all you think about is what it means to you
MD2020 and Thunderbirds under the canal bridge with my friends. Naf Naf jackets and LA Gear trainers. Permed hair. Smoking like a chimney and throwing up in back gardens. A boyfriend 8 years older than me with a car. We used to sit in car parks. My first big club at 16 with fake id wearing the shortest skirt i could find and a scrunchie in my hair. Joggers from the market – fake adidas with poppers up the legs. Vodka and whiskey mixed with orange in a fanta bottle down the park under the climbing frame.
Fitting in.
I was told recently that i could never been a ‘chav’ because of my ‘upbringing’.
I’m not so sure.
Perceptions are often wrong….
How do you think you are perceived?
Everything you listed I have done. Apart from the perm. Haha.
I have no idea how I’m perceived. A girl at work recently told me that I intimidated her ‘but in a good way’. I don’t know what that means!
Well, in the UK, as an ex-pat from a particular country, I’m placed somewhere near chavs by the majority of people, to be honest. I can still remember my ex-boss’s not-so-well hidden surprise when I told her what my Dad was doing – so it makes you middle-class, she said. Well, kind of. Now back in my country people probably would tell me I’d never be an equivalent of chav, too, but then I’ve done most of those things, too, inlcuding the perm. Not to mention my lifestyle at the uni.
Its interesting how people like to immediately pigeon hole you into one class or the other in the UK, some people think being middle class is an insult, others vice versa.
This is a subject close to my heart as my real background (if i hadn’t been adopted) is very different from the one i was brought up within, i always wonder if i would have been different if i wasn’t adopted.
It’s quite interesting in some ways – I always thought it’s your upbringing that makes you who you are, but recently someone has recommended me an article claiming that your personality and intelligence are hereditary. It rather means your potential, than actual features of your character or IQ, so even being born in an uneducated family does not make you incapable of getting a degree, of course. Having that article in mind – I don’t think you’d be different, but your upbringing probably allowed more of your potential to develop. But again, it’s just a theory.
Over the years here I’ve learned that you always need to be pigeon holed, I just find quite difficult to cope with the fact that it’s mostly based on your annual income rather than other factors ;)
I think intelligence must be hereditary – personality less so, although my sister is a lot like her real parents whilst i am not.
Annual income does allow you to develop your potential further though, i agree with that!
That’s not enough Burberry to be a chav is it? ;)
Burberry and Aquascutum…. double chav ;)
I think we’ve all demonstrated similar chav-like characteristics at that point in our life, regardless of our upbringing – I know I certainly did! I have no idea how others perceive me – possibly posh because I actually try and pronounce entire words rather than drop letters off the end. That is probably due to my five years of elocution though. That being said, I probably would only sound posh to people within the Glasgow area – anyone else in Scotland, or anyone OUTSIDE of Scotland, would probably think I was quite common!
Posh Scottish means you have an English accent – you can’t be that bad can you ;)
Your comment on my blog was pretty accurate…!