Someone please tell me what a chav is?

Question

Some one please explain to me what a chav is. I watch a lot of english tv and hear the term all the time....what is it? whats it mean?I heard it means ghetto is that right? why are lady sovereign and lily allen a chavs?Can boys be chavs too?

Answer 1

no it dosent mean ghetto...we dont have ghettoes for a start lol! I can see where ur coming from, as they dress in sportswear and wear gold and fake gold etc but the term evolved because back in the 80s Britian had a lot of left wingers in power who made welfare easy to get, and the media also glorified the working classlifestyle, and even rich kids began talking like they were from council estates...it was seen as cool, and ppl on council estates were seen as victims of the economic system...it was true and many were, as a lot of perfectly good working class communities had been broken up by the closing of the mines and manufacturing industries...as employers got cheap labour from abroad...but this glorification went too far, and by the late 1990s you have a clear divide between rich(uncool) and poor (cool)/....the more of a victim you could say you were, the more sympathy you got, whle the rich were seen as oppressing and greedy.

By 2008, people got really tired of it, and the way that the culture of glorifyting the victim had made a new generation, (seperate from that of the 1970s who were affected by the getting of  labour from abroad) who were rude, crass, ignorant, violent, lived off benefits and were proud of their failure and who always wore sportwear and intimidated people on streets. We have seen a steady rise in violence among youths, with knife crime exploding this year in under 18s. Most ppl got really annoyed and felt these ppl were not trying to improve their situation and were indulged, while the tax payer paid for their lifestyles and babies that they had when they were 11,12,13,14 and 15....so they called them "chavs"...the word actually comes from tthe word "Charva" a northern word for anyone who hangs around making in nuiscance of themselves, acting hard when they are not, and likes to start fights and be very disrespectful to others. Id say that its now become a term applied to anyone who wears sportswear, which is unfair, as it should really only apply to those to disrespect others and think its cool to do so, while having appaling taste and always dressing like a slob and also being rather badly educated and often not knowing much about anything, appearing "thick"....ppl who use it as a form of class discimination make me sick, but those who go round starting fights, deserve to be called that.