The Student Room Group

Why do students complain about 'chavs' when...

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Reply 20
Original post by redferry
Looks like you are classest and see 'chavs' as beneath you too.
Chavs is a classest term, don't try and excuse using it with foolish rhetoric. I would recommend reading the book Chavs by Owen Jones.


that book is ridiculous
Reply 21
People like feeling superior to certain group of people.
Reply 22
Original post by Tabzqt
that book is ridiculous


It is an interesting and simplified basis, the content is obviously not wholly correct, for example the bit about workers from Longbridge was just focused on one man and frankly wrong, however I think it can be an eye opener for media brainwashed narrow minded people. Obviously I would always recommend reading around such books to get your facts straight.
Original post by redferry
It is an interesting and simplified basis, the content is obviously not wholly correct, for example the bit about workers from Longbridge was just focused on one man and frankly wrong, however I think it can be an eye opener for media brainwashed narrow minded people. Obviously I would always recommend reading around such books to get your facts straight.


It's built on a false premise that the word chavs equates to the phrase working-class. I know many middle class chavs.
Reply 24
Original post by Genocidal
Well that depends how you view a chav really. I completely disagree it's just a classist term, although it's used in such a manner.

I see it as a state of mind and a behavioural thing, not necessarily how you look and dress. Just as I don't see all people who wear designer clothing as snobs. I see them as people dressed in designer clothing. Only when they give me a reason to think of them as snobs through their behaviour will I do so.


The vast majority of people use it only applied to the working classes. Saying it is not a classist term is like saying rah isn't a classist term.
Reply 25
Students by and large are moronic and contradict themselves hence the stereotype of students being a waste of space.
Yeah, students not being violent or threatening would be the first reason. Also, I'm not sure what students you know that do graffiti and commit vandalism...

At any rate, 'chavs' and 'students' aren't necessarily mutually exclusive groups.

Original post by redferry
The vast majority of people use it only applied to the working classes. Saying it is not a classist term is like saying rah isn't a classist term.


Even if it's only applicable to working class people (and granted it's most naturally applied to working class people), it's only applicable to a subset of that class. There are plenty of working class people who aren't chavs. How, therefore, you could conceive of it as 'classist' I'm not sure... you'd have to be defining 'classist' so broadly that it loses all its meaning.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 27
Original post by TimmonaPortella
Yeah, students not being violent or threatening would be the first reason. Also, I'm not sure what students you know that do graffiti and commit vandalism...


Have you never been in a student union toilets?


Even if it's only applicable to working class people (and granted it's most naturally applied to working class people), it's only applicable to a subset of that class. There are plenty of working class people who aren't chavs.


Most people do not use it in that way though
While students are often loud, drunk and obnoxious they are not, by and large, aggressive. I've said it many times- the fights I see on nights out in Leeds are almost always started by locals.
Original post by redferry
Have you never been in a student union toilets?



Most people do not use it in that way though


Yes. Though this probably depends to a large degree on the university.

And yes, they do. No-one uses the word 'chav' to apply to a hard working builder, for instance, and they tend to be indisputably working class.
Reply 30
Original post by TimmonaPortella
Yes. Though this probably depends to a large degree on the university.

And yes, they do. No-one uses the word 'chav' to apply to a hard working builder, for instance, and they tend to be indisputably working class.


I went to Bristol and there was definitely a lot of student graffiti etc.

They would probably use it to describe a hard working builder having downtime on a Friday night.
Original post by redferry

They would probably use it to describe a hard working builder having downtime on a Friday night.


I disagree.

I invite others in the thread to give their views on this, since we're never going to get anywhere by just exchanging assertions.
Original post by MancBoy
...they behave just as bad as them? (if not worse!)

I don't mind them drinking or having several one night stands or even having parties but when it comes to the point where it's making the surrounding resident's lives a living nightmare is what I have a problem with. This is what I have to live with -

Shouting and screaming into the early morning waking all the local residents up (including elderly women and families with small children).

Littering kebab papers, leaflets, bottles, cups all over the streets.

Playing music loudly late into the night.

Swearing and talking about things such as rape in public places.

Vandalism i.e throwing food at people's houses, graffiti etc.


I see a lot of students online and in real life complaining about 'chavs' but I find it incredibly hypocritical when they behave just the same. They act as though they are entitled to behave this way without no repercussions. People often overlook this problem because 'they're students' and 'having a bit of fun' but if an estate kid did this everyone would be up in arms!

So what does the community of TSR think about this?


(I'll probably negged like crazy for this thread but I don't care...come at me haters!)


Welcome to the UK, it's even more about the class system than it is about money.
Original post by MancBoy
...they behave just as bad as them? (if not worse!)

I don't mind them drinking or having several one night stands or even having parties but when it comes to the point where it's making the surrounding resident's lives a living nightmare is what I have a problem with. This is what I have to live with -

Shouting and screaming into the early morning waking all the local residents up (including elderly women and families with small children).

Littering kebab papers, leaflets, bottles, cups all over the streets.

Playing music loudly late into the night.

Swearing and talking about things such as rape in public places.

Vandalism i.e throwing food at people's houses, graffiti etc.


I see a lot of students online and in real life complaining about 'chavs' but I find it incredibly hypocritical when they behave just the same. They act as though they are entitled to behave this way without no repercussions. People often overlook this problem because 'they're students' and 'having a bit of fun' but if an estate kid did this everyone would be up in arms!

So what does the community of TSR think about this?


(I'll probably negged like crazy for this thread but I don't care...come at me haters!)



My student neighbours for the last 3 years have been pleasant and considerate

One house across the road was all boys last year and they could be noisy when going out on a Sat/Sun evening but nothing too annoying

We do not have excessive litter etc problems

So ... your generalisation is just that
Original post by Swanbow
Nonsense. I knew many chavs at school who weren't the stereotyped anti-social louts that people go on about.


so what made them "chavs"?
Reply 35
still dont know the definition of chav
Reply 36
"chavs" are those people who in more enlightened times would be found in service to respectable families. The bootblack, the gardener's boy, the scullery maid; the hard work and firm rules of the household would enable these pitiful creatures to live decent lives. Nowadays they are left free to roam their neighbourhoods and express their "personalities" through vile untramelled behaviour and ridiculous garments. Those who have somehow mastered basic literacy use "social media" to extend their grim lives into cyberspace.
Reply 37
I think the difference is that chavs do the stuff you said when they're drunk AND sober.
Reply 38
This whole argument is based on generic statements and stereotypes, so I cannot give a verdict.
Reply 39
Original post by the bear
"chavs" are those people who in more enlightened times would be found in service to respectable families. The bootblack, the gardener's boy, the scullery maid; the hard work and firm rules of the household would enable these pitiful creatures to live decent lives. Nowadays they are left free to roam their neighbourhoods and express their "personalities" through vile untramelled behaviour and ridiculous garments. Those who have somehow mastered basic literacy use "social media" to extend their grim lives into cyberspace.


Bit extreme would you not say?

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