What does 'effortlessly middle class' mean?

They don't do class in USA, in fact nobody but us brooms stuck up our backsides Brits insist in trying to keep the outdated and hilariously snobbish idea alive! In USA you're either rich....or not!

widgeon3

My Australian son -in law defines himself as middle class. I wondered why as he defies my definitions

He wanders about like Andy Cap with a roll-up drooping from his mouth.... a baseball cap constantly adorns his head, indoors or out. He is a chancer, too

His voice is soft and low and I have never heard him swear. He calls the sitting room the 'lounge-room'.

That's how he is

Feel for ya!

It's totally meaningless one may as well describe someone as" stringently walking out in their onesie class" ?! See? Meaningless! Don't pay notice to buffoons living in a fifties b&w Ealing film!

My Australian son -in law defines himself as middle class. I wondered why as he defies my definitions

He wanders about like Andy Cap with a roll-up drooping from his mouth.... a baseball cap constantly adorns his head, indoors or out. He is a chancer, too

His voice is soft and low and I have never heard him swear. He calls the sitting room the 'lounge-room'.

That's how he is

How is middle class defined in the USA, please?

Obviously means different things to different people as shown by the various GN comments above. Being middle class in the USA is not the same as in the UK. And what about 'effortlessly lower middle class'? The original sentence does imply some people work at being or appearing middle class whereas others are or appear middle class without any effort and that suggests there are advantages to being or appearing middle class which is likely true but not in every case.

“Effortlessly upper class” now that’s a compliment!

Sago

My dear friend begins nearly every conversation with “ being brought up in a working class family”.
I have never understood why she needs to do this.

Could it possibly be because there is so much inverted-snobbery sneering at the middle classes, and being working class - or being perceived as such - means you are seen as ‘worthier’ and thus a nicer and more ‘real’ person?

It’s not been unknown for sundry well known figures to claim WC roots, when in fact they were no such thing.

It's an insult - said by someone who is derisive about the social class system and who is speaking about another who values it and has internalised the supposed behaviour of the middle classes - just like Hyacinth Bucket.

When first born I slept in a washing basket later graduating to a drawer, then a small cot which I had til I was 5 ( would have had it even longer had baby sibling not needed it). Toilet down the garden, Spiders galore, no bathroom, just a cold tap in scullery, tin bath on the wall....and not a silver spoon to be seen. Definitely working class.

Class has nothing to do with anything really, only in the minds of people who think it does.

It wouldn’t be my description of Monty Don, class has nothing to do with it, he just seems like a lovely person

Well, my parents were snobbish enough to call themselves middle-class, but as they told me my birth was somewhat chaotic with the midwife pronouncing me stillborn until I started to yell, I can't call myself "effortlessly middle-class", can I?

I apparently had to make a heck of a din before being admitted to the society of the living of any class!

The conversation about the "drawing room" is quite funny and a bit of inverted snobbery. We used to live in Bath (where everybody is pretty middle class) and anyone who didn't call their living room the drawing room was considered pretty awful. But I suppose that if you live in a Georgian house it has always been called the drawing room?
We used to deliberately annoy a friend by calling dinner "tea", he even thought that "supper" was barely socially unacceptable. I suspect that his mother had married someone from what was perceived to be a higher social class than herself and was very particular that he should maintain his language superiority!

Err - Dunno. It is one of those 'If you need to ask' you clearly aren't things?

I suppose it all depends on what you think about "middle class"? Personally I know that I was technically born middle class but don't see it as a virtue, just something you are. And I think the current three class system is out-dated, there are newer classifications of where you fit in the world.
I've always tried to avoid being put in a pidgeonhole and find people with middle class pretentions a bit of a pain.

My 'requisites' are all in order thank you Katek. Can't risk 'soiling the doilies' after all.
(I do love that poem)

I think class is a state of mind. Education, to me, is the measure and also the tool . My great grandparents were illiterate but their son gained an education and was an optician and his son was a doctor. It makes me sad and angry that so many waste the gift of education. Money and power doesn’t always define class. Premiership footballers and reality stars don’t spell out a better class- just more money. House of Lords incumbents are not always examples of a higher class type of person. I can think of one, mentioned on here, that I wouldn’t allow in my garden - let alone the House of Lords .

That’s a great response sluttygran?

I am with you PaddyAnn 54

Hope you have all your ‘requisites’ in order Aveline- shops will be closed for New Year!

Having just read most of a long MN thread on what constitutes ‘poshness’ I would say (tongue in amused cheek) that it’s someone who calls the thing you put the car in, the ‘garaaazh’ rather than the ‘garridge’, without having to be told.

(It really is high time I went and did something useful instead of still sitting here in my dressing gown at 11 minutes past 11.)

Who gives a flying feather whether other people think you're middle class?!!! I don't! I'd have thought being on Gransnet was almost diagnostic of being MC!

LauraNorderr - I was taught that the "lounge" lived in an hotel or airport building!

Does it really matter? we are all part of a wonderfully mixed humanity. The Dalai Lama treats everyone the same with kindness