No... that culture of violence was very very real. The stories may sound ridiculous, but that's just because of how extreme that culture was.
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2025
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Dirty tricks, MI6!
I'm not saying that violent people don't exist. I was saying Chavs don't exist. Chav is a very derogatory synonym for a working class person and the middle and upper class people made Chavs up to paint the entire working class as violent and animalistic. The media made it sound like these mythical "Chavs" were everywhere and swarmed on people like hungry piranhas. I'd expect that to show up in violence statistics.
Much to the contrary, the rate of violence was sharply dropping around the same time "Chavs" were invented by the media. Doesn't that seem a little weird to you?
Chav is not a term to describe a working class person - it's a term to describe a subset of youths who are pretty much feral.
By feral I mean aggressive and "antisocial" in the "are you looking at me pal" kind of response to eye contact. In essence, a youth whose primary strategy is to escalate to conflict by the shortest possible route in the hopes of winning status.
What that has to do with coming from an honest working family is beyond me!
Hey, ignorant Yank here, and I'd like some clarification. Is chav the bri'ish version of redneck?
I'm not from the USA so I don't really have a clear idea on what a redneck is.
However, going from media representations (dodgy ground) I'd say no. There isn't the strong streak of racism, and the demographic is uniquely young for chavs (since most grow out of it).
Fair enough. The racism isn't a necessary component to being a redneck but it is fairly prevalent. Rednecks don't outgrow it typically either. Thanks for the straight reply.
i don't know much about usa subcultures either but it might be somewhat similar to guidos? i'm not sure how well they are known for antisocial behaviour. the closest international comparison i can think of is russian gopniks
No Not even close
it’s a term to describe a subset of youths who are pretty much feral.
In my experience, Chav has never been used to describe a normal working class person. In Northern Ireland, we had our own variant "Spide" or "Smick" which were generally more tame. Less burberry more tracksuits
Reply to edited chart - violence against adult was not as common. Violence against other kids however...
Also, 1995--2002 was peak chav ;)
What is it with a bunch of bad takes being posted on this community recently
How is this a bad take?
Because chavs existed. I saw them. My siblings saw them. There are various news reports. Not all working class people are chavs.
Chav is a derogatory synonym for working class people, though. It was made up to demonize the working class. News reports can be made up or fueled by hysteria.
source?
Aren't chavs the tracksuit wearing shitheads, like the thugs working for Eggsy's stepdad in the first Kingsman?
Most young working class people wear tracksuits. The "Chav" appearance is literally just your regular working class person, except they're normal people, not savages.
What is your obsession with 'chavs'?
Grew up in the era there were definitely chavs it wasn't a class thing either as a lot of them tended to be role-playing middle class kids who wanted to look hard as usual.
Walking through local shops and being challenged about which part of town you lived in or getting called a "greebo" all a day in the life of the era.
there is a grain of truth in this. chav culture certainly existed and still exists in the south of england but they came in around 2000-2010 or so for much greater demonisation than their northern (scally) or scottish (ned) counterparts, likely due to UK media being concentrated in the south
the great chav danger was blown wildly out of proportion and i've no doubt the term expanded beyond the original sense of a sort of tracksuit/burberry clad antisocial petty criminal youth to include just about any working class kid in the minds of home counties handbag clutchers
so to say they never existed is false, and to say they never caused anyone any bother is false. but the middle class media confected version of them never existed in any great proportion either
We called them "charvers" or "a charva" up north as long as i can remember in school , certainly well back into the mid 1990s. I'd not say it was a middle class term at all though, more sub-cultural within lower classes. Probably the more vocal alt-types used it as an insult/provocation to the more obnoxious trev/sharon types. There's a lot of subcultures and just different people within the lower classes especially at school. Middle class kids at school would keep their heads down and keep out of it for the most part. Upper class kids didn't exist - i assume they were away off in posh schools suffering whatever abuse leads to people like michael gove..
I'd agree that charvers were a small, but obnoxiously vocal, minority of the lower classes. Much worse at school though with kids being kids and all. But its also something people could grow out of in a few years, or just after a bit of cold turkey, more behavioural/immaturity than class.
You could probably also trace it back to things like football hooliganism - a fairly easily avoided minority - but not imaginary. Maybe the press latched on to it after most of the football firms were locked up and they needed to fill some column inches.
good points, the inter class rivalry in particular. i think it's a reasonable guess that the term lost its more specific original sense when it escaped containment and got into the mouths of littlejohn et al but just saying middle class was reductive. sun/mirror hacks would have been in on the action too
i read about chav being derived from charva but never heard it said personally - i'm from the south though
re hooligans there's definite similarities but chavs lack the same kind of rallying point so were more dispersed. maybe some chavs got promoted to casuals
Of course they exist, ya dummie! I'm working class and they definitely exist.
You mean other working-class people exist. Look up how much of the UK is working class.
I've always seen chavs as the tracksuit wearing, loads of kids, living off smokes, scratch cards and pot Noddles that sit around soaking up benefits. I know that nay not be the proper definition of chav but I'm not sure what else to call them
You just described the average working class teen. What the media calls "Chavs" look like ordinary working class people except with a demonic twist that doesn't exist.
The commenter said 'soaking up benefits', I don't think the working class people would be looking like 'chavs' because many of them are going to and from work in uniform. Plus, you're essentially equating all working class people with chavs? So walking into a Tescos, every member of staff is a chav?
Is this déjà-downvote I feel?
Not snobish at all. And even i was scared walking threw fratton Portsmouth
Roadmans are currently being made up. Kids wearing balaclavas wearing bomber jackets talking with a heavy London grime artist accent dont exist.
I see them
Back when roadman was just starting to become a term I had a friend who started calling himself one, he didn't like it when I told him it was just another version of a chav
Aren't Roadmen a Black sub culture while "Chavs" are a myth that was always portrayed as being white and working class?
Nessie obviously be a 'ned' not a 'charva'.
While I disagree with identifying the working class with 'chav', the origin of the word did start very much in classism and stereotyping (hence my deep disagreement with the term). A pretty good analysis in this article: https://eathealthy365.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-chav-in-british-culture/