To hate being from Essex sometimes?!

[PixiNanny]

I move around a lot and meet a hell of a lot of people. Therefore it undoubtably comes to the "So, where are you from?" bit. I'm honest about being from Essex and will admit it happily. However on occasion (a quite regular occasion...) I will get the "Ooh... Essex then? You're an Essex Bird?" I grudgingly repeat myself only to get "Well, you don't speak like one. Do you act like one? winkwink" No, I don't. "Oh. ... Is that because you're a Mum already?" Do you see a child with me? No.

I hate it. Yes I know that Essex has a stereotype and that in quite a few cases that it is true, however I am not included in those cases! Wherever I go I have to put up with it, why should I lie about where I'm from to avoid the stereotypes?!

Maybe it's just stereotypes in general. I'm a bisexual, Middle Eastern, Essex girl. Therefore I must be a nymphomaniac, indecisive terrorist who sleeps around and has two kids at the age of twenty

YABU.

Only sometimes?

I know how you feel. Sometimes I hate being from Liverpool.

Haha, yes only sometimes; I try to forget about it the rest of the time

YANBU! I think Essex gets a really rough deal. I was born and grew up in Essex, but have lived in Surrey and now live in Kent and really I barely notice any difference in the appearance or behaviour of 'girls' in any of the places I've lived. Whether it's Basildon, Croydon, Hounslow or Sutton, there seems little variation. It's most peculiar. I wonder if most of the people who oh-so-wittily quip 'oh so you're an Essex girl then!' have ever actually even been to Essex.

YANBU!!!

Doesnt matter where in the world I am, someone always wants to share an Essex girl joke!
I have started telling people im from Thurrock and if they ask where that is I say just outside of London - normally I get away with that

Essex is God's county IMHO

Be Proud!

YANBU I was born in London but my parents moved to Essex when I was 6. I left when I was 18 to go to Uni and since then have been living up North. And I get sick to death of the Essex girl comments when I mention where I am from.
But I was brought up in Basildon. I'm afraid Basildon has more than its fair share of stereotypical Essex chavs.

Though there are some nice people who live there!!

I nearly had to sue you because you caused me to spit tea all over my keyboard! (am American)

I also come from Essex but now live in South Wales (where Valleys girls have the same reputation btw) and my fil said I should know what the inside of a brothel looks like cos if I'm from Essex I must have worked in one!!!

After my dp had scrapped me off the ceiling fil said he was joking - as if that makes it better!!

My DS2 is an Essex boy as we lived there for 2.5 yrs so he will probably have to contend with this a little when he is older.

The north of the county is so different from the stereotype that it could be another county altogether. Yet you still get the old cliches trotted out.

Presumably there are pockets of the stereotypical Essex boy/girl chaviness in the bits that tack onto London but, as gagamama says, that applies to any county that joins onto London. I have lived in Surrey too and I would definitely say that is the case.

Well, I live in Ilford, which is in Essex, but very border line.
When I first moved here, people would say it is East London, which I found confusing. Now everyone likes to call it Redbridge, a borough of London.
Do I sound confused, I must be an Essex girl now, innit?

YANBU
being stereotyped is crap.
especially if the stereotype is that you are stupid and a slut.
not fair.

Go Essex ! t is a beautiful County, as Niecie says. Most people don't know what lovely countryside there is.

I am Essex and proud

Same! I was on one of the canarie islands when I was 13/14 and had guys in their 40s hitting on us and taking the piss! You can't get away from it! I started saying 'East Anglia'

I'm a Clactoner, definately a typical Essex area! Especially now thy've started calling Jaywick 'West Clacton' lol

I lived in Essex as a teenager (moved there from the North). I love Essex people; they are very positive, upbeat people with a fantastic sense of humour who know how to have a good time.

I don't like the Essex countryside though. It is just too flat!

I like living in Essex - lovely countryside, great seaside, lots happening (and if you run out of ideas its only a half hour train ride into London).

YANBU at all!

I grew up near Romford, lived in the same area (apart from when I was away at uni/college) for years...only moved away 7 years ago, & tbh Essex still feels like my home even now.

I have had years of people literally pissing themselves laughing when they hear where I'm from

Either that or saying 'Well, you would never THINK that was where you were from' in a sympathetic tone.

Best recent moment was one of my colleagues (who doesn't know where I'm from, she must be one of the few) going on the other day about what a shithole Essex is, how Romford is full of shell-suit wearing inbred chavs, & all girls from Essex are sluts

Am now trying to decide when to drop my hometown into the conversation.......

I have to admit that before I moved here, I always assumed Essex was full of huge big towns full of girls wearing tiny skirts, huge earrings and stilletos.

If you actually explore you will find some stunning countryside, great beaches, and parts are actually VERY, VERY posh!!

hatesponge - that's where I lived while I grew up!! My parents are still there in the same house and even though I left the house eons ago and left Essex 6 years ago I still call it home!!

Both my DD's were born in Harlow and I am proud of it.We actually live in Herts, (just) and all the other people in our antenatal class for DD1 were going to the farther away hospital in Welwyn Garden City, by their own admission, to avoid the possiblity of having Essex girls.
What madness!People are such snobs!

Im not altogether pleased that DD's sound quite as 'Essex' as they do though, (or maybe just as generally southern rather than specifically Essex).But I probably find it more alarming because Im Northern and so have an in built suspicion onf anyone who sounds even vaguely Eastender-y

slopes off to let the whippet out for't night

sb6699 - you are right - in the bits where I lived I could feel very inferior indeed! The people were very posh and very few had the 'Essex' accent. (It was Dunmow).

You only have to drive through some of the villages and places like Saffron Walden to know that the stereotypical essex girl/boy stereotype is completely redundant.

Even places like Braintree and Chelmsford which are more 'working class', for want of a better phrase, still didn't conform to the Essex stereotype.

DD2 was born in Harlow Scootini (although DD1 has the better accent!).

Essex is like many other, much less maligned counties.

Yes it has its less salubrious areas (as can be found in most counties) but there are many beautiful chocolate box villages, lovely countryside (if a little flat)some amazing beaches (...well perhaps not Southend)and some very wealthy and posh towns (most of it is within commutable distance of the city.)

Only ignorant twats make the sort of thick stereotypical comments that all Essex girls are shell suit wearing chavs.

This thread is making me homesick!!

benfmsmum Where in Essex did you live?