http://www.chavscum.co.uk/

actually it's made me paranoid. every time I put on a pair of trousers or t-shirt in pastels I ask, "Do I look chav in this?"

http://www.newcastlestuff.com/charver/

I like to rock the chav look once in a while, trakkie bottoms excepted

Mind you, this is fucking terrifying.

what is the difference between:

chavs
neds
townies
scallies

? Hmmmm?

xpost yes Charlie, I was at a grammar school and most of the middle-class girlies still had big old pineapple hairdos and clown jewellery.

charvers = north-east

my grandfather used to say this, so i think perhaps "chav" is a corruption (it's probably old norse for ne'erdowell" or summat, like).

http://www.northumbrianassociation.co.uk/viewarticle.php?p_article_id=71

http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm

The second suggests "charver" is Romany for prostitute. And also has this insight into regional variations:

From a linguistic perspective the most interesting aspect is the wide variety of local names given to the type. Scots call them neds (often said to be an acronym of “non-educated delinquents”, but that’s a folk etymology, given credence by being mentioned as fact during a debate in the Scottish parliament in 2003; it’s actually from an abridged form of the given name Edward, which was attached to this group in the period of the teddy-boys, who dressed in a version of Edwardian costume), while Liverpudlians prefer scallies (a term of long-standing for a boisterous, disruptive or irresponsible young man); Kev is common around London (presumably from the given name Kevin, common among this group and popularised through the portrayal on his television show by the comedian Harry Enfield of an idiotic teenager with that name). Other terms recorded from various parts of the country are janners (from Plymouth), smicks, spides, moakes and steeks (all from Belfast), plus bazzas, scuffheads, stigs, stangers, yarcos, and kappa slappers (girls who wear Kappa brand tracksuits, slapper being British slang for a promiscuous or vulgar woman).

Bazza?!

(Can please someone photoshop Baz Lazazz's head onto a portrait of Henry VIII here? kthxbye)

the fact that there may well be a kind of self-conscious defiant adoption of the 'uniform' by some of them makes it a matter of confirmation, further dismissal, maybe funnier - and it makes it useful for all these stereotypes/cliches have a degree of accuracy - up here, being able to spot the white sportsgear and hear the high-pitched whiney nostril-talk is very useful in being able to take evasive action, or get ready for the bother

and 'neds' used to be just Glasgow - Dundee/Edinburgh used 'schemies' (i.e. yoots from 'housing schemes' => 'sink estates' in later parlance) for years - don't know if Aberdeen had it's own term.
'ned' has taken over in all of scotland due to political/meejah interest, i think.

We used to say 'Garys' as well but I think that was more for Kevs who dressed "smart" and thought they were slick.

But on the flip side we have cake-eaters, Hoorays, Sloanes, Henries, toffs, café society.

'Pikey' is what chavs call travelling folk innit.

liz otm

Bedmies (often Bedmie Scum) tends to apply to everyone south of the river generically, even if it is inaccurate. I have two friends live over there - one still comes up to Gloucester Rd rather than go out over there. I've made it over that way twice in 6 years, and one of them was to go to the Hen & Chicken. A horrible place.

Nope. This was in Worcester, nowhere near SW London! I moved to London in 2001.

if only

We had "Trevors" at our school, except they were geeks/nerds with no dress sense. Where did you go to school Treble?

they are maybe being ridiculed because of their correlation with acting as aggressive intrusive bigoted racist loutish inconsiderate wilfully ignorant bullies - but as i said above, that's not something it's easy to point and laugh at: so you pick the display material that goes with it
(the fact that other groups may have the same ingredients and have costumes/habits that are altogether more 'sophisticated' is a different problem - i've seen enough pisstakes of city-of-london boors and Daily Mail Mentalists to think it isn't an unrecognised one - and it shouldn't render this group immune from getting slagged off for being wankers)

they make many ppls lives a misery - mostly 'white working class' ppl too

fuckem

B-but this is a directly analogous to racism (other people look like people I have an objection to, therefore I will tar them all with the same brush)

I think Snowy's post is pretty much spot on.

Is any kind of mocking humour based on generalising (which might be an awful lot of it) to be 'directly analogous' to racism - eg jokes about certain occupations, or the upper/middle classes, or emo indiekids, or ironic trucker-hat wearers, or goths...(there's enough of that round here!)
or are you specially concerned about this because you think it is class-ical snobbery in disguise ?

But it's still pretty bad - kids tend to wear clothes that let them fit into their peer group. Just because there is a disproportionate number of criminals in the tracksuit-wearing community doesn't mean it should effectively become a crime just to wear the same clothes.

Emo indiekids, ironic trucker-hat wearers and goths are just ridiculed. They aren't tarred with the brush of criminality and a generally crappy place in society isn't perpetuated.

It's impossible to argue this position without sounding like a sanctimonious prig.

(x-post)

I think the issue of indie kids/goths/hipsters being ridiculed is a different one and not as serious no, though both trends are sort of conservative desire for homogeneity, just from different perspectives maybe.

No among the entire country pretty much, most people I know actually say "traveller" to be honest, maybe with a degree of mockery but there you go. The time when "knacker" wasn't just the same as "chav" is a long time ago.

Saying that identifying chavs is a form of racism/classism is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that you can acknowledge their existence is reason enough to have a word for it. Whether you use it descriptively or as a term of abuse is different.
But the fact that in every suburban town centre there are people between the ages of 12 and 20 who invariably wear Burberry baseball caps, jackets with white cartoon scrawls all over them, super expensive trainers and tracksuit bottoms; who have little else to do than jeer and intimidate others; and who speak in a nasal voice etc. - is proof that they exist and therefore there is a term for it.
The Streets even glorify it - Mike Skinners songs, especially on the first album were all about how great it is to be a Barry. My little brother at one point went out of his way to achieve Ned-chic, even though he secretly liked Nirvana.
I dunno, this is all far too petty and PC for my liking.

The term is just unnecessary - I never use it and don't feel my communication is at all impoverished by the fact.

Put it down to cultural differences I suppose. The only people I know who think 'knacker' is the same as the other two tend the be people who view the working class and travellers as one homogenous mass of criminality.

yeah i guess

http://www.scallycentral.com/images/competition2_Andy.jpg

It only becomes problematic when the word's coupled with the word 'scum' really. It's a shame there couldn't be a more value neutral term.

I remember in Liverpool for instance that 'scally' was almost an affectionate term.

I could identify a picture of a ned the same way I could a businessman or a Rastafarian. I don't think anyone said that they are criminals, though they do have a reputation for loutish behaviour - it's part of what makes them neds.
It's just a term to describe a certain group of people. What's the problem?

(when they're not out of their heads on Buckfast)

Dog Latin - you may or may not be aware that in Scotland, the executive has launched an 'anti-ned' drive. I don't think you can see them doing that with businessmen or rastas. Clearly, some people just use these terms as youth culture slang. But this thread, as others, has demonstrated how it's mixed up with all sorts of other stuff too.

Neds' offences not only against taste

Holyrood urged to protect 'neds'

Ned 'hurtful and disrespectful to young people'

and

Fucking great, the BNP assholes are in this area...

anyway.

Two city centre pubs have banned drinkers wearing certain brands of clothes in a crack down on alcohol-fuelled violence.

The Parody and Varsity, both in Leicester, have introduced strict clothing rules and banned brands including Stone Island, Aquascutum, Henri Lloyd and Burberry.

They have teamed up with police to compile a list of clothing they believe are worn by groups who regularly cause trouble in the city.

A spokesman for Barracuda, the company which owns Varsity and The Parody, said: "It is targeting a certain gang of young lads that have been causing concern in the area.

"People have been very understanding so far. It is quite common for different outlets to have different policies.

"There was already a no-trainers policy. This is just taking it a step further."

A police officer, from the city centre's violence and disorder team, said the policy was aimed at tackling a hard core of trouble-makers.

He said: "Well-known football hooligans have a particular dress code. These people are recognised as coming into the city centre day in, day out and causing trouble."