Chav Stereotype

Or it’s going to get me stabbed later in the week. Good old Wikipedia:

Chav (also Chavette (female chav)) is a slang term in wide use throughout the United Kingdom since 2004.

It refers to a subcultural stereotype of people fixated on fashions such as flashy “bling” jewelery (Generally fake gold) , and genuine (rarely seen on chavs) or knock-off (more likely to be seen) designer clothing with the beige Burberry pattern (most famously the baseball cap which has since been discontinued by the company), and such brands as lonsdale, Berghaus, Burberry, Von Dutch, Louis Vuitton, Stone Island, Adidas, Nike, Lacoste and most well known Sergio Tacchini. Musically chavs also tend to have a different taste mainly involving Garage, dance music and an unusual type of music known as New Monkey.

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The essential credentials of being a chav is of someone conspicuously “common” as defined mostly by taste rather than actual social class. Elements of the stereotypical chav are someone who:

• wears particular clothing, such as:
  • Brand name athletic clothing and shoes. Stereotypically, this might include white trainers and tracksuits.
  • Designer clothing and accessories, in particular the distinctive tartan of Burberry
  • “Bling”: that is, gold jewellery — in particular conspicuous earrings and trinkets on chains for women, and gold sovereign rings for men.
  • Sports caps and hoodies. Often both are worn, the hood pulled up over the baseball cap with the peak as vertical as possible.
  • Sports or jogging trousers, often tucked into sports socks, usually white. These are also referred to as “tracky Bs”, “trackies” or “tracky bottoms”.
• if female, wears thickly applied make-up, makes heavy use of fake tan, large hoop-earrings and has a hairstyle in which the hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail (called a “Croydon facelift” or “council-house facelift”).
• owns a tastelessly modified car, usually with a basic original specification, but decorated in a gaudy style. The Vauxhall Corsa is one of the many small hatchbacks associated with this group.
• aspires to the latest mobile phone and other mobile gadgetry. Typically these include the Motorola RAZR series phone and iPod Shuffle music player.

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Commercial impact

The Burberry clothing brand, which quickly became synonymous with the “chav” subculture, ceased production of its branded baseball cap in 2004, in an attempt to distance itself from the stereotype. They also scaled back the use of their patented chequered/tartan design to such an extent that it now only appears on the inner linings and other very low key positions of their clothing. Burberry-clad youths have recently been prevented from entering certain football games and shopping centres due to the association between the brand and hooliganism.

The company has argued that all chavs are associated with counterfeit versions of the clothing: “They’re yesterday’s news”, stated Stacey Cartwright, the CEO of Burberry. “It was mostly counterfeit, and Britain accounts for less than 10% of our sales anyway.”

Additionally, the fall in the sale of thongs has been attributed partially to their association with female “chavs”

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Read it for yourself if you don’t believe me (Though do expect it to change): Chav on Wikipedia.

I do apologise to anyone that doesn’t understand, but I found it hilarious. Guess it might be something you have to be in the Uk to understand.