‘Rahs’: ridiculed or respected? (From Epsom Guardian)

‘Rahs’: ridiculed or respected?

10:30am Wednesday 30th June 2010

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By Community Correspondent: Hannah Davies Over the last few years it has become commonplace for people to stereotype others - this trend may be especially prevalent amongst teenagers and young adults. The words ‘emo’, ‘goth’ and ‘chav’ are now well integrated into our vocabulary and with the recent popularity of referring to public school pupils as ‘rahs’, it seems a relatively new stereotype is developing that aims to mock the apparently over confident and opulent nature of the public school sector.

All of this lies strangely in contrast with the fact that as a country we now have a new government led by two men, both of whom attended well known public schools followed by an Oxbridge degree.

I personally became aware the social stereotyping of public school alumni a year ago when my brother went to Newcastle University and found himself, subconsciously or not, placed in a group now heralded as ‘rahs’. This term has come under scrutiny previously in the media after the arrival of Princess Eugenie at Newcastle University and the suggested influx of middle class students into this university and others similar.

Recently there have been videos uploaded onto the internet presenting comical illustrations of typical ‘rah’ characters that have become well known amongst young adults in the South East area and possibly beyond. The video ‘High Renaissance Man’ documents the fictional life of a student at Bristol University who encompasses the public school stereotype. The character describes Bristol as ‘a fourth home’: just one example of the many comic attacks on a typical middle class student.

More recently a video entitled ‘Gap Yah’ (Uploaded onto YouTube in February 2010) has been circulated around the internet and grown phenomenally in popularity as its quotes have become a common talking point amongst young people in Surrey and the South East: it now has over 1.5 million views on YouTube, suggesting its national popularity. It aims to ridicule the increasing popularity of taking a gap year and the implied fashionable desire of middle class students to complete voluntary work in developing countries. The character in ‘Gap Yah’ begins a telephone conversation with a friend apologising that he ‘can’t come shopping on the King’s Road today’ because he’s ‘literally in Burma…on a spiritual, cultural, political exchange thing’, adopting an exaggeratedly eloquent accent. Although comic, this stereotypical portrayal of middle class youth is yet another example of the categorisation of people into social sub-groups.

The fact that this social class has been "separated" and ridiculed led me to question why two men who appear to perfectly fit this stereotype have been elected to govern our country. David Cameron, Conservative leader, was educated at Eton College and Oxford University; and Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, went to school at Westminster School followed by Cambridge University. The clearly affluent background of these two political leaders places them into the social group that is mocked and yet their intelligence, demeanour and personality must be admired throughout the country according to their recent success in the general election; and not ridiculed like those who have similar traits. Perhaps, underneath the scrutiny and mocking of affluent middle class social groups ‘rahs’ have more respect than the current media trends let on.

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