Monday, January 29, 2007

At last

Someone has finally talked about the real issues in BB.

I watched very little of it, mainly cos I can't stand the programme.

When the Jade row happened, I must confess I didn't see most of it as a racist thing, just as a Jade thing.

It's about background, not skin colour. Jade would probably have had a stinking great row with Tara P-T if she'd been in there.

The thing about it that shocked me (that shouldn't have done) is the way the media have reacted. For the last few years they've written stories about Jade and secretly loathed her, this affair gave them the chance to rip her to shreds.

Class issues run a lot deeper than anyone thinks. In the comments on the BBC article, someone says that "chavs" are working class and that it's the middle class that disparage them. I don't think of chavs as working class, to me they are the benefit scroungers, the people who could be working but can't be bothered. If you're on benefits because you need them and are entitled to them then fine. If you'd sooner claim than do any work then off to the workhouse with you!

The Yeti always used to call my parents middle class. He'd laugh at me because I was used to certain things, like proper cheese instead of cheese slices, and having salt and pepper grinders rather than using packets you've lifted from KFC. If being middle class is having a certain standard of living, then that's me. But I know for a fact that if I quit my job and had a couple of kids I could be living in a council flat free of charge and picking up more in benefits than I earn working.

Whatever I am, I'm someone who has respect for other people and for myself. Something that's lacking in a lot of places these days, especially in the media.

2 comments:

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

I thought this was a great post, and spot on. The media frenzy was shocking.

MarkFarley said...

Hooray, I completely agree despite accusing me (Scott Pack) for slightly over reacting, but then again he blames me for the PB getting pulled too... errr... anyway, I completely recognised that it was a class thing but some of the comments were racial born from ill education and ignorance.

You can be working class and still have salt and pepper grinders, that's silly... but that's The Yeti for you. Working in retail and on the wage that we are on, of course we are working class.

With the all of the launches that I go to and the people that I meet, I am very aware that I am working class. But you are right to point out that there is another class below working class that has emerged in this country, and The Goodys are part of that.

You know they have a stockpile of salt and pepper sachets, the fact that during "Just Jade" she went on a rampage of scrounging freebies from the knicker shops she was "doing her research from" (she later chose to do a perfume instead) through the basis of her celebrity, is a perfect example of that.

(steps down off soapbox)