone a chav, the aforementioned Vicky from Little Britain would be a great example. As would, it has to be said, Rose Tyler. And maybe her mother. Kerry Young off The Bill would probably qualify, too. (They don't necessarily have to be blonde, but the 'stereotype' often is.)

[identity profile] amy-chesis.livejournal.com 2006-04-28 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
You know the Goth-spotter entries on purplepooka's journal where she documents the aggressive gobshites who hurl abuse at complete strangers? Nearly always it'll be a "chav". (or "scally" in Liverpool/"charver" in Newcastle) But I'd say it less about class and more about attitude.

[identity profile] issi-noho.livejournal.com 2006-04-29 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Fear? No. Sneer? Yes.

(This may have been pointed out already, but I'm not wading through the whole thread.)