Chavs on dirt bikes

[root]

Otta Wrote:

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> Chav thing isn't really the issue for me, it was

> more the "At best they'd make an organ doner."

> attitude.

Well, if someone doing dirt bike wheelies, without a helmet, on the pavement, had to crack open his skull against a lamp post I pity most the guys who have to clean up the mess.

[Otta]

That's fine. And I'll stick to thinking that your attitude is unpleasant.

[root]

^^

[Jeremy]

Yeah I disagree with root on that bit of course... would never want to see a young life wasted because of stupidity on the roads.

[miga]

.

[LadyDeliah]

I'd say it's lost it's popularity somewhat because the elite have enrolled the disabled, jobless, low paid and immigrants as the favoured whipping boys in recent years.

[ultraburner]

Oh ferchrise sake, does every thread on this forum here have to descend into petty socio-politico-class clash-commentary bollocks?

I've seen this lot before. The other day they were a few feet away from my wife and son, wearing bandanas, riding on the PAVEMENT at about 50 mph.

Calling them chavs is the least of our problems. They had tracksuits on fwiw.

[Nigello]

LD: you might not recognise yourself as such, but you are part of that elite you disparage. You're well educated, in professional employment, articulate and computer literate. Even if you don't take part in the so called enrolment of "chavs" and certain other groups as whipping boys by the layer of society you pillory, you're still part of that group, at the tippety-tip-top of the pyramid.

Anyone acting like a tit-end+++ - riding aggressively and provocatively on pavements - deserves any right-minded person's deprecation, whatever socio-economic group, racial profile or cultural community they find themselves in, either by their own definition or that of others.

+++ nipples can also be a good thing

[root]

ultraburner Wrote:

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> Calling them chavs is the least of our problems.

> They had tracksuits on fwiw.

My bad I suppose as always assumed chav was an umbrella term for such scum. Looking up stuff on the web I learn there is much more to being a chav than being predominantly white, young, borderline criminal obnoxious and for all intents and purposes useless.

[ultraburner]

Council house and violent? Chatham average? etc. etc..

wgaf?

Don't ride your 400cc dirtbike on the pavement, please.

Nipples are good.

[susiq]

how do these chavs/assols/yummies afford bikes and petrol - or whatever - and why not call police or grease up the pavement, - Louisa is entitled to her opinion without being told to push off, as usual always picking out the bits that don't matter and sliding of the subject in question.

[aquarius moon]

Riders on dirt bikes/ dirt bikers would have sufficed.

The choice wording in the thread title says enough about the OP for me to really not care what he/she thinks about anything.

After reading their subsequent posts, I care even less.

[ultraburner]

But you cared enough to post :)

[root]

susiq Wrote:

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> how do these chavs/assols/yummies afford bikes and

> petrol - or whatever - and why not call police or

> grease up the pavement, - Louisa is entitled to

> her opinion without being told to push off, as

> usual always picking out the bits that don't

> matter and sliding of the subject in question.

I don't think I've ever seen yummies on dirt bikes or Lambrettas, although I quite like the idea of girls on Vespas.

Typing 'girl on vespa' in google and clicking the images link did not disappoint.

[Jeremy]

I know some people think the word "chav" is loaded with class prejudice, but I disagree. As far as I'm concerned it's about how people choose to act, how they present themselves, and the desire to belong to a certain "tribe".

When I was (much) younger we'd use the word "townie" to refer to a similar social group... plenty of who came from comfortable homes in nice suburbs. I don't think that anyone believes the gold chain and tracksuit wearing stereotype applies to the whole of the "working class" (for want of a better term).

[Earl Aelfheah]

ultraburner Wrote:

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> Oh ferchrise sake, does every thread on this forum

> here have to descend into petty

> socio-politico-class clash-commentary bollocks?

^this

[Louisa]

Jeremy but those connotations surrounding the stereotypical chav are all linked in with class prejudice. Someone could come from a perfectly respectable middle class family and lie cheat and steal and they would not be branded a chav. It seems to be a dated and lazy description to put down someone based on social class and nothing more. I also hear kids referring to something as being 'gay' to describe something they dislike or find beneath them. Again, equally as offensive to a gay person, even though it may not be aimed at gay people as a group or used in that context.

Louisa.

[miga]

.

[Jeremy]

I dunno... it's a slang word and therefore not sure if any formal definition is really correct. Of course there's a correlation with social class, but I wouldn't personally say it's a defining characteristic. miga, to take an example from popular culture - maybe Harry Enfield's loadsamoney character?

[Southeast Twenty Stu]

.

[Penguin68]

I had thought 'chav' was more a tribal definition - reflecting, particularly, chosen dress style - i.e. Burberry checks, tightly tied back hair (for girls) and so on - a slightly old fashioned version of the TOWIE look. To some extent an ironic working class take on Sloane Rangers (and, because of the Burberry link, hugely annoying to same). As far as behaviour was concerned, certainly up-front and slightly aggressive, but not as described (implictly) here. It is, I think, class linked (because of its comparison with Sloanes, if for no other reason) - but in a reasonably positive way, at least initially. Chavs, punks, hippies, goths, mods, rockers, Teddy Boys (granted different eras) were all initially style, not behavior descriptors.

[Otta]

susiq Wrote:

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> how do these chavs/assols/yummies afford bikes and

> petrol

In all seriousness, when I saw them I assumed they were "rich kids" (as in kids from comfortable backgrounds) simply because I imagine these bikes aren't exactly cheap.

But that could just be my own predudice.

[Southeast Twenty Stu]

They're idiots. How much money they have or haven't got is irrelevant.

[Seabag]

I first heard the words "chav, chavs, chavy, chavy's" back in around 1980/81

I was at Art School with a guy who married a Roma girl. They used the name/word to discribe children in the comunity. It was never used in a derogoatry way back then

The word reappeared later to my mind with the website "Chav Scum" or whatever it was called. Maybe misused as racial slur against Gypsy travellers, to then include the not in work emerging under-class

It's lazy and provocative, but I do see it being hijacked by the "offended by proxy/class warrior" brigade, the offence then being whipped back as a predictable dig at the middle classes. In my mind, this is as lazy but a tad more venomous than the originally misjudged slur

One is a lazy denigration of a social group, the other definitely a 'class war' spitefulness and usually perpetrated by the same old - same old

In a February 2005 article in The Times, Julie Burchill argued that use of the word is a form of "social racism", and that such "sneering" reveals more about the shortcomings of the "chav-haters" than those of their supposed victims.

Whatever, it's boring and predictable

[Louisa]

Otta brilliant point you make. Working-class kids would not be able to afford such bikes in the first place, and yet it is assumed by many on here that they had to be working class or "chavs" simply because of the sort of anti social behaviour they were taking part in. Why would it be inconceivable to suggest that some middle-class white boys who attend a private school were not riding recklessly around the streets on bikes. And if they were, would that behaviour still be described as "chav" - I don't think it would. It's classic class discrimination that's what it is.

Louisa.