chavs in fashion

The Fashion world also appears to have become much more interested or concerned with the Chav, with sportswear/trackies/hoodies – clothing once synonymous with chavs – coming back into fashion in a very big way in recent years. I think this is because often when something becomes notorious or infamous in our culture, fashion makes it “sexy”, negativity is turned into fascination.

Clothing by Courtney MC http://courtneymc.com/

Popularization of chavs

As well as mockery and negativity towards the working class, the chav has also been popularized. Television programmes like Shameless and The Royle Family have greatly popularized this class of people. Instead of being the usual stereotype of yobs and vandals, the characters are lovable and funny.

is this The Chav?

hoodies. trackies. delinquents. underprivileged. underclass. antisocial behaviour. drug abuse. teen pregnancies. alcoholism. vandalism. spongers. slobs. violence. feral. tacky. bling. worthless. benefit scroungers. doleys. breed for greed. sub-class. unemployed. welfare state. dysfunctional. caricature of the chav. degenerates. work shy. amoral. debauched. crime ridden. criminals. plebs. proletariat. broken homes. white trash. urchins. rude. dossers. yobs. louts. the unwashed masses. uncivilised. backwards. impertinent. oppressed. poverty. poorly educated.

Demonization of the Working Class

Owen Jones’ book “Chavs: The demonization of the working class” highlights many of these views on chavs. Jones notices how it has become completely acceptable to take the piss out of the working class – “It’s sad that Woolworths is closing. Where will all the chavs buy their Christmas presents?”. Some even call the lower working class as “Sub-class”. If the same remarks were made of a minority group or a sex it would be racism or sexism, so why is it okay to be so derogative of a huge portion of the population of the country??

Michael Mayren

Mancunian photographer Michael Mayren studies everyday people and places in his work. His work on the working class, and "chavs" is of particular interest to me, as he looks at things that we would normally overlook in our daily lives.

Mayren has also worked with artist Sarah Hardacre to create photographic collages using people and places:

http://www.michaelmayren.co.uk/

Views on chavs

Growing up in Nottingham, (an area that some people describe as “rough as fuck”!), I have always been surrounded by chavs, so much so that I rarely notice the difference, and I have very little opinion on them whether positive or negative. So when talking to other people, it’s interesting to hear their mixed, controversial and mostly very negative views on chavs.