Chav

Chav, Chava or Charva or Charver is a derogatory term applied to certain young people in the United Kingdom. The stereotypical image of a chav is a white aggressive teen or young adult, of working class background, who wears branded sports and casual clothing, who often fights and engages in petty criminality, and is often assumed to be unemployed or in a low paid job. The term may originate from the Romani language. . In its English form, the term is generally derogative, and has appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005.

Caricature of a chav

The term chav has many regional alternatives; its North East England variant charva or charv, used in Tyne and Wear. Charver was a common word of wide but not all-embracing popularity in Newcastle throughout the latter half of the 19th century, synonymous with lad or kid, and derivative of chawvo, a Romany expression meaning "a young person, a friend". During the 1990s, charver underwent a semantic disfigurement, and massive growth in usage within speakers of Geordie and some related dialects. Its shift in meaning was towards that of an insult; at this point charver and chav became synonyms, although the latter was yet to enter common parlance. It is likely that the term chav is a recent derivative of charver, but also possible that the two words are entirely etymologically distinct. Other equivalents to chav include scally, prevalent in north-west England (particularly Liverpool) and townie, a word now seemingly enveloped by chav. Similar words in use outside England include ned or scunner in Scotland, spide or skanger in Ireland, and spide, milly (from Mill-girl) and steek in Northern Ireland.

Response to the term has ranged from amusement to criticism that it is a new manifestation of classism. One BBC TV documentary suggested that chav is an evolution of previous working-class youth subcultures associated with particular commercial clothing styles, such as mods, skinheads and casuals. However, chav is not a straight synonym for "working class person"; it refers to a specific mode of behaviour, dress and speech that is far from universal amongst the British working class.). The term has been associated with juvenile delinquency, the ASBO Generation and yob culture.

Popularisation in the media

From its origins as a slang term, use of the word spread so rapidly that by 2004 it had become a hugely popular word in national newspapers and common parlance in the UK. Susie Dent's Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report, published by the Oxford University Press, designated it as the "word of the year" in 2004. A survey in 2005 found that in December 2004 alone 114 British newspaper articles used the word. The popularity of the word has led to the creation of sites devoted to cataloguing and mocking the "chav" lifestyle.

The "chav culture" has been portrayed extensively in British media:

• The Welsh rap group, Goldie Lookin' Chain, have been described as both embodying and satirising the chav aesthetic, though the group themselves deny any such agenda, simply making a mockery of the subject. The British car tuning magazine Max Power once had a beige Mk3 Vauxhall Cavalier stickered to make it look like the Burberry check, named it the "Chavalier" and gave it to the band.

• Footballer Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen, rapper Lady Sovereign, glamour model Jordan, actress Danniella Westbrook, former Big Brother contestant Jade Goody and Kerry Katona have also been labelled "chavs" by British tabloids.

• The character Lauren Cooper and her friends Lisa and Ryan from the BBC's comedy series The Catherine Tate Show exhibit clear chav style clothing, behaviour, mannerisms and musical interests, along with surly attitudes. Fellow sketch comedy series Little Britain features a character with some similarities, Vicky Pollard.

• In the 2005 reality TV programme Bad Lads Army: Officer Class, a number of small time thieves and street brawlers underwent 1950s style National Service Army training to see which of them would be worthy of becoming a British Army officer. The motto of the show was to convert "chavs" into "chaps".

Criticism of the stereotype

The widespread use of the chav stereotype has come under criticism; some argue that it amounts simply to snobbery and elitism, and that serious social problems such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, teenage pregnancy, delinquency and alcoholism in low-income areas should not be scoffed at. Critics of the term have argued that its proponents are “neo-snobs,” and that its increasing popularity raises questions about how British society deals with social mobility and class. In a February 2005 article in The Times, Julie Burchill argued that use of the word is a form of “social racism,” and that such “sneering” reveals more about the shortcomings of the “chav-haters” than those of their supposed victims. The writer John Harris argued along similar lines in a 2007 article in The Guardian.

Commercial effect

• Burberry is a clothing company whose products were initially associated with the chav stereotype. Burberry's appeal to chav fashion sense is a sociological example of prole drift, where an up-market product begins to be consumed en masse by a lower socio-economic group. Burberry has argued that the brand's popular association with chav fashion sense is linked to 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." The company has taken a number of steps to distance itself from the stereotype. It ceased production of its own branded baseball cap in 2004 and has scaled back the use of its trademarked checkered/tartan design to such an extent that it now only appears on the inner linings and other very low-key positions of their clothing. It has also taken legal action against high-profile infringements of the brand. In August 2006, a company introducing tuk-tuk vehicles into the south coast town of Brighton, England named one the "Chavrolet" which had it painted in the distinctive Burberry tartan. However, the company soon had to withdraw this vehicle when Burberry threatened proceedings for breach of copyright.

• The large supermarket chain Asda has attempted to trademark the word "chav" for a new line of confectionery. A spokeswoman said: “With slogans from characters in shows such as Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show providing us with more and more contemporary slang, our Whatever sweets — now nicknamed chav hearts — have become very popular with kids and grown-ups alike. We thought we needed to give them some respect and have decided to trademark our sweets.”

• Many traits usually associated with stereotypical homosexuality or metrosexuality are mirrored by chav fashion, with brand name clothing taking dominance.

See also

• Deviancy
• Folk devil
• Lad culture
• Lumpenproletariat
• Moral panic
• Prole drift

• Scally
• Social class
• Stereotype
• Subculture
• Underclass
• White trash
• Wigger

Further reading

• Keith Hayward and Majid Yar (2006). "The "chav" phenomenon: Consumption, media and the construction of a new underclass". Crime, Media, Culture. 2 (1): 9–28. doi:10.1177/1741659006061708.

Articles

• Larcombe, Duncan (2006-04-10). "Future bling of England". The Sun Online. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Ward, David (2004-10-09). "Get hip to Chav as this year's wizard word". The Guardian. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
• Jackson, Melissa (2005-01-10). "Music to deter yobs by". BBC News Magazine. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
• "End Of 'Hooligan' Cap". Sky News. 2004-09-10. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
• Lewis, Jemima (2004-02-01). "In defence of snobbery". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
• Harris, John (2007-03-06). "So now we've finally got our very own 'white trash'". The Guardian. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-03-06.