Subject: chav
Culture: English working class
Setting: urban England 1990s-2000s
Object: costume
Event Photos
* Bok 2004 p5-6
"Chavs can be found far and wide, across the country, but go by different names depending on the location. In Scotland, on the West Coast, you'll find Neds (some say this is short for 'non-educated delinquents', other say it's short for Edward, as in teddy-boy). On the East Coast of Scotland they are known as Schemies (as in 'housing scheme'). Moving southward to England, the range of names is staggering. In Liverpool they're called Scallies (as in loud, boisterous, disruptive or irresponsible people). Kev is quite common around London (probably because of the Harry Enfield inspired, idiotic teenage character Kevin). Then you have Janners (from Plymouth), Smicks, Spides, Moakes and Steeks (all from Belfast), plus Bazzas, Pikeys (Essex), Charvers (Newcastle), Scuffheads, Stigs, Stangers, Yarcos, and Kappa Slappers (Kappa for girls who wear Kappa branded tracksuits, Slapper as in a promiscuous or crude female)."
"In Elizabethan England, there were sumptuary laws to prevent members of the rabble from dressing above their station. This was never really effective, but to understand how truly futile it is these days for the upper classes to try keeping the masses in their sartorial place, you need to know what a chav is. 'Chav' -- the champion buzzword of 2004 in Britain, according to one language maven there -- refers to something between a subculture and a social class. Experts disagree about the slang term's origins, but the unofficial definition sounds rather condescending or even cruel: a clueless suburbanite with appalling taste and a tendency toward track suits and loud jewelry. Still, as with 'redneck' in America, a term that is imposed as a marker of scorn can be embraced as a marker of pride; at the very least, a certain humor and irony lace many of the discussions about chavs on Web sites and in books like 'Chav! A User's Guide to Britain's New Ruling Class.'
"In any case, there's one aspect of chavness that almost every description mentions right away: Chavs love Burberry. The recognizable plaid pattern that Burberry, the venerable English luxury brand, used to tuck away as the discreet lining of its famous raincoats has long since broken free to serve as a status signifier. Presumably it is status that chavs are looking for when they snap up anything and everything emblazoned with the plaid. The most popular element of the chav uniform is the Burberry plaid cap.
"Of course, when a huge and decidedly not upper-crust class embraces such a signifier, its meaning is completely altered. In Britain, business-school professors and marketing professionals have debated the tarnishing of Burberry exclusivity. 'The amusing thing and the entertaining thing for many people is that because chavs are new money, they're kind of faintly ridiculous, spending their money on tawdry baubles,' observes Lucian James of the San Francisco branding agency Agenda Inc., which has consulted for various luxury brands. James, who is English, points to David Beckham and his wife, Victoria (the former Posh Spice), as the reigning monarchs of celebrity chavdom, although when bad-taste transculturalist Britney Spears bought a Burberry-style plaid bed for her dog, the British tabloid press took note."
* Why is 'chav' still controversial?' 2011-06-03 online
"For the tabloids, the word is associated with loud or aggressive behaviour. Lottery winner Michael Carroll, the footballer Wayne Rooney, ex-glamour model Jordan, and Cheryl Cole have all been celebrated as "chav royalty". In 2005 Cole told Marie Claire: 'I'm proud to be a chav if by that you mean working class made good.'
"Everyone's missing the point, argues Labour MP Stephen Pound. The term chav just shows how jealous middle Britain is about working class people having fun.
"'Chav is an utterly misunderstood term. It is used in envy by the lily livered, privileged, pale, besuited bank clerk who sees people dressed up to the nines and going to the West End.' It's no different, he argues to the Teddy Boys or Mods, youth style movements about asserting individual identity and confidence."
Primary Sources
* Jones 2011 p23-24
"The Shannon Matthews affair was just one particularly striking example of the media using an isolated case to reinforce the 'chav' caricature: feckless, feral, and undeserving. But it was far from the last. Now that the ball was rolling, the media enthusiastically seized on other cases to confirm this distorted portrayal.
"[....] The few journalists who refrained from swelling the tide of bile were right to complain of 'cheap shots' at the working class. That is only half the story. It is rare for the media's eye to fall on working-class people at all; when it does, it is almost always on outlandish individuals such as Karen Matthews, or Alfie Patten -- a thirteen-year0old boy wrongly alleged to have fathered a child born in early 2009. Journalists seemed to compete over finding the most gruesome story that could be passed off as representative of what remained of working-class Britain. 'They will look at the worst estate they can find, and the worst examples they can find,' objects Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee. 'They will point their camera at the worst possible workless dysfunctional family and say, "This is working-class life.''
That's not to pretend there aren't people out there with deeply problematic lives, including callous individuals who inflict barbaric abuse on vulnerable children. The point is that they are a very small number of people, and far from representative. 'Freakish exceptions -- such as people with ten children who have never had a job -- are eagerly sought out and presented as typical,' believes Independent journalist Johann Hari. 'There is a tiny proportion of highly problematic families who live chaotically and can't look after their children because they weren't cared for themselves. The number is hugely inflated to present them as paradigmatic of people from poor backgrounds.'"
Secondary Sources
"'They are replicating celebrity styles at the market level,' explains Dr. Keith Hayward. Hayward was one of the first to research the phenomenon, revealing that chav had taken off as the national expression to describe this kind of individuals.
"'The use of the term 'chav' skyrocketed in British newspapers from virtually zero in the years 1995-2003 to a startling 946 during the last 12 months [of 2005],' he wrote in Crime, Media, Culture in 2005.
"As the chav phenomenon grew more common, the media took a hold of its comic effect, in the forms of shows such as the very popular 'Little Britain,' and the reality TV show 'Big Brother,' which relies heavily on chavs making a nuisance of themselves on the show to keep its audience captivated."
Field Notes
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