Reverse snobbery
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Reverse snobbery is the phenomenon of looking unfavourably on perceived social elites.
In the post-Second World War period, the phenomenon of the working or middle class aping the rich, or of deeming them to be 'their betters', classical social emulation (see also snob), began to give way to the voicing of resentment against social distinctions, particularly in, though not confined to, post-war Britain.
This led to the adoption of the reversal of deferential attitudes toward what had previously been admired and copied as 'socially superior' (see upper class). This renewed phenomenon was observed before under different guises: for example, in the English Civil War (see also Levellers), French Revolution (see the literary character, Madame Defarge) and the Russian Revolution (see also class warfare).
Monty Python's comedy sketches occasionally parodied this phenomenon, such as a coal miner son trying to reconcile with his author father who has disowned him.
