Working class students have got more to worry about than chav socials

We’re bored of middle-class students branding chav themed socials a “disgrace” at expense of working class people. It’s a generalised, obnoxious claim that is unfounded. And it is beyond patronising.

We all know the acronym ‘Council Housed and Violent’. But in a university-culture of social diversity and acceptance, the word chav has actually lost its one-dimensional definition in the traditional sense. Rather, it looks to categorise behaviour. A certain type of behaviour, that believe it or not, all classes are capable of exhibiting. It’s a type of clothing. It’s a type of language. It’s a particular attitude. And to attribute these behaviours solely to the working class is, ironically, the most offensive thing underpinning this debate.

So let’s talk about clothing. You think your 90’s Adidas jackets are edgy? You think wearing your Burberry hat to the rave is ‘cool’? But, paradoxically you think that when others wear these things in aid of a themed social, they are offensive and to the detriment of the working class. And here, poses the biggest threat to your cosy, middle-class consensus. Because as a society, we actually have begun to reclaim the undertones of the chav. How can hooped earrings be an offensive, labelling of the working class chav, when you were wearing them last week?

You say you’re fighting the working-class fight, but in reality you’re just doing it on your own narrow-minded terms. And, to add insult, in the process you are doing it at the expense of fellow students who are just trying to have some fun.

To suggest that the terms ‘working-class’ and chav are merely interchangeable demonstrates how you view wealth and social status. And perhaps, it’s you who should be ashamed. By branding  chav themed socials ‘classist‘, you overlook the establishment and the cultural conditions at work in our society, to which we really should be looking. It is these skewed- systems that continuously work to undermine the working class, not Liverpool’s Netball team.

Your overly politically correct argument is not one that middle-class Russell group students, from your Redbrick ivory tower, should be defending. You have no idea what working class people suffer. You have no idea about the struggles they face. And the suggestion that working class people have the time to care about a university social, that may or may not be aimed that them, is insulting.

The working classes do not need saving, and you are certainly not their saviour.