Representation of Ethnicity

Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier.

What are gypsies like?

Please write down 5-10 words that you associate with modern gypsies living in the UK?

 How many gypsy people have you met in person? Where does your understanding of gypsies come from? When a belief is shared by the majority of people within a society that can be said to be part of the dominant ideology. The media plays a powerful role in reinforcing dominant ideology by reproducing stereotypical representations

in Feb 2012 advertisements for Channel 4s second series of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding were launched, widely reproduced in newspapers, magazines and on billboards around the country.

Discuss in groups: how does this advert represent gypsy boys?

Stuart Hall - representation

Hall claims: These representations do not reflect reality but they are engaged in defining reality. Rather than transmitting already existing meaning ; the media through the active work of selecting and presenting, of structuring and shaping are making things mean. This is the essence of representation.

Shaping the image

Original photo

Cropped image

Selecting the image

Presenting the image Original photo

Cropped and captioned

Structuring the image

How does this advert represent gypsy girls?

Making things mean how has this photo been altered and how does that effect its meaning?

Original Photo

Cropped and captioned

Some billboards are defaced

Gypsy and traveller communities hold some small scale protests

The London Gypsy and Traveller Unit deliver a letter of protest to Channel 4
What does Gypsier mean in this context and what do the images say about being a Gypsy? asked the letter. The stereotype promoted is that of apparently alluring girls and young women and of menacing young men. It is hurtful and damaging to use the correct descriptive term for an ethnic group as a sly dig at that group, it continued. We wonder if Channel 4 would have been so ready to use adverts with similarly compromising images and phrases like Jewisher or more Asian or Blacker? http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2012/02/24/the-biggerfatter-gypsier-backlash/

Adverts are investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority

Big Fat Gypsy Wedding ads prompt almost 100 complaints over 'racism' Advertising watchdog to consider action over Channel 4 billboard campaign for Big Fat Gypsy Weddings Article from The Guardian

Channel 4 defends its advertisements

"The word 'gypsier' refers to the fact that this series offers even greater access and insight to the communities featured, and the terms 'Gypsy' or 'gypsier' are not being used in a negative context.

The ASA disagreed

[] many who were familiar with the programme might well interpret the strap-line to mean that the second series being advertised offered even more examples of Gypsy and Traveller life, however we considered that many readers would not share that interpretation and that many were likely to infer from the word Gypsier that the depictions in the individual ads were highly typical of the Gypsy and Traveller community.

Photojournalist releases email that casts doubts over the sincerity of C4 defence
A Channel 4 art director tried to persuade the photographer working on its censured Big Fat Gypsy Weddings poster campaign to take pictures of "a very young girl pretending to be a bride" and also a "dirty kiss ... with tongue" in a revealing email. Pablo Gonzalez de la Pena, an art director with the broadcaster, emailed Elisabeth Blanchet, the photographer commissioned to deliver images for the controversial "Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier" ad campaign, in January asking her to "do what it takes" to get the controversial shots he wanted. In the email de la Pena suggests he wants to see a photograph with "a dirty kiss between a couple, with tongue"; "a toilet, ideally an outdoor one [where] we can see the tail of a wedding dress coming out from it, like a bride has just used"; and "a very young girl pretending to be a bride". He even suggests that she might stage some of the example situations to get the effect required by Channel 4 saying "If you can make someone literally [do it], that would be great.http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/11/big-fat-gypsy-weddingsdirty-kiss

Photojournalist had refused to ask contributors to pose for shots

The photographer, Blanchet, was scathing in her email response to the Channel 4 executive at the time of the exchange on 11 January and 12 January. She said some of the girls she took photos of were "not keen" on having more outrageous pictures taken. Blanchet said that it would not be right for her to ask a girl to pose for the "kiss" or "toilet" shots. "It's not the way I work," she said in the email dated 12 January. "And I don't think any Gypsies will accept to do that and then to have it on a poster.. She released all of the photos she submitted to Channel 4 on her blog to try and recontextualise the shots and distance herself from the negative representations.

The ASA delivered a damning verdict

The poster of the young boy was criticised and found to have broken the ASA rules. Channel 4 was banned from reproducing it again. [the boy] was depicted in a way that was offensive and endorsed negative stereotypes about him and his community," the watchdog ruled. "We considered that the ad reaffirmed commonly held prejudices about Gypsy and Traveller children in a way that was likely to cause distress and mental harm to children from those communities, including to the boy featured in the ad []

The poster of the girls was also banned

[The two girls] were heavily made-up and wearing low cut tops and we considered that, when combined with the strap-line and in particular the word "GYPSIER", the ad implied that appearance was highly representative of the Gypsy and Traveller community in a way that irresponsibly endorsed that prejudicial view.

The poster of the girls was also banned due to its sexualised representation of a child
The ASA found that one of the girls in a low-cut top, wearing heavy makeup and with part of her bra visible, was 15 a year below the legal age children are allowed to be shown [in a sexualised way] in advertisements. "Although we understood that the girl was depicted in her own choice of dress we considered that, in choosing that image for use in a poster, Channel 4 had acted irresponsibly by depicting a child in a sexualised way," said the ASA.

The European Human Rights Commission adds a context to C4s advertisements

The EHRC commented that Gypsies and Travellers were often subject to suspicion and disapproval because of negative public perceptions which in turn led to members of the community experiencing prejudice and harassment. Although racism from members of the public towards most ethnic minority groups was now widely viewed as unacceptable, it remained persistent and common towards Gypsies and Travellers and was generally seen as justified and the last "respectable" form of racism.

EHRC cont.
They said media reporting and portrayal could have a significant impact in shaping public perceptions of Gypsies and Travellers. They said their research had found that the role of the media was a key area in the perpetuation of misunderstanding and that stereotypical images and sensational reporting frequently promoted fear and hatred in local populations. They said such problems were magnified by the absence of countervailing positive images.