Moves to ban term "chav"
19 07 08 - 06:44 It might be hard to say this without sounding priggish or being accused of being rather more politically correct than is healthy, but here goes … We have to stop using the word "chav".Would we get away with saying "faggot" on the BBC? No – there are very few circumstances where that would be acceptable. Would the Guardian print the word "pikey"? Well they have done five times this year (three times were earnest discussions about the word's racism, and the other two were, well, a bit racist). Can you use the word "gay" as a general derogative (as in "those trainers are really gay") on Radio 1? Well yes, it turns out that you can, according to the BBC Trust. Could we use the n-word in the Fabian Review? Well probably not, especially when making the point that there is rightly a hierarchy of offensiveness. Some uses of some words fall below the threshold of acceptability and some are definitely above it.
"Chav" is way above that threshold. It is deeply offensive to a largely voiceless group and – especially when used in normal middle-class conversation or on national TV – it betrays a deep and revealing level of class hatred.
The phenomenon of the word has grown over the last five years. Initially it was purely a term of abuse. (You only have to visit the website chavscum.com to see this – have a look at it and be appalled). But more recently it has become rather more insidious than that because it is so much more widely used. We have heard it increasingly used in conversation over the last year, invariably to casually describe people "not like us" and very often used by people who are otherwise rather progressive in their politics.
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CHAV = Council House Adult Vermin. There are further qualifications. They wear shell suits and Burbery. They idolise Posh and Becks. They like the latest pop music, but have no preference for metal or classical music unless it is in a tv ad or the theme for a football tournament. Banning the term is not so much class war, as it is preventing discrimination against the white negro. Usually chavs are also NEETs - which is a term a government department thought up and could be thought just as offensive. NEET = Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training.
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