Interesting Links for 09-02-2015

[andrewducker]

• Women who lead Muslim countries
  (tags: muslims women )
• Trying to explain how the British deal with Class
  (tags: class uk society )
• I just rather enjoyed "Ensign Sue must die!", "Wrath of Sue", and "Crisis on Infinite Sues"
  (tags: comics fanfic StarTrek funny satire drwho )
• You should be nice to your panic attacks
  (tags: panic anxiety )
• Nine truths

Comments

[momentsmusicaux]

Huh. I have no idea how to distinguish between lower middle class and middle middle class, say.

[andrewducker]

Lower middle class are generally people who recently entered the middle classes, and aren't very secure in it (either financially or culturally) - they still have "tells" that they are of working-class origins, close family members who are working class, and don't act as if being middle class is natural to them.

Middle middle class know that they are middle class, because that's the way the universe has always been, and always will be. In fact, they're probably not aware, most of the time, that there are other ways to be :->

(Off the top of my head. I'm sure others would feel differently.)

[momentsmusicaux]

I suspect that growing up half French, AND in a city where you were posh if you owned more than a dozen books, my perception of this is all a bit wonky.

[heyokish]

regional differences can complicate things, but not _that_ much. Pesky Frenchness, however, is an entirely different story.

Quick and pretty much perfect test for spotting an Englisher's class without hearing them speak out loud or seeing what they are wearing:

What do you call the piece of furniture that more than one person can sit on at a time?
What is the name of the room it's in?
What is the meal in the middle of the day?
What's for tea?
What do you call the room where you go for a wee?
What do you say when you miss what someone has said during a conversation?

[momentsmusicaux]

Oh and I forgot: my non-foreign parent being from a completely different part of the country from where I grew up.

So I was lunch in an ocean of dinner, and dinner at 7pm when everyone else had tea at half 5.

[cmcmck]

Settee
Parlour
What meal in the middle of the day?
Shepherd's pie tonight
Loo, lavvy or bog depending on mood
Come again?

Okay, so it's a cheat. I'm of working class origin but bucked for promotion to the middle class via an education and a career

You can take the girl out of the council prefab but........ :o)

[heyokish]

Going to take a guess on your origins then (if you don't mind) and say north rather than south, proud and secure working class--with family roots probably in something traditional-industrial like mining or ship building--because of the parlour. And your sticking to original terminology without the anxiety-driven label changes.

[cmcmck]

Southern but with northern and midlands roots in the mining trade, so you're right there! My grandfathers came to Kent to work the newly opened coalpits after the '26 strike. They were union men and Communists and got blackballed by the bosses up north. :o)

I'm proud of my roots and even now I'm not sure where to find a forelock!

[heyokish]

Nice!

Thank you for not being offended about my guessing. I find class and class markers endlessly fascinating, partly, I think, because of the massively tangled mix-up I grew up with.

p.s. I think forelocks are strictly rural.

[cmcmck]

Not offended at all as it also fascinates me.

I also have the admixture of Scottish, Welsh, Italian, Breton, Latvian Jewish and Romani and those are the ones I know about! :o)

[naath]

Couch (too much US TV)
Downstairs (because open-plan living that's why)
Dinner if it's dinner and lunch if it's lunch... (dinner is a substantial meal, lunch is lighter)
Earl Grey.
Toilet (except at home where it is the bathroom, because it is also the room with the bath in it)
'eh?' (I'm just rude)

I think my parents are lower-middle with Mrs Bucket-esque (mostly successful) aspersions to middle-middle-ness. I went to Cambridge, hung out with people ranging from educated-working up to lower-upper (don't think I've ever actually met any royalty) and got all my words for everything mixed up.

[heyokish]

I think the speed of word-drift is faster now (such as the influence of american telly, and more open access to people outside one's original core group), but some of the terms just _stick_ as signals.

It's so weird. Interesting weird.

If you want to double check on your parents Bucketry: would their final answer be "pardon?" And is there a preference for shop-bought cake over home-made if someone is coming for tea?

[naath]

I... am not sure what my parents say for "eh", and we never had people for tea that I can remember.

[momentsmusicaux]

I happen to be having a conversation right now about how to eat artichoke... that's probably a marker right there.

[momentsmusicaux]

Ok so here is my mishmash:

sofa
living room
lunch
I don't drink tea
loo
sorry?

[heyokish]

See, I know you (so I get to add in info like: use of "how do you do", delight about charity shop bargains, and piano playing) but just on that list I'd say a dose of middle-middle family (that's the living room) with upper-middle tendencies (the sorry and the loo).