AIBU to be angry about another misleading programme on Romany Gypsies?

[IronEverything]

I just can't believe this is happening again.

Some of you may remember the show called "my big fat gypsy wedding" on channel 4 from years ago. It did absolutely awful damage to my community (Romany gypsy). It was complete and utter trash and majority of those featured weren't even gypsies.

Well they're at it again.

They are advertising a new show, something along the lines of "secret lives of gypsy wives". Yet the star of the show is a social media influencer (?) named Trewly Precious who is neither of those things. I think her father was a gypsy but she wasn't raised in the community and she isn't married.

Why are they doing this to us? There are so many amazing gypsy women who could have shown what it's really like to be a modern day gypsy. Yet they have once again chosen entertainment value over the reputation of a community who are already marginalised and hated by a large portion of the public. AIBU to be so angry about this?

They're always going to do the most controversial options to get people to watch it.

Can you complain to ofcom? I would be tempted to

I understand that and I know they need to get views but surely the absolute bare minimum when making a show about gypsies is for the people on it to actually be gypsies?

I didn't think of complaining to OFCOM, I might do actually.

I would love to see a show like you describe that rewrites the narrative of what it means to be a modern romany woman.

Sadly it seems that the tone of our times is harking back to the Y2K trend of pointing and laughing at people. 🙄

It would, if they cared about education and accuracy! Which they clearly don't, they want to make a modern day freak show so people will watch. I'm not saying I agree with it at all (I absolutely do not). It just seems these days like everything has to be rage bait, with views and attention at any cost. It's awful.

5?

These shows are very popular though (I've just set it to record as I didn't know they were making a new series).

It's just a bit of trash TV when you want a bit of trash TV.

The contents are no more believable than any of the 'Housewives' series or the stories you read in most magazines.

And of course there'll always be people queuing up to take part.

Why are they doing this to us? There are so many amazing gypsy women who could have shown what it's really like to be a modern day gypsy.

Because they don't believe that would bring in viewers whereas they think this type of programme will.

No that's wrong. Irish travellers are not gypsy people.

A freak show really describes the way it feels. I don't agree with PPs comparison to programmes about housewives as they are not subject to racism and hatred.

OP maybe you could pitch a real documentary about modern gypsy women, pitch a story to a women's magazine or even try writing a book?

Most programmes these days unfortunately are just brainless trash to attract a broad audience and cause controversy.

Reading a lot of threads over the years as well as posts in community FB groups etc, I don't think the racism and hatred has much (if anything) to do with these shows.

@IronEverything
Unfortunately OP, this is the type of society we live in. It reflects us, as a whole, so even when there are a proportion of people who disagree with how the world works we don’t have the power to do anything about it because it’s ultimately a numbers game.

It is a program about her not you. What are you proposing here? A Government quango to rule on whether people are representative enough of their community (whatever that is) to appear on TV?

To be fair freak show seems to be channel 4’s main type of programming. Things like virgin island and the undateables make me cringe. It is all done so we can laugh at the freaks. This will probably just be more of the same unfortunately

I must say I don't watch channel 4 or any of that sort of thing but I wouldn't be surprised.

@Gardenandseawitch unfortunately I don't know the first thing about making a TV programme

I imagine the OP simply wants the same rights and consideration afforded to other ethnic groups, including the right not to have racist, reductive stereotypes about her community portrayed on television.

Its massively offensive, degrading and hideous. So are an increasingly large proportion of channel 4 shows.

I feel that OFCOM need a kick up the backside. There are shows that make fun of race and disability. There are shows that facilitated rape. Maybe we should set up a petition to Parliament to examine the standards of allowable programmes so that the do not damage groups of people.

Agreed. People’s reactions tend to be based on real life experience of theft, intimidation and flytipping when gyspies arrive in their area.

Has anyone actually seen this racist, reductive, offensive, degrading and hideous show yet or have we decided beforehand that this is how it'll be?

I haven't seen the new show you refer to but I think it's ignorant and racist for TV production companies not to know there's a huge difference between Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, as happened in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

I completely understand why you are annoyed at the misrepresentation of the Romany community. It's lazy stereotyping at best, racist at worst. Everyone should know better these days. I would complain to Channel 4 and Ofcom in your shoes.

She’s not claiming to be Romany is she? She says she’s an English Gypsy/Traveller from what I’ve read.

I’m guessing it’s similar to the Mormon wives programme which isn’t representative at all either. It’s trashy tele, nothing more. Fine to watch it as entertainment but it’s not a documentary.

I went looking for an antidote to this kind of dross, and found a great list of programmes from the BFI - though I thought this line was sad but true "it might be easier to write a list of films wholly ignorant of the travelling communities they portray – in the UK, for example, the obnoxious ‘reality television’ series and films that turn travellers into punchlines or employ racial epithets."

https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-about-gypsies-travellers

I saw a good programme by Stacey Dooley and she got to know some gypsy women and their lives. It was respectful and interesting.
Some programme makers see them as easy targets of poor taste and over consumption.