Chav Culture

[As You Like It]

Actually I have mixed thoughts on the matter, having grown up around a lot of rednecks, and living in a neighborhood with a lot of rednecks and a lot of ******...on one hand, yes, ******, gangstas, and charvas especially look to emulate a certain style of fashion, but the cultures involve a lot more and indeed a certain lever of pain that creates the "tough guy" image.

Something that a lot of people in higher socioeconomic groups don't understand is the violence. When some big bruiser of a redneck gets drunk at a bar-b-que and starts picking fights, or when some gangsta talks about cutting somebody who crosses him, a lot of more well-to-do people assume that these guys are just like savage animals, and that the fighting is because they are like an inferior species. Instead, I posit that the football hooligans and the basketball rioters are instead substituting the possibility of wining a fight for whatever other victories are circumstantially denied them, due to the constraints of their social class. Maybe you can't get a posh job with a Christmas bonus or have a pretty house in the suburbs, but you can certainly find some punk and kick his ***. It ain't much of an accomplishment, but you hold on to whatever you can claim.

That's not saying it's fun to have to vacate a party when the enraged, hormone soaked combatants throw down, or that anyone really wants to live on the same block as inveterate vandals, but there is actually an explanation for some of the violence--it is not just plain mindless. Plus there's just an element of resentment and anger, especially when you compare your Polyester trackie against Paris's silk velveteen lounge suit or your busted-up Honda with Whitney spoilers against the suburban kid's Navigator.

Re-posting something something I posted up-thread. I think we do have equivalents to charvas in the US, it is just that most of the US population on this board is middle/upper class and don't really interact that much with the rougher elements of our society. I'm from that rough end of the social spectrum--I describe myself as educated white-trash, and I come from working-class roots, and I still live a very working-class lifestyle. Where I come from, most people can yuk along with the redneck jokes, because there is a kind of groupfeel you get from poking fun at your people. It's just like when Chris Rock cracks on black people. Let anyone else bust on your people, however, and it's arms against the snobby outsiders.

Where I come from, in rural western Nebraska, it is terribly bad form to make a big deal out of material posessions. If somebody is wearing obviously expensive clothes or has a new truck, he or she will get some ribbing from his/her friends about living large or thinking he/she is hot-stuff. My dad was a railroad machinist, and my friends would occasionally give me sh*t about being from a rich railroading family, even though their families, as ranchers, definitely made more money than my family did.
I tell you what, everyone here should go to www.gretchenwilson.com and watch the "Redneck Woman" video, and "Here For The Party," and you'll see a little bit of where people like me come from. It might not hurt anyone to peruse a Kid Rock video or two, either, as Kid Rock is pretty big amongst us working class yobbos here in the midwest.

 

[helena]

Helena's tipple is Thunderbird ....and lime, of course.

well at least i have moved on from Buck-y which is more than can be said for you johnny. gees a swallly o' yer buck-y man......

 

[impossibleprincess]

You are quite correct - its dangerous for our society. We have an obesity problem, we have an epidemic of binge drinking, and we, as a nation, are burderned with huge personal debts. I am ridiculed for going to see classical music or a french film for being 'pretentious' or artsy farsty. These things seem to have no place in British culture where leisure time is spent getting pissed & reading Heat (girls) & 'Nuts' (boys) magazines.

It makes me really sad.... we are headed down the same route as that other great capitalist nation over the pond i fear.

Chip in anyone who wants to disagree....

You are completely right. But in a more fashion sense, there is something completely screwed up and pretentious about someone who wants to show off all his/her new money all at once by wearing every label under the sun, and then scoffs at someone wanting to go to the theatre-what they don't realise is that in reality, they are the more ostentatious ones. I never got the people who laugh at someone for being posh but then show just how insecure they are buy devouring every designer label that comes their way. It's quite a dichotomy, if that makes sense-the rich want to look like they have no money and the ones just coming into money want to look like they have all of it.

 

[SanDiego]

O.k. So Chav=ghetto!!!!!!!!!

 

[fab_fifties_fille]

You are completely right. But in a more fashion sense, there is something completely screwed up and pretentious about someone who wants to show off all his/her new money all at once by wearing every label under the sun, and then scoffs at someone wanting to go to the theatre-what they don't realise is that in reality, they are the more ostentatious ones. I never got the people who laugh at someone for being posh but then show just how insecure they are buy devouring every designer label that comes their way. It's quite a dichotomy, if that makes sense-the rich want to look like they have no money and the ones just coming into money want to look like they have all of it.

I totally agree, it just reminds me of being in school and seeing bullying of the 'posh kids' happening, even when they're not wearing anything that makes it evident that they're well off, and the charves are wearing (usually fake) designer stuff i.e LV, Burberry, which is even more sad when they go out of their way to get a fake to show off possessions they don't have, then if someone got a good grade, or came out with an intelligent remark they'd usually get teased about it. I know the grades etc, aren't really relevant to this thread, oh man I know what I'm trying to say I just can't really explain sorry for any confusion

 

[i_<3_chanel]

ayli tht was very interesting to read !

 

[pucci_mama]

I hate chavs!!

And theyre "prideness" of going around carrying their LV bag that's so obvious is cheap fake!

Grrrrrr.

 

[miserylovescompany]

The way I see it is sort of...hippie/beatnik, with all the rip off and such. I see it as a total farce...sort of pre-yuppie. What sort is doing this? I mean, I could see it more as a "movement" rather than a fashion or fad for 20-somethings.


I'm fairly intoxicated right now. Does anyone understand what I'm saying?






Emi

 

[As You Like It]

I totally agree, it just reminds me of being in school and seeing bullying of the 'posh kids' happening, even when they're not wearing anything that makes it evident that they're well off, and the charves are wearing (usually fake) designer stuff i.e LV, Burberry, which is even more sad when they go out of their way to get a fake to show off possessions they don't have, then if someone got a good grade, or came out with an intelligent remark they'd usually get teased about it. I know the grades etc, aren't really relevant to this thread, oh man I know what I'm trying to say I just can't really explain sorry for any confusion

And that's what I was getting at when I was talking about the culture of violence which often runs through these subcultural groups. If you feel you can't have your slice of the pie, you might as well spoil the pie for anyone else is the sort of attitude I see in this. And again, sometimes it is a backhanded show of superiority...a kid who can't be smart in class can certainly be a smartaleck. Similarly, often kids who do not get any attention at home will act bad in order to get in trouble, because at least negative attention is some attention.

I really see the more negative aspects of chav culture to be a kind of large-scale antisocial reaction, similar to a student misbehaving for the sheer sake of attention, even if it is the negative attention of a scolding. A group which has been margainalized is liable to push back against the barriers constricting it, albeit in in this case in ineffectual ways like ruffianism rather than a directed social uprising, such as was seen in the French Revolution.

 

[stilista]

on a lighter note...Jonathon Ross (A UK talk show host) just gave Nicole Kidman a belt with a "Chav" buckle....she was very pleased with it Watch out for Chaviness coming to a red carpet near you soon!

 

[impossibleprincess]

hee hee i saw that!!
and on channel 5 they were slagging off coleen again.

 

[i_<3_chanel]

tht cosmetic surgery live show is sick
wht was up with the whole anal obsession?

 

[Paullw]

Its not the clothes that are so bad, well, they are bad. But what chavs are wearing doesn't affect you as much as their behaviour. Even here, in a fairly small, city, in a quite well-off area lots of girls I know are afraid to walk anywhere on their own. It's generally ok, a lot better than in many other places, but you still get the odd fight outside the chavy club, there have even been a few stabbings.

You do get hassled by guys conforming to the chav stereotype. One threatened to bite my nose off if I didn't give him my money, he was too drunk to be much danger, all that happened was that his girlfriend hit me over the head with her handbag. While its pretty funny now, it wasn't much fun at the time. People like that can be so frustrating, they have almost no respect for anything, and don't even care that by destroying something they might be ruining other people's hard work or other people's experiences.

They do have their funny side, and its so easy to joke about them, because they do act, and dress exactly how they're meant to, but never seem to realise it.

 

[Lena]

the rich want to look like they have no money and the ones just coming into money want to look like they have all of it.

that's so VERY true princess

 

[fab_fifties_fille]

And that's what I was getting at when I was talking about the culture of violence which often runs through these subcultural groups. If you feel you can't have your slice of the pie, you might as well spoil the pie for anyone else is the sort of attitude I see in this. And again, sometimes it is a backhanded show of superiority...a kid who can't be smart in class can certainly be a smartaleck. Similarly, often kids who do not get any attention at home will act bad in order to get in trouble, because at least negative attention is some attention.

I really see the more negative aspects of chav culture to be a kind of large-scale antisocial reaction, similar to a student misbehaving for the sheer sake of attention, even if it is the negative attention of a scolding. A group which has been margainalized is liable to push back against the barriers constricting it, albeit in in this case in ineffectual ways like ruffianism rather than a directed social uprising, such as was seen in the French Revolution.

Yeah that's what I was trying to say...glad someone understood

 

[shadow]

The chavs, the neds, the punks, the mods... you can go back in time and these social/fashion groups have always existed in the UK! Then in the rest of Europe you find the copycats, french rappers and german punks particularly pitiful to see. I believe chavs will end up growing out of their "culture" just like punks did (and boy, were they SCARY).

My english teacher years ago was a mod in his youth. He wore boots with steel points, and razor blades sewn inside his jacket lapels, in case someone grabbed him there. He sells antiques nowadays.

Plus ça change...

 

[Elegance.Is.Refusal.]

^^^ a very good and true point. i do hope they grow out of it

 

[stilista]

^^ I don't think the people we're calling Chavs now will grow out of it. Mods and punks tended to also include kids who came from more affluent or educated backgrounds, and a lot of their reason for getting into their scene was the music or the clothes...

Being a Chav isn't really a trend as most kids are born a Chav. If you're born to parents who would rather spend their cash on **** & booze & gold chains, you don't really have much hope. I think being a Chav is more about being a victim of your upbringing and surroundings rather than something you choose (like being a mod or a punk).

 

[Elegance.Is.Refusal.]

people can still rise above the way they where brought up or the surrondings they where brought up in. its the whole debate of nature nuture. being anti-social does not really come around just because you were born into it

 

[*tinkerbell*]

I don't see where this sudden media obsession with "chavs" has come from. They have always been around, and people have always known about them. Coming from a predominantly working class city in England, they are seen everywhere, although I think the term is being over used these days.

Anyone see the documentary on sky one about chavs? Depicting their fashion sense etc?

I wouldn't say chav style is a fashion anyone would take up unless they are born with. I think chav is more a state of mind than a trend.