I want to present an example of the application of this theory of Eurocentrism to the TV series, “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” which is screened on Thursdays, on TV1 at 8.30pm. Additionally there is the contributing factor of miscegenation addressed as the couple getting married are not from the same culture.
Eurocentrism is the notion of placing Europe as the central model for the “values, beliefs, cultures and judgements as ‘normal, natural and ideal” (Sue Abel).
“My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” documents the culture of a minority ‘Other’ group in the UK who call themselves ‘Travellers’ but are also labelled as a more negative term: ‘Gypsies’ which connotes ideas of shiftiness, criminal activity and the exotic. The title itself references the film, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” which parodies the Greek culture.
The scene which I have chosen to use as evidence of Eurocentrism was in the programme screened on Thursday 4 August. The documentary maker accompanied an engaged couple on their pursuit to purchase a caravan as their future marital home. As mentioned, the couple were not from the same culture; the young man was a Traveller but the young woman was white and British/European. The young woman was choosing to cross cultures and embrace the Traveller culture. The documentary maker comments to the young woman (he is off camera as he contributes his Eurocentric opinion) of challenging the young woman by stating that a caravan wasn’t a home. She responded to this by saying that a home is where you live so why couldn’t a caravan be a home? Allowing this exchange to be part of the programme represents not only the bias of the documentary maker (despite his efforts - albeit constructed and contrived - to portray a fly on the wall documentary of the culture of Travellers) but also it enforces Eurocentrism by projecting onto her the ‘normal’ conventions of ‘normal’ European people who live in one place and in a house not a caravan. This indicates the convention that caravans for Europeans are mobile holiday homes not permanent dwellings.
A further example of Eurocentrism was the use of a posh female narrator which reinforces the differences between the perceived highest type of white British culture and the perceived lowest type of culture that the Travellers are being represented as.
This programme is not a case of ‘new racism’ but racism of the ‘old’ unmitigated type.
posted by joanna @ 6:06 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
I just wanted to note one thing... I haven't seen the episode where the documentary maker makes those comments about the caravan, so I don't know the context, but from what I can see it doesn't necessarily show that he's professing a Eurocentric opinion. It seems like he's simply stating his opinion--that is, that a caravan is not a home. That would only be Eurocentric if the only people who lived in houses, and in one place, were the Europeans. Of course that is not true, and people in many other cultures also live in houses (and not in caravans). Therefore, by assuming the universal 'home' is the stationary house, he is not being racist, as this idea of housing is not unique to Europe. Just a thought :)
thanks for your comment, i think that's a valid thing to say. Perhaps it would have been better if i had just linked it to simply covert racism based on the way he was delivering his opinion which was in a snide and judgmental way. At the same time though, i do think that although living in a house is not just a solely eurocentric concept, it is a concept that rings true for me as one nonetheless -particularly when said the way it was said and by whom it was said and compared to the Travelers in the show.
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