 |
Journal | Friends | Calendar | User Info | Memories |
'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
Bless…
I know that the last blog entry was rather vague and somewhat of a cliffhanger about how it went. Truth is, at the time, I didn’t know. Also, if Screenselect can keep me bloody waiting for the last two discs of 24 season 3, I can keep you all waiting in the soap opera that is my life!
“Mom, Dad – I need to tell you something. I’m not going to Paris with my friend Rob, I’m going with my boyfriend Rob.”
I have to say I was stunned by how well my parents took it. My mom didn’t cry; my dad didn’t hit the roof. In fact, they have been so good, I feel a bit shitty for doubting them all these years.
They’re really trying hard, you know? Dad was more pissed off that other people knew before him (particularly relatives and friends’ parents), but for once, he didn’t raise his voice. Mom meanwhile: “I already knew, but it’s hard to hear.” So far, they’ve refused to call Rob either Rob or my boyfriend, and instead use ‘your friend’, but it’ll be easier in time for them, I’m sure.
I love my mum and dad…
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
happy.Current music: I'm Afraid Of Americans by David Bowie.
Good grief!
I was in a pub recently in Stockport, and their final song of the night had the following chorus:
“Bugger off, you bastards, bugger off
“Bugger off, you bastards, bugger off.”
All the patrons (including the people I was with) danced around like loons shouting the words very loudly. I was sober. As my friends bounced around (some call it dancing), I descended into overanalysis: when I worked in a pub, that is EXACTLY what I wanted the customers to do at 11pm. The song is supposed to be ‘funny’, but it is actually the true desire of the staff. And when you think about it, the amount of money that the customers have spent on that evening (which pays the staff’s wages), they really should be more polite! How rude!
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
irritated.Current music: Not that song, certainly.
It’s quite the phenomenon…
The term ‘chav’ is frequently used by people such as myself: slightly snobby, middle class twenty-somethings. The term is already in dictionaries online such as the pseudodictionary, The Urban Dictionary, and even WorldWide Words (and they’re just the first three entries on google). Thankfully, the Oxford English Dictionary (and also the best dictionary on the net, Dictionary.com) doesn’t have an entry yet, but realistically, the word is so frequently used (certainly more than ‘Trekkie’ which has an entry in the OED) that it’s bound to make an appearance in the next edition.
It doesn’t stop there though, there was the inevitable string of ‘amusing’ email forwards (including Excel Spreadsheets to test your level of Chavness, Chavopoly, and Chav Top Trumps). More recently, it has become even more mainstream with a satirical book selling by the bucketload.
There’s even a ’How Chav are you?’ Internet Quiz (apparently, I am 28% Chav).
Arguably it was simply a small time Southern word to describe someone who has little education and dresses in a certain way. All around the UK, there were other dialectic and regional words to describe the aforementioned people with varying levels of vehemence. Then came the website Chav Scum. A few emails around to bored office worker mates obviously snowballed and meant that every slightly snobbish person that may or may not have come to blows with a ‘chav’ saw the website and laughed. I did too. Particularly, when using their Chav Name Generator, I discovered that I should call my Chav kids Sapphire Dawn and Elvis Storm Adams.
Some cheeky chappie has even amusingly made it that when you search for ‘chav’ on the Argos website, you get big thick gold jewellery.
Thing is, I got thinking (overanalysing?). Is using the word chav and generalising people into the wide category simply just stereotyping and a form of prejudice and discrimination? It has all the hallmarks of all of those things, but because they’re white, able-bodied, lack religious faith, and are straight, it seems okay to treat them with prejudice and contempt. Is it really different to the assumption that all black people are criminals and all gay males are effeminate? Is wearing a track suit and ugly jewellery really enough for people to assume that a person is a benefit cheat, an iterate, and worthless human beings who it’s fair game to mock? Even if we are to believe that it is all light-hearted and just for fun, is ridiculing these people going to do anything other than please the elitist?
Perhaps I’m getting on my PC soapbox (again), but I personally think that there are better things to do in life than bother to pigeonhole and mock people that you’re never likely to associate with just because you’re bored and they’re an easy target.
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
thoughtful.Current music: The Model by Kraftwerk.