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| Rampant |
I tell this anecdote because I was reminded of it by Boak & Bailey's post on Friday about the things that are never talked about in beer Blogger circles, one of them being the actual, authentic pub experiences of the working classes.
Now, me, I'm a member of the aforementioned proletariat. I have a relatively low paying job in retail and have never been to University. Somehow, I have acquired the ability to write coherently (which some would say disqualifies me from the working classes), but that's by-the-by.
Reading the majority of the beer blogs, it's quite obvious to me that their writers have had limited, or possibily none whatsoever, contact with ordinary working people. And I don't mean the " my dad's gardener was working class and we get on like a house on fire, actually" kind of contact. The Bloggerati have no idea what they enjoy or what their sense of humour is. Well, I will tell you - the working class sense of humour finds the above Gold Bunny tale hilarious
Witness Pumpclip Parade. The majority of the examples given are crude humour and cheap sexism. A middle class person will find a knob gag pumpclip unfunny. A middle class person will consider being in a place with such an item infra dig. A middle class person will even take a picture and send it to a website where their equally middle class peers will wholeheartedly agree that, yes, this is simply awful.
Meanwhile, the working class person, will laugh for a couple of seconds, order a pint, and not think about it again .
The problem as I see it is that the middle classes are encroaching on a hitherto almost exclusively working class domain. Ie. Beer and pubs. And they do not like what they see. So they try and usually succeed in making both beer and pubs more to their liking, be it modern interior design, rarified discussion and "tasteful" point of sale displays. This is called "gentrification" and is reckoned to be a good thing.
But where do the working class people go when this happens? Well, they've been pushed out of what was "their" space. So they either go somewhere else where they feel more comfortable, or they stay at home.
And the well-to-do like this. Out of sight, out of mind. No longer will they be offended and discomfited by crude humour and tacky surroundings.
But I ask the question - where do the working class go once everything they knew is gone? Where?
Spoons. HTH.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree. I don't know if it's because of my own working-class ancestry (I can hardly say 'background' - my parents were both upwardly mobile, and good for them), but I'm much more likely to feel uncomfortable in a pub because it's too middle-class than because it's too working-class. And there are pubs that are too middle-class for me - increasing numbers of them.
do you see many working class lads boozing? weed and cars seem to be their thing
ReplyDeleteThis is what I've referred to in the past as "making pubs safe for Guardian readers".
ReplyDeleteYou do see young working-class blokes in the pub when the footy's on, but apart from that it's a much rarer sighting than it once was.
Mind you, wasn't it here that an innocent comment about seeing a "no work boots" notice, in a Mild Magic post of mine, was countered with a farrago of nonsense about Tarquin FitzTightly venturing into an estate pub just in time for the meat raffle and thinking everyone was really awfully nice? Or maybe that wasn't in response to one of mine & I'm just being paranoid.
ReplyDeleteNo, that was taking the piss out of somebody else.
ReplyDeleteThe one of you was in News In Brief 10 ("Old Man Feels Uncomfortable In Craft Bar") .
This is a great piece of writing, best beer blog post I've read this week and at the moment I'm reading tons of them.
ReplyDeletePhil's comment above starts with "Spoons?"
Can't help but agree. Pubs have become increasingly divisive on class lines and in a given town Spoons might be one of the only places where middle and working class people still mix on equal terms and are equally catered for. I disagree with you when you say pubs and beer were a working class domain, by the way. They just didn't, on the whole, attempt to exclude the working class. That's different.
Agreed, Spoons are now about the last redoubt of the kind of pub where you'd see people of widely varying backgrounds rubbing shoulders.
ReplyDeleteThere's a pub called the Yucatan in north London where I used to watch the football. Some would describe it as rough but I never knew a more diverse pub: black, white, asian, hacidic Jew and even Arsenal and Spurs fans all drank together. Magic.
DeleteI don't bother commenting on Broke & Beigey's blog as we're not really welcome there so I'm glad someone else picked up on this passage:
ReplyDelete"There’s almost a Catch 22 here: learning the necessary skills to research and write, and gaining the time, space and, crucially, confidence to do so promptly invalidates your working class credentials."
I mean come the fuck on. Is it just me or is that fairly appalling?
Oh, fair enough- don't think I even spotted that.
ReplyDeleteGood post, and I have sympathy for much of what you say. If you came across my blog you'd possibly roll your eyes at some of the content, but as far as anyone can define class, I am (or certainly my background is) as working class as it gets. However that doesn't mean I have remained constant in my interests, politics or world-view, and nor do I drink in the same pubs I used to;now I go to where the beer is rather than the local.
ReplyDeleteAnd although I agree with Arthur about that excruciating quote above, the comment about time is valid. I have no idea how middle class B&B are, or how they define it, but time is certainly an issue for any working person when it comes to blogging or a myriad of other interests, although being working class didn't hamper my ability to write (I hope), I went to a decent school.
I think B&B are "middle class" in a very old fashioned, and I think outdated, sense (they went to university and consider themselves intellectuals). They'll no doubt not like being talked about in these terms but, well, they were the ones who decided to make crass statements about "class"...
DeleteI used to view class more rigidly but, put simply, if someone's being dickish, chances are they're a dick.
DeleteBack in the days of multiroom pubs, the classes drank in separate spaces. Happy days. Always a public bar man myself. The beer was cheaper.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I love Spoons is that they let the riff-raff in. Me included. Cranberry juice for Andrew, apple juice for Alexei, a pint of Pedigree and two double Bells for me.
Gender more than class I'd say.
DeleteComment from Boak & Bailey (who can't access my comments, so sent me this via PM):
ReplyDeleteTrying to comment on your blog but can't. Can you post this for me, please? 'I was writing about my own frustrating experience but was perhaps unnecessarily coy for various reasons.
I grew up skint, in a working class family, and only got the confidence to write after 'escaping' (that's the word everyone uses, not my choice) via university. At which point, my reflections on working class life are suddenly invalid because I didn't follow my dad into a career operating a lathe.' [Bailey]
The post was supposed to be a complaint about the middle class homogeneity of beer writing and a hint at a solution, but people who find us annoying I guess are always going to assume the worst.' "
@Ron - I don't think the division was that stark. It was very common for the working man to drink in the vault during the week with his mates, but to take his wife or fiancée into the lounge on a Saturday night, possibly with his best suit on, although that had largely died out by the 70s.
ReplyDeleteFair point that Mudgie. In Liverpool in the 1980s I used to drink in the vault normally but in the best room when with my lass. It was common to do so. Try North Yorkshire where I reckon a bit of that still goes on.
ReplyDeleteWe used to wander to and fro for a chat, but woe betide you if you bought a vault pint then sat in the best room.