On Being a Snob

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The last few days have been rather busy. I ‘hit the ground running’ at work – I was ill the week before half term and so I have been attempting to catch up on a monumental amount of individual tasks that need completing by the end of the week.

I’ve also tried to read through all the comments I have received on my blog recently. I normally do my best to reply to every single one, but the sheer volume of them has made it virtually impossible.

It has proven to be an interesting read. Some have agreed, others haven’t. One was so furious that he decided to write his own post in response, which I actually enjoyed and gave me an opportunity to discuss the topic with him in a more detailed manner. In general, most of the feedback that I gained has been useful, respectful and I have appreciated the points that everyone had to offer.

There was one, however, that immediately irritated me. Instead of offering her opinion about the subject, which she is perfectly entitled to do, she began her comment by saying:

‘Being a wee bit snobbish, are we?‘

Ouch.

There are several meanings of the term ‘snob.’

1: A person who imitates, cultivates or slavishly admires social superiors and is condescending or overbearing to others.
2: A person who believes himself or herself an expert in a given field and is condescending toward or disdainful of those who hold other opinions or have different tastes regarding this field: a musical snob.
Source: Dictionary.com

However, where I come from, this means that one person looks down on another, for any number of reasons. I sat back and thought it over. The commentator clearly hadn’t read my post properly, as there was no point where I had proclaimed that one profession was more worthy than another, or indeed that I thought myself better than anyone else. It reminded me of the wonderful sketch featuring Bristish comedy legends John Cleese, Ronnie Corbett and the late Ronnie Barker.

I’ve never been referred to as being ‘snobbish’ before. I come from an ordinary  background in the north of England, and as an adult I live within my means. I rent a terraced house with my partner because we can’t afford the deposit for a mortgage. I buy my food from an ordinary supermarket and my clothes from high street stores and charity shops. I have no interest in designer labels or expensive items. I have friends from lots of different races, religions and professions and these friendships are based solely on the fact that they are fantastic people.

I don’t look down on anyone unless they give me reason to – usually behaving like an arsehole is a brilliant way to accomplish this. It reminds me of an incident that happened a few months ago – a man walked onto the bus that I was travelling on, looked at a man who was accidentally blocking the entrance to the steps leading upstairs and yelled (completely unprovoked) “Get out of my f**king way you c**t.” I looked down on that man. I look down on people who are deliberately rude, cruel and selfish and those that will manipulate, lie, cheat and steal from those around them. I look down on members of society who go out of their way to put others down and those that will use another to gain something from them. If that makes me a snob, then… good!

However, instead of allowing myself to be irritated further, I started to think about the different types of snobbery that exists in modern society – the Food Snob, the Intellectual Snob, the Fashion Snob, the Musical Snob, the Technology Snob, the Class Snob, the Nationality Snob, the Movie Snob, the Travel Snob – I could go on for hours. I wanted to put this question to you:

Are you a snob about certain things? Is there anything that you look down on in life?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the matter!!

Happy Blogging!

56 thoughts on “On Being a Snob”

  1. I must confess to being a snob about people who are consistently ungrammatical. My feeling is that the English language is so rich that it deserves to be respected in its structure and spelling and grammar. So, when I hear “Me and her went to the movies the other night,” or “Between you and I,” or the misuse of “lie” and “lay” and “good” and “well,” I inwardly cringe. The only people I correct are family members because I don’t want them to embarrass themselves with others. Besides, since I am an English teacher, they expect me to do it.

    • My friend is exactly the same – she’s an extremely talented English teacher and she almost has to hold herself back from getting out her verbal red pen whenever we go out!!

      Thank you for your comment!

  4. I wonder if this looking-up looking-down thing isn’t more of a British thing — reflecting, as in the video, the class system — than an American one. Certainly people’s tastes differ, values differ, income levels differ, speech patterns differ; but one can be choosy about travel, movies, music, fashion, food, the company you keep…without, as snobs do, flaunting it.

    • I agree in that the idea of the class system is often associated with the British… It sparks a whole new debate on whether it actually exists or not thought doesn’t it!

      Thanks for your comment!

  5. I’m a coffee snob.

    And if someone can’t spell or form a proper sentence I accidentally think they’re stupid and have to remind myself they’re not. Is that snobbery.

    You are not a snob, dear Suzie. And if you were, you’d do it right and be a full-blown snob rather than a “wee bit” of one. 😉

  6. You shouldn’t let people get to you that way, Suzie. Having said that, it resulted in an excellent post! I’m most definitely a snob for many things – I hate foul language, and go bananas when I see my language being massacred (I’m a copy editor in real life, so I can be paid for the pleasure of obliterating grammar and spelling mistakes). I also hate drinking out of cans and bottles, and cringe when I see people wanding around without their T-shirts in the street. If that makes me a snob, so be it….

  7. I would have probably been incensed at this idiot’s comment, but is he worth your time ? A man wrote to a paper saying that iPads shouldn’t be given to OAP’s as they cannot use computers. I immediately wrote a tirade , saying that I blog most days, Skype, have received a degree in 2009 and have had short stories accepted for publishing. Then I looked at my rant and thought ‘S-d it. I have better things to do than write to bigots and deleted it. I am 75 and I am not the only one of my friends who can use computers. Two of my neighbours are in their eighties and use their computers daily. I think that if there is any Government cash going , it should to the NHS.

    • I agree – normally I don’t let comments bother me on here because I take the view that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I couldn’t resist!

      Thanks so much for your comment!

  8. Good morning, I detest snobbery, I hate people who look down on others, all I ask for is respect, respect for me and everyone else. I was asked once in the class “is the queen better then us” I replied and being honest saying “The queen is like your head teacher, just that she is the head of the country instead of a school, she still has to visit different places, just like the head visits the classroom but she is no different for you or I she just has an important job, but she still poops” and the child replied and this was classic “What the queen poops!! are they gold?”
    I used to go beating at the shooting estates it was easy money, but I was asked to leave because one of the shooters shouted over to me “Hey BOY, carry these birds now” I walked over to him and threatened to shove his shotgun where the sun doesn’t shine if he ever spoke to me like that again.
    My mother thinks she is a snob, if you have ever watched ‘Keeping up appearances’ thats my mother, I watched the very first episode and then phoned my mother but it was engaged, so 10 minutes later I phoned again and this time I go through and said to her “I have just watched you on TV” her reply was “Don’t you start your uncle Martin has just phoned and said the same thing”

    I served in the Air Force and some of the officers were right arses when it came to snobbery, on basic training we had to go on a 3 day exercise, being in the middle of nowhere in January, in a tent, shaving in water after breaking the ice first, we went for breakfast, we past the officers mess tent and there was silver service laid out, with candelabras on the mahogany tale. It reminded me of the books I read as a child about deepest darkest Africa and the first explorers and the amount of stuff that they used to take with them, just like the officers tent I saw. There is no place in my life for snobbery, it should have no place in today’s society, have more money than me, that fine, but no one is better or below me, we are all equal in this life, we are all born naked, we all poop and we all die, try being snobbish about taking a dump or your sex face………

  9. Probably now a bit of an age snob… (And pet snob – see earlier blog).

    TV is run by little children who talk like badly educated DJs and talk to us as though we too are young and stupid…!

  10. Chocolate snob: One who refuses to eat any dessert that is not chocolate, superior brands preferred.

  11. My parents were ones who saw themselves as no better nor worse than others regardless of social ‘standing’. I hold good to that. Snobbery does get my goat. I am inclined to think that snobs- and I know a few – are to pitied. What a way to live.
    You are not a snob, Suzie. Nothing I have ever read of yours comes across as snobbish. Viewing rudeness for what it is does not make you a snob but someone who believes in respect for others.
    My kind of person. And I couldn’t say that about a snob. x

  12. I really like your blogs, good job.
    I think everyone has the right to give their opinion, but some people just don’t know how to; they tend to say hurtful things instead of helpful things.

  13. As far as snobbery goes, I guess I could be slightly snobbish to people who don’t know things that are commonly thought of as general knowledge. It annoys me to no end that kids in high school can no longer point out on a map where Germany is or China or who don’t have a clue at all as to wen World War I took place, and this is coming from someone who was in high school four years ago.

    I, however, prefer to blame the education system rather than the individuals. I’m usually fairly egalitarian from my socialist disposition (or evil Islamo-commie as Americans would say :P). Everybody is good at something, so as far as my intellectual snobism goes, I try to remind myself that there are many different intelligences, such as social intelligence, which I utterly lack, resulting in the subject of my own blog.

  14. Reblogged this on suzie81's Blog and commented:

    Another reblog this morning I’m afraid… This was something I wrote last Nevmber after one of my posts was Freshly Pressed and I thought I’d share it again with you… I’d love to know what you think…

  15. You don’t need to say “another reblog, I’m afraid” it’s a great way for me to catch up with all your older posts as I don’t often have time to check blogs historically so what I see in the reader each day is sometimes all I can manage to get through. Thank you!

  17. Snobbish? I think you’re guilty of being lovely. And that made some poor soul jealous enough they felt compelled to try and make you feel bad. Pay them no mind.

    Cheers,
    The Music Snob
    I favor 70’s punk rock mostly but also enjoy folk rock, classic rock, and anything by Johnny Cash.

  18. Snobbery is a state of mind. My mother turned into Mrs Bucket when Margaret Thatcher, a life long Labourer voter. She started drinking wine, having Axminster laid throughout the house, started having certain neighbours around two evening a week to have candle lit suppers, made us kids wash every day and eat with our back straight and usung both a knife and fork, no elbows on the table. But I was always quick to reminder about the bar tending, fishwife from Grimsby. I hate pseudo snobbery, When I am getting to big for my boots, I hear my dead fathers voice “Never forget your roots” He told me that often, he was very proud of being a hard working dock worker from Grimsby. But when I left school I went to the docks to look for work and couldnt get a job, as I had been going down to the docks since I was 11 and most of the filleters and lumpers knew I was my fathers son and I tjought getting a job no problem since I had been working there in school holidays since I was 14. My father put word about that I was not to work on the docks he wanted better for me, my father who had not lived with us for years cared enough for me to stopped me being what he became, he wanted me to be better than him. 🙂

  19. I may be a Kindle snob. Since I bought my first Kindle in 2007 I’ve been a bit snobbish I suppose to people who still read physical books. I’m like a teenager who can’t believe that everyone doesn’t love my favorite band the way I do.

      • Do you know since I have had this condition I have lost the ability to read as such, I can read short stuff like posts on blogs and stories in newspapers, but stick a book either print or E book, I cannot remember what I read a page back its very frustrating, I have started listening to talking books and I can follow it so much better, the doc says it maybe be the pain killers or just the condition itself. I had always promised myself that I would read the bible from front to back and I have found a great app that has all different versions of the bible readable and talking, I have found a talking version and the guy that reads it has a fantastic reading voice. If you are interested the Bible app is
        https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sirma.mobile.bible.android&hl=en
        And I chose New Living Translation, if I was gay I would have fallen in love with his voice. lol 🙂

  20. I have been enjoying your blogs. I’m a beer snob, and freely admit it. In America the big beers (your Bud, Miller, Coor, etc) taste terrible to me. I have on occasion asked a wait person to list their beers on tap, then ordered water if they didn’t have anything I liked. If you drink one of those beers (or as I like to call them water) I don’t lose respect for you as an individual, I just know never to ask you for a beer suggestion.

  21. Many would say that I am a snob. I like nice things and if I can afford to I buy them if I can’t afford them then I don’t buy them. These people who call me a snob don’t actually know me though. I don’t judge anyone because of what they wear, how they speak, what they do or where they live. I do however judge people who complain about their lives, their jobs, their partner etc. and then don’t do anything about it to change it. So I guess I AM a snob, an achievement snob.

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