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
No… that culture of violence was very very real. The stories may sound ridiculous, but that’s just because of how extreme that culture was.
Dirty tricks, MI6!
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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.
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In my experience, Chav has never been used to describe a normal working class person. In Northern Ireland, we had our own variant “Spide” or “Smick” which were generally more tame. Less burberry more tracksuits
Reply to edited chart - violence against adult was not as common. Violence against other kids however…
Also, 1995–2002 was peak chav ;)
Aren’t chavs the tracksuit wearing shitheads, like the thugs working for Eggsy’s stepdad in the first Kingsman?
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What is it with a bunch of bad takes being posted on this community recently
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Because chavs existed. I saw them. My siblings saw them. There are various news reports. Not all working class people are chavs.
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source?
Of course they exist, ya dummie! I’m working class and they definitely exist.
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Is this déjà-downvote I feel?
Grew up in the era there were definitely chavs it wasn’t a class thing either as a lot of them tended to be role-playing middle class kids who wanted to look hard as usual.
Walking through local shops and being challenged about which part of town you lived in or getting called a “greebo” all a day in the life of the era.
I’ve always seen chavs as the tracksuit wearing, loads of kids, living off smokes, scratch cards and pot Noddles that sit around soaking up benefits. I know that nay not be the proper definition of chav but I’m not sure what else to call them
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The commenter said ‘soaking up benefits’, I don’t think the working class people would be looking like ‘chavs’ because many of them are going to and from work in uniform. Plus, you’re essentially equating all working class people with chavs? So walking into a Tescos, every member of staff is a chav?
What is your obsession with ‘chavs’?
Roadmans are currently being made up. Kids wearing balaclavas wearing bomber jackets talking with a heavy London grime artist accent dont exist.
I see them
Back when roadman was just starting to become a term I had a friend who started calling himself one, he didn’t like it when I told him it was just another version of a chav
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Nessie obviously be a ‘ned’ not a ‘charva’.
While I disagree with identifying the working class with ‘chav’, the origin of the word did start very much in classism and stereotyping (hence my deep disagreement with the term). A pretty good analysis in this article: https://eathealthy365.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-chav-in-british-culture/
