“We’re very working class,” Victoria Beckham says of her upbringing during the family’s new Netflix documentary, Beckham. The comment is aimed to give a candid look into the early life of an internally recognised fashion designer, but then her husband – peeking behind a door – interjects. “Be honest!” David Beckham repeats. “What car did your dad drive you to school in?”
Quickly, the facade crumbles and a flustered Beckham – who first says “It’s not a simple answer” – eventually admits that her dad drove her to school in… a Rolls Royce.
Not exactly your everyday family car by today’s standards, let alone considering that she was brought up in the ’80s.
Posh Spice’s mum was a hairdresser and her dad an electronic engineer and founder of his own wholesale business. It’s been previously reported that she was “embarrassed” about her family’s wealth, and “begged” her dad not to drop her to school in the luxury car.
While it’s great to see David Beckham calling out his wife’s hypocrisy, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen tone-deaf, affluent people downplaying their privilege, forgetting to mention their family ties and, like Beckham, claiming to be a part of a different class entirely.
From the nepo baby discourse and the Kardashians’ contrived norm-core aesthetics to the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, downplaying his privilege and even claiming to be homeless, why are these people trying so hard to align themselves with the struggles that relate to being working-class?
The research shows that it’s not just Victoria Beckham, or celebrities doing it…
Professor Sam Friedman is a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, whose previous work has explored how people from affluent backgrounds often misidentify their origins as working class.
“I think it’s a really interesting example of how complex class identity is in the UK,” Professor Friedman says of the Beckham video. “In most of the world, people tend to identify as middle class, whatever their actual socio-economic position. In the UK it’s the opposite – working class identities remain incredibly popular.”
Professor Friedman explains that his research suggests that it’s not just celebrities who try and assimilate to the working class, either. “About 1 in 4 people from solidly middle-class backgrounds who work in solidly middle-class jobs see themselves as working class,” he says, continuing that he doesn’t think it’s as straightforward as downright privilege denial.
“I think many people grow up hearing stories about their working-class extended families and this informs their identity, or they compare themselves to people around them who might be way more privileged.”
Privilege denial
Class hierarchies in the United Kingdom are historically complex – it’s not just about how much money your family earns. Yes, your family might have worked hard as you grew up, but that is very much the reality for middle and upper-class people, too.
Although your family might not have been part of the upper social circles or an aristocratic lineage, it still doesn’t mean that you are – or were – working class. The desire to paint yourself with the same brush as actual working-class people, despite not actually having to experience the same struggles as them, is insulting. But why are people doing it?
“I think most people find it difficult to talk about privilege, particularly in a culture where we lionise meritocracy,” Professor Friedman explains. “I think people like Victoria want to feel like they deserve their success, and one way to signal that is to tell an origin story of upward mobility and meritocratic striving.”
While feelings of embarrassment or even shame around privilege might prevent someone from mentioning the help they’ve had in life, the thing is, upward social mobility is completely possible in some cases.
Take Cheryl Cole, for instance. A former WAG like Beckham, Cole grew up on a council estate in Newcastle before becoming the multi-millionaire she is today. “We didn’t have much money,” she wrote for a HuffPost guest blog in 2015. “There were times when me and my brothers and sister would have to go without so we had food on the table.”
Another factor in downplaying privilege is the desire to appear relatable, especially as someone who’s famous. With social media offering stardom overnight, more and more of us are looking for relatable qualities in our celebrities – the culture has shifted away from the flashiness and out-of-touch attitude of the ’00s.
Although, it might be difficult to make yourself relatable when you’re a pop icon and top fashion designer who, with your husband, is worth an estimated $514 million.
“I think for people in elite positions who are often very wealthy, downplaying privilege is part of a wider strategy to appear ordinary and down-to-earth,” Professor Friedman says. “And when it lands – and isn’t called out as David did to Victoria – it can be a very effective strategy of impression management. Our research shows that when the general public believes elites are from humble backgrounds, they tend to be more sympathetic to them in various ways.”
But why should people like Victoria Beckham, who are part of an elite tier of society and wield so much power and influence, be honest about where they came from?
“It’s important because otherwise, it obscures the true nature of inequality in our society and the way class and privilege act as a following wind throughout people’s lives.”