Perma-baffled by folks who did paid-for private school, have 2 working professional parents, & say they've never shat themselves over bills, but also say they're working class. Cos I feel middle class now? Even tho I grew up in a 1-parent low income working class family? It's so friggin weird...
I think there might be a few people who confuse "working class" with "I have to work for a living". You can see where the confusion might come from, but... (or alternatively they're just co-opting it so they don't have to confront their own privilege)
Like I can't say I feel like I fit into middle class spaces, & I probably never will. It's a whole different unspoken language there that feels alien to me. But I've gone from unsafe, abusive, insecure place to one where I'm very safe & don't have to panic every night about money. I got a PhD, FFS.
It just confuses the shit out of me, when people who seem extremely middle class in all ways & are comfortable with those social norms say they're working class. Could just be my absolute total lack of social skills tho, which is my brain being like that & not a class thing. It just feels weiiird.
I so get this. I was born to a blue collar working socialist trade union father and a Conservative mother. Lived in a middle class area in the country, which I hated and never felt I fit in. Until I moved to a city where i could finally be myself. Still feel working class though.
I would rather chat to my local grocer than a yummy mummy who 'lunches'.
I can only assume that it's about that feeling of not fitting in. And some people never lose the trauma of early poverty
Also baffled by it tbh. In so many ways I clearly grew up working class and I still waver about how to identify now because it feels dishonest to say I’m still working class even if it impacts me in lots of ways.