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My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

Ground Elder said:
In particular Irish Travellers do not have the strong traditions and taboos surrounding cleanliness that are central to Romany Gypsy life.
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I was wondering about this. But the people in this show did seem particularly fond of cleanliness. Like with the girls all remaining pure virgins until marriage and this constant word 'dirty' coming up should they ever been associated with anyone out of wedlock. I couldn't work out if that was more metaphorical that literal though. I suspect both?

That, and the fact that they all seem quite happy to spend married life cleaning and housekeeping. Then there was Swanley, not even allowing the camera to look into his marital caravan, let alone enter (though I couldn't work out if that was just for privacy reasons).
 
skyscraper101 said:
I was wondering about this. But the people in this show did seem particularly fond of cleanliness. Like with the girls all remaining pure virgins until marriage and this constant word 'dirty' coming up should they ever been associated with anyone out of wedlock. I couldn't work out if that was more metaphorical that literal though. I suspect both?

That, and the fact that they all seem quite happy to spend married life cleaning and housekeeping. Then there was Swanley, not even allowing the camera to look into his marital caravan, let alone enter (though I couldn't work out if that was just for privacy reasons).
Click to expand...

Looked as thought it was because he didn't want them to film it before it was cleaned, due to being houseproud. The narrator implied that it hadn't been cleaned because his fiance was on holiday and there was therefore nobody to do it.
 
Great show!


Even greater thread!

Amazing weddings, I don't think even ugly and his bird middleton will even get close.
 
Well I guess they wouldn't show up in a census. Given the amount of sites, its kinda makes sense.

Eta - a quick Google suggest would need more than 10,000 so ??
 
Dan U said:
Well I guess they wouldn't show up in a census. Given the amount of sites, its kinda makes sense.

Eta - a quick Google suggest would need more than 10,000 so ??
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"Gypsies and Travellers are widely thought to be the biggest ethnic minority in Surrey and the south-east is home to the second highest population of Gypsies and Travellers according to the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers Bi-annual Caravan Count. Despite being recognised under British race relations legislation as separate ethnic minorities, English Gypsies and Irish Travellers are absent from the census and most forms of ethnic monitoring. But there is strong evidence that Gypsies and Travellers represent the largest ethnic minority in counties such as Kent, Hampshire and Surrey and are significant minorities in many other south-eastern counties."

from here- http://www.communityarchives.org.uk/page_id__596_path__0p3p69p.aspx
 
excellent programme. mental, those teenage girls wearing very little, gyrating and jiggling their bits, then the lads get all overcome by testosterone and do that "grabbing" shit, all cast against a background that emphasises the need for purity, chastity, cooking and cleaning... funny as fuck.

i think the daily mail, if it could look beyond its standard bigotry, could actually champion the travellers as guardians of the moral future of middle england.
 
Ground Elder said:
Sharing sites is usually out of necessity rather than choice.
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certainly the travellers I went to school with had no choice who was on their site

I enjoy this programme but it doesn't reflect the travellers/gypsies I knew and have worked with. Hoping the next few episodes expands on other aspects of life :) find the dresses just insane though :eek:
 
The next census will include Gypsy/Roma and Irish Traveller as ethnic categories for the first time. The twice yearly Caravan Count is a notoriously poor method of estimating Gypsy and Traveller numbers. The Local Authorities who carry out the count have a vested interest in under-counting and their commitment to a thorough count varies. Housed Gypsies and Traveller are not counted. Other population data has come from Traveller Education Services and the Accommodation Assessments carried out as a duty under the Housing Act 2004. Many Gypsies and Travellers choose not to identify themselves to public bodies out of a justified fear of prejudice.

Some of my best friends are Irish Travellers.
 
Ground Elder said:
Yes it is true that there is a cross-over, but generally Romany people don't get on with the Irish, tending to blame them for the negative public perception of all Gypsies and Travellers. Sharing sites is usually out of necessity rather than choice. In particular Irish Travellers do not have the strong traditions and taboos surrounding cleanliness that are central to Romany Gypsy life.
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My ex was descended from romany's but her uncle still practiced.... He wasn't keen on the irish travellers at all.

He still had a wooden caravan, beautiful thing that was/is.
 
aqua said:
I enjoy this programme but it doesn't reflect the travellers/gypsies I knew and have worked with. Hoping the next few episodes expands on other aspects of life :) find the dresses just insane though :eek:
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This - But the travellers I know are settled, living in houses n that.
 
I'm pretty sure there's someone on the boards who from gypsy stock come to think of it. Can't recall who it was posted on one of the many threads.
 
Finally seen the first episode. I'm in two minds about this program.

On the one hand its showing a human side to these communities which certain people need to see. Its easy to be intolerant from a basis of ignorance and when you don't see a group in real human terms.

You could make a programe about travellers showing them in just this light alone but only enlightened people would bother to watch it. It won't reach the audience you want to change.

By firstly putting the hook in that they are going to mock them in some way (their stupid dresses etc.) it gets those particular people to watch and then hopefully learn something when you show the evictions and stuff as well.

On the other hand they are taking the piss out of their traditions n stuff. Which has by all accounts be upsetting the travellers over how they've been represented.

I found myself liking the groom. He seemed a decent bloke.
Also the woman standing up for the protestor gets a big thumbs up from me. Showing compassion and empathy for the protestor in her own time of stress. She showed real humanity against the souless sharks.

On the whole I think its showing quite a balanced view of both sides of the fence. Its just unfortunate that its used a marketing strategy of 'hey look at the silly gypsies' to get people to watch.
 
Chip Barm said:
I'm pretty sure there's someone on the boards who from gypsy stock come to think of it. Can't recall who it was posted on one of the many threads.
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There is one poster who has never been shy of stating their former traveller background. Its not for me to say who they are though as they are quite capeable of doing so themselves should they wish.
 
Gromit said:
Finally seen the first episode. I'm in two minds about this program.

On the one hand its showing a human side to these communities which certain people need to see. Its easy to be intolerant from a basis of ignorance and when you don't see a group in real human terms.

You could make a programe about travellers showing them in just this light alone but only enlightened people would bother to watch it. It won't reach the audience you want to change.

By firstly putting the hook in that they are going to mock them in some way (their stupid dresses etc.) it gets those particular people to watch and then hopefully learn something when you show the evictions and stuff as well.

On the other hand they are taking the piss out of their traditions n stuff. Which has by all accounts be upsetting the travellers over how they've been represented.

On the whole I think its showing quite a balanced view of both sides of the fence. Its just unfortunate that its used a marketing strategy of 'hey look at the silly gypsies' to get people to watch.
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The Gypsies I've talked to main objection to the programme is its failure to make clear that what it depicts is far from universal amongst Gypsies and Travellers. There is concern that all it has done is add a new stereotype for Gypsies and Travellers to contend with.

The programme makers didn't have the cooperation of the wider Gypsy and Traveller communities. This is demonstrated by the fact they relied heavily on the (non-Traveller) dress maker to fill in the details. The commentary showed bias and used out of date statistics suggesting it had been poorly researched.

There was a much better series of three programmes shown on, I think, BBC3 a few years ago called Gypsy Wars, but as Gromit suggests only enlightened people like me bothered to watch it :D
 
Ground Elder said:
The programme makers didn't have the cooperation of the wider Gypsy and Traveller communities.
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In this programme the impression we were given is that no one is ever going to get that cooperation from the wider Gypsy and Traveller communities due to issolationist beliefs.

I don't know how true that assertion was or whether it was the programme makers making excuses.

I bet Ross Kemp could get them to open up though.
 
Next week's show is focussed on the role of Traveller women.

I hope there is more depth to it, because the 'behave like Cinderella/ dance like Madonna' story so far is so thin as to be scandalous.
 
The only men I've seen turn up to buy a wedding van and again on the wedding day. Even that Catholic ceremony thing and after party seemed entirely female.
 
No one consults my wider community if they make a documentary about people like me.

Not that it isn't pretty lazy film-making anyway.
 
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