My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

[Becky]

Has anyone been watching this show? It's on at 9pm every Tuesday evening, though i'm unsure how long it's on for, the first two episodes are on the channel 4 website.

'Gaining rare access to this fascinating and often misunderstood community, Cutting Edge uses the prism of the weddings to reveal a culture where brides compete to have the biggest dress but having children out of wedlock is still taboo and divorce is unheard of.

This is a community that lives alongside but detached from mainstream society. It is a community'of contrasts, living by centuries-old religious and cultural traditions but at the same time embracing the gaudier extremes of the celebrity- and fashion-obsessed times in which we live.'

It's such an interesting show and shocking too!! Girls at the age of 8 are dressing so provocatively and dancing what can only be described as how slutty girls would! i was shocked! I would never let my kids dress like that!

I'd give it a watch if you haven't already!

 

[Dunc]

At my mums work, the cleaner is a 'traveller', and after the 1st episode, she was really embarrassed and didn't want to go into work, worrying what people would think about her after watching the programme. From what I can tell, it is a great misrepresentation of how they actually live. While doing voluntary work in the same village that the travellers live and meeting a fair few and teaching some traveller children how to use computers, it is fair to say that while they have quite obvious social differences to none-traveller people, but the way that channel four is showing them is completely out of context. The person that works with my mum has said that their weddings are never normally like that, I suppose mainly due to financial issues, but I suppose the money that channel four give these people in their 'programme' obviously mean they can afford to be outlandish with their weddings, thus leading to a rather controversial show which in turn will bring in the ratings, rather than giving a balanced look on gypsy life, they have warped it and at the end of the day will just make people more stereotypical about something few people have not spent a lot of time trying to understand, but rather just base their views on the drivel the national media report.

I think it's much the same with any person, give them money, they will spend it. If I was getting married, and someone came up to me and said 'Look, here's 30 grand, have a **** hot wedding and we will video it', it wouldn't be a direct representation of all Christian weddings.

But hey ho, the TV company's are all about ratings, and at the end of the day, this has been a pretty big hit.

 

[Average Joe]

Lots of big jugs is what is first noticeable!

Other than that I've read books by travelers and people close to them and I've never heard anything like these weddings described!

As Dunc said, probably a result of the show more than the average gypsy wedding...