Gypsy Wedding

[Guest Anonymous]

This is an older roundup of articles about Travellers...the life expectancy stats (out of Ireland) are alarming. The women pictured are also quite different than what we've been seeing out of this series (at least in dress).

http://www.saltspringnews.com/index.php ... &sid=19631

[fundiefan]

The Gypsy Wedding series on TLC is just replaying what was done in the UK a year ago and more. It's also a very small part of the Traveler population. It's just more evidence, if you will, of the changing of the culture. Like all cultures and communities, there are 'splits' among them.

When the UK first aired the show I remember reading a lot of commentary from Travelers who are opposed to these particular people and offended at how the show portrays 'their' culture, saying it is not a true representation. But, it is a true representation - just a true representation of some within that culture.

In reality, it doesn't portray all Gypsy/Traveler culture - just a splinter group of them. Most know that. But, TV is good at portraying what they want to portray (and so called reality TV is REALLY good at that) and people as a whole are really good at lumping all into the little they see.

[buddingmedievalist]

I watched an episode tonight with my mom and the thing that struck was how the Travelers in the show want it both ways: they want to preserve their culture (so they say) with the outrageous dresses and jam-packed wedding receptions, but they also want to have these big blow-out weddings at fancy venues. What I saw was a refusal to choose one or the other and a complete disconnect about why these nice hotels and country clubs wouldn't want a big crazy party. It seems to me that they (at least the Travelers on the TLC show) prefer to just call persecution rather than adapt anything to the modern world

[Austin]

This is just me, but I don't particularly care whether these people show up to deign to converse with us or not. I see no need to fawn and flatter just to keep them around, either. It is easy to find a pet fundie "cute" and all - I've certainly fallen into that trap - but it never ends well. There is no need to be discourteous for its own sake, but when someone lays out their story/viewpoint, FJers are going to call them out on inconsistencies, racism, sexism, extremism, and all the rest.

I get that some people want a kinder and gentler FJ. I do sometimes, too. However, we are a snark forum. If some members are going to try to slap the hands of other members who snark, then it's not going to go over well. I've noticed more of this lately, more tsk-tsk-ing, and I find it tedious at best.

[moreorlessnu]

I was discussing this show with an 80-something year old lady who originally came from Eastern Europe. She said that when the gypsies came around, her mother would tell her to hide in the house since the gypsies were known for stealing children.

I don't know if this is true, but it got me thinking. If the gypsies did steal small children, that would be a way of mixing new blood into the blood lines while still insuring gypsies marrying only gypsies.

Further, it made me realize that many of the people in the show(s) we've seen do not resemble each other, the way we would think they would if there was lots of intermarrying. In the last episode, the bride and her maid of honor were cousins, yet they looked nothing alike. One was blond and slender, the other dark haired and more solid looking.