dreamer_easy (
dreamer_easy) wrote2006-04-28 06:55 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Entry tags:
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.
no subject
(no subject)
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
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.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
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.
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
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.)
(no subject)
no subject
(no subject)
no subject
(This may have been pointed out already, but I'm not wading through the whole thread.)