“Chav Mum Chav Scum”

Abstract

In the last three years a new vocabulary of social class has emerged in Britain. The word "chav," alongside its various synonyms and regional variations, has become a ubiquitous term of abuse for the white poor. This article explores the emergence of the grotesque and comic figure of the chav within a range of contemporary British media focusing on the role played by disgust reactions in the generation and circulation of the chav figure through popular media. Concentrating on the figure of the female chav, and the vilification of young white working-class mothers, this article argues that the "chav mum" is produced through disgust reactions as an intensely affective figure that embodies historically familiar and contemporary anxieties about female sexuality, reproduction, fertility, and "racial mixing."The reason Vicky Pollard caught the public imagination is that she embodies with such fearful accuracy of several of the great scourges of contemporary Britain: aggressive allfemale gangs of embittered, hormonal, drunken teenagers; gym slip mums who choose to get pregnant as a career option; pasty-faced, lard-gutted slappers who'll drop their knickers in the blink of an eye . . . these people do exist and are every bit as ripe and just a target for social satire as were, say, the raddled working-class drunks sent up by Hogarth in Gin Lane. (James Delingpole 2006, p. 25) Disgust and contempt motivate and sustain the low ranking of things, people, and actions deemed disgusting and contemptible. (William Miller 1997, p. xiv)

‘They'd only call you a scally if you are poor’: the impact of socio-economic status on children's identities

“…'Chav' is a term that has entered everyday language in the UK during the last five years, and is most frequently used to refer in a derogatory way to the white working poor (Tyler 2008). It has, according to Hayward and Yar (2006, p. 16) been 'connected with communities who have experienced social deprivation in one form or another' and it has most recently been abusively applied to young teenage mothers, unemployed youths and those living in social housing.…”

The ‘civilising’ effect of a ‘balanced’ night-time economy for ‘better people’: class and the cosmopolitan limit in the consumption and regulation of alcohol in Bournemouth

“…This is precisely how Bourdieu understood class, and it is revealing that the limit to the cosmopolitanism of the 'difference' in The Chalk and Cheese is indicated by the term 'chav', with its class connotations (Hayward & Yar, 2006;Tyler, 2008).…”

(Re)Examining the Feminist Interview: Rapport, Gender “Matching,” and Emotional Labour

“…This period of professionalising, creating, and dividing disciplines and specialisms was also a period of more fully delineating class boundaries. Emotions and the work done on them are an important part of class identity, as Lawler, for example, argues (Lawler, 2005; see also Tyler, 2008). The middle-class home is also argued to be the basis of teaching children emotional control as part of civilising them for wider society (particularly the role of women); learning to be polite, controlled, and law-abiding (Gunn, 2005: pp.…”