My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Channel 4

[sailorsgal]

Anyone watching.

Slarty,re gay gypsies.As far as I am aware,it is completely and utterly taboo.If you read 'Gypsy Boy',by Mikey Walsh,he describes how it is to grow up gay in a gypsy family.Awful.He had to go into hiding as there were people wanting to kill him.So so sad.

If you put Irish travellers into wikipedia there is a host of interesting information. That stats are shocking though - half of the irish traveller population do not live beyond 39. Much of this is due to metabolic and conferential conditions caused by such a small gene pool.

Cain you sound mad quite honestly and I've reported you for calling me names.

Kirriemummy- what's with the anti-Scottish racism?

Mind you, if you are so thick to think that 93% of Scottish women are lying about being raped then I shouldn't really expect anything other than blatent ignorance and racism.

this may of be said previously but last nights episode, portrayed the exact reason why many people dislike gypsies and travellers, they don't adhere to any rules or guidelines set in place, last night for example, they went to play paint balling and couldn't abide by the safety guidelines, no real reason just couldn't be arsed, then when there was an accident, everyone else was patiently queuing in traffic but oh no not them they mounted the pavement and drove around it, again, because they just couldn't be arsed to wait like the rest of us have to do, sorry but this is typical of many gypsies they seem to think that laws and guidelines are not something that applies to them,

i work in a hospital and have cared for patients from travelling families, and the relatives come in to visit they take over the whole room not sticking to the hospital trusts guidelines of limiting the amount of people that can visit at one time, or the times of visiting, they expect drinks for the relatives, one time 6 female relatives came in to "visit" the patient and all brought their shower stuff with them and all had showers on the hospital ward, taking our towels out of the linen cupboard, despite us informing them they weren't allowed, but god forbid you get firm with them, then we are being racist!!!!

i noticed that again in last nights programme many of the men had their faces blocked out including the groom of one of the weddings, so it didn't affect his scrap metal business apparently!!!

"I saw no mention of not being able to read or write in tonights program. "

conculainey, there were several mentions of travellers not being able to read or write.

Yes lots die young. Work in A+E and many young traveller deaths, young adults and children. Lots of measles also, they don't bother with vaccinations or registering with a GP.

"Kirriemummy- what's with the anti-Scottish racism?

Mind you, if you are so thick to think that 93% of Scottish women are lying about being raped then I shouldn't really expect anything other than blatent ignorance and racism."

darlene i think anyone with an ounce of sense can tell that kirrie was being sarcastic with her "the other 93% are lying" comment. i would imagine, like the rest of us that the 7% conviction rate for rape angers her greatly.

Atching Tan is an exciting drama series that explores the relationships between members of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller and settled communities.

It was on BBC radio last year and was brilliant.

Listen to it and read about it.....www.atchingtan.com/

Oh - it was written with the travelling communities help.

Half of the cast are also Gypsy, Romany, Travellers.

GWJ - I've listened to the links on the site.

I'm finding it very hard to equate the voices on the radio to the people I've seen on television. Why is that?

Is it because the folks on the radio seem generally to be in their 40s and 50s - so harking back to a forgotten age. Or is it because they seem mostly to be romany gypsies rather than Irish travellers?

Interestingly - watching the intro to the TV programme you see the gypsies in their traditional wagons, next to a camp fire. Women who look nothing like the women who are actually concentrated on in the programme.

Why aren't we seeing the Scottish romany/travellers? I think the problem with the programme is that it's concentrating on one group of travellers and in such a negative way (hard to be otherwise when considering education/illiteracy/treatment of women/domestic violence) that ALL gypsies will be tarred with the same brush. Does "grabbing" go on in the general traveller community for example?

I wonder if any of them ever stay on at school and college and seek out an alternative life.They certainly haven't shown anyone like that so far.By the law of averages I assumed there would be a couple but no.

the production company who made the BFGW programmes specialise in sensationalist-type tv - all that body shock stuff.

I didn't watch it, I don't watch any of that sort of exploitative look at the poor/foolish/freak/victim programming. I've been involved on the other side and all they are interested in doing is making entertaining tv, not in the people they are portraying and certainly not in showing the truth.

I've found the worst of it is they often convince themselves they are "giving a voice" to the people they are serving up on a plate for the viewers.

there was an article in the papers a few months back (Daily Mail probably) about a gipsy girl who got into Cambridge - her community were very supportive but knew absolutely nothing about it, eg they didn't realise you had to apply and thought you just turned up.

www.travellerstimes.org.uk/list.aspx?c=00619ef1-21e2-40aa-8d5e-f7c38586d32f&n=ab717302-92fb-4487-82b1-9f70934969b3
This is link to a 'Travellers Times' showing lots of gypsy/romany/travellers complaining about the programme.

I actually find myself having alot of sympathy for the young girls on the programme.
I know that it's maybe not a true reflection on the whole community. But I do know how they treat my husband who is a fireman and his colleagues which is awful when they are only doing their job. On many occasions when he has had to drive an engine on an emergency call the engine and the firemen get abuse hurled at them, the engine has vital life saving equipment stolen off it. He has also seen men and women going to the toilet just on the road (?!) in front of them and he also said that the amount of litter around the sites is disgusting. My brother Is a policeman and says exactly the same. My point is,If you act in such a way, other community's really aren't going to want you living anywhere near them?

Will read your link.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250578/Traveller-girl-dropped-school-work-mothers-candyfloss-van-wins-place-Cambridge-University.html this is the story SSAM linked to. But it relates to travelling showmen - who I think are another distinct group.

We have a travelling showmen's ground locally - which none of the gypsy travellers want to live in. All arguments regarding proposed new traveller's sites relate to the showmens' ground being unsuitable because they are not showmen - and there are tensions when occasionally some families have taken pitches there.

Watching these programs at first made me feel guilty that I'd hate a traveller family moving in next door to me, as they all seemed decent people with spotless homes.

However last night's show made me feel less guilty - they showed a blatant disregard for others and the law. Firstly when paintballing they couldn't obey the rules and were thrown out. Then the boys diving into the river nearly landed on a canoeist and just laughed about it. Thirdly they came upon a road accident and instead of waiting in the traffic like the rest of us feel obilged to, they drove up on the path and around the accident.

Their lack of respect for society in general is what makes most of us annoyed and anti-traveller I think and this show re-inforced that view.

"Their lack of respect for society in general is what makes most of us annoyed and anti-traveller I think and this show re-inforced that view."

you are exactly right. the show honed in on all the prejdudices held about travellers but i guarantee you that in any city in the country you will find 'country' people being just as disrespectful, it's just that no-one has made a programme about it. read between the lines. what you see isn't all that's there.

So (remember I didn't watch it) I gather the show was designed to get people to watch it to laugh at the weddings. Then it showed a side of participant's behaviour which has upset and worried people, plus contributed to a stereotype.

Potoftea do you really think all travellers are like that? there are plenty of badly behaved people all over the place and quite a lot of them end up on tv, for some reason people like to watch it.

www.itv.com/daybreak/entertainment/tv/gypsyweddings/
Interesting ITV interview with outraged gypsy journalist.

fishie, I don't expect that every single one of them is like that, but they do seem to be brought up with a different view on society that most (obviously not all) of us try to instill in our children.
Little things like waiting your turn in shops, (I've often seen them queue jump), or not disturbing other people with your dog running wild or obviously the littering one.

I've met lots of traveller children in my dc's school, and they are usually lovely, sorta old fashioned and innocent, but I still feel that they aren't going to stay that way.

The traveller community has the lowest literacy rates of any ethnic group in the UK! Also, they only have to attend 200 1/2 days a year in school to count as 'at school.' This is shocking....how can they possibly escape this impoverished and sexist 'culture'??

(BTW this also makes me really grumpy 'cos I took my kids out of school for the afternoon to take them to a play in London, which my sister was in, and I got a letter from the head warning me of reporting me to social services!)

I find it quite interesting that Gypsies justify their culture by saying that they are an ethnic group. Lots of other religions have their most extreme and religious people act in a similar way to this (lack of eduacation for the girls, forbidding use of the internet and TV, not allowing girls to mix with boys before marriage, a very male dominated culture etc etc) This is justified by most religions by saying that it is what their God wants them to do. This is no different to the Gypsies justifying their way of life.

But I do not think that we can say that the girls have high standards of morals just because they do not have sex before marriage because they get married at the age of 16!

Maybe the fairytale aspect of the weddings helps act as a bribe and focus to encourage the girls to want to get married to whoever grabs them.