For people who aren’t in the know, “chav” is this mythical, evil subculture the upper class journalists made up specifically to demonize and mock the poor. It’s a gross caricature of working class people. It never was a subculture. These people are terrified of seeing men in tracksuits because the chav is depicted as dressing in one. I’ve seen Reddit posts where people will claim they crossed the street after seeing men in tracksuits because they “don’t want to be beat to death by chavs”.
Basically, these people are seeing normal working class fashion trends and thinking it’s what amounts to a drop bear.
Not saying that there aren’t bad people who dress in that extremely popular/default fashion style (streetwear), there are, just like how you get bad people in any other clothes style, but the subculture they’re so scared of doesn’t even exist. I find it kind of hilarious, like a grown adult being scared of a boogeyman hiding in their closet.
I haven’t even heard the word chav in at least 20 years.
Really? OP posts about them at least once a week.
In Germany in the 50s we had the word “Halbstarker” (literal translation “semi-strong guy”) for young men who were perceived as scary by their grown up peers, much nicer than “chav”. Let’s bring that back instead.
I don’t doubt that words and subcultures have drifted over the last 30 years, but I find it quite offensive that you consistently identify “chavs” and “the working class” as the same thing.
