my big fat gypsy wedding

[RoobyMurray]

Just started watching and saw the 15 year olds explaining how lads show they like a girl by taking her off and hurting her if she doesn't want to kiss them.

'tradition' you see.

bollocks to that. it is teaching young girls to put up with abusive relationships.

I think what also concerned me was when the 15 year old year was listing what she wanted in a husband and felt it necessary to include 'one who didn't beat her'.

Obviously we can only go off the culture and tradition we saw in the program and cannot say that all travellers live like this. However based on what we saw I think robbing young girls of their education, independence and dignity is disgusting and cannot be condoned because it's 'cultural'. The 'grabbing' was in my opinion was sexual assault. I was also saddened that what they hope for is that their husband won't beat them. That shouldn't be something that a 15 year old child has to think about. They are being robbed of a child hood and groomed for marriage (which seemed to consist mostly of housework and child bearing).

I'm not sure if I missed an explanation but does anyone know why they dress so provocatively? It seems in stark contrast with the fact that girls should stay pure and have a good reputation.

ToxicKitten, did you not see the part where it said the hierarchy was men at the top, then dogs, then women!

I didn't see this one but I saw the original one a year or so ago.

In that they interviewed an older couple and they were saying, yes they married too young (16), yes it was hard, it isn't something they'd recommend, it makes them sad to see others married so young.

The community is deeply religious so as much as "culture" can be blamed, following religious beliefs to the letter is a related root of these problems. In the one I saw it was said that divorce was unheard of (religious + cultural reasons). So you marry someone who you hardly know when you're terribly young, and that's that, whatever they are like.

It's just a snapshot of how things are in lots of other countries and how it was here in the past.

I think I'm glad I didn't see it last night, it sounds very upsetting.