Channel 4’s second series continues to promote damaging stereotypes that denigrate Gypsy and Traveller children
I am an Irish Traveller and have lived in London since I was six years old.
I now live in a flat because there are not enough sites and I have been on the waiting list for a pitch for years. I watched the last series of Channel 4’s documentary series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and did not like the way that Gypsies and Travellers were portrayed but, after other strong reactions to it, I was hoping the new series would be better. Then I saw the billboard posters advertising the series that began to appear around London.
“Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier” they say, accompanied by huge photographs of young girls looking nearly naked and a scary-looking young boy. What’s that all about? Channel 4 seems to be using who we are against us in a way that feels very hard to take. My family was brought up to be sure of who we are and what we stand for. But these posters are making a joke of that. Do they want people to laugh at the word “Gypsier”? It is making out that our ethnic identity can be used against us and that can’t be right.
Would it be acceptable to use similarly mocking words and pictures about people of other creeds, religions, or ethnic groups? We can’t understand why Gypsies and Travellers are the only ethnic community that gets treated like this by the media.
I understand that there are a lot of people in the country who lack knowledge about our community, through no fault of their own. They may even believe the stereotypes because that is all they come across. Publicity like this from Channel 4 doesn’t help. They are destroying the hard work that has been put in over many years, trying to get the public to see the bigger picture.
Most Gypsies and Travellers try hard to integrate with their neighbours, wherever they live. But bigotry means some have to hide who they are. It’s because we are so fiercely protective of our children that we are so afraid. Thanks to the likes of Channel 4 presenting an untrue or untypical image of our community, the public don’t understand that we are more mainstream than they think. We work, our kids go to local schools, we go to church, we even have views about politics!
Some of these posters blatantly exploit young girls who are specially dressed up for an event. The message is: “This is what they are like all the time, look how brash and provocative they are.” To use children like this just to get viewers is shocking.
During the screening of the last series I heard of many Gypsy and Traveller children getting bullied at school as a direct result. My daughter was called a prostitute and eventually left school because of the way girls were portrayed in the series. Now the same thing is happening again. Channel 4 must realise the effect it has had and is still having on the lives of Traveller children. Television plays a big part in people’s lives and Channel 4 is misusing its power.
Christine Cawley – The Guardian
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