Best quote I’ve heard so far about it: “It’s like Toddlers and Tiaras meets Jersey Shore.”
Is there a difference between Gypsies and Travellers? The article seems to imply so. Or are they interchangeable terms?
AFAIK Gypsies are orignially of Indian stock, and some Hindu practices still show up in their Catholicism. Travelers are of Irish descent.
That happens sometimes. It usually happens when the other culture is kind of stupid. 
Gypsies, travelers, roma, who knows what to call them now?
What a sad, mixed up culture it seems to be. Girls drop out of school at 11 to clean house and raise siblings, marry as teenagers. Their lives seem to be focused on the two days they get to play princess, confirmation and marriage. They have strict, no sex before marriage, never seen without an escort, all concerned about being scandalized by what some boy says about them. At the same time the girls, even the very young, are being sexualized by being dressed as strippers/hookers and gyrate better than Beyonce. And boys are allowed to ‘grab’ them to attempt to get a kiss, including, literally, twisting their arms, until they give in.
And really, dresses so big you can’t sit, walk or dance, and will scar your body from the tight fit and weight? Really?
great. we’ll be up to our balls in jugglers.
As I understand it, all local councils in the UK have a duty to provide sites for the traveller community, although not all travellers stay on them.
If it is an official site, there will be toilet and shower blocks, with clothes washing facilities as well.
It’s a good question. Would anyone who’s seen the series like to chime in with how many professions they have seen mentioned?
And I thought my despicable tv habits couldn’t get any lower than watching Mob Wives, which sadly seems to be running out of a steam already…
gypsy trailer weddings, I’m in!
Regarding the demolition of their properties: The one episode that I saw that focused on this made it seem like they actually owned the land, but they were being prevented from living on it. I don’t understand that, is it just a zoning issue?
I also don’t understand why the police dragged away the protesters that were just standing with a sign. Do they have different protest laws in the UK? Or was it just editing in a way to make them look sympathetic? (It worked on me. Also, I am a sucker for the Marrying-the-Outsider plotlines, and I hope those kids end up all right.)
We had an Irish Traveler settlement near where I grew up in the US, and as far as I recall, most of them were in the landscaping/construction business (TPWombat, I only saw one episode, but one of the boys was a gardener or landscaper). I remember going to the fair and seeing huge groups of them with the children also dolled up to the nines. I do find it a really weird contradiction between their strict chastity/piety and exaggerated sexuality.
Ummm…it’s on TLC…watched some of it last night…
The OP was from Feb 2010, when it was not available on TLC. That’s why the thread was bumped, to say it was now airing in the US/Canada.
I’d managed to watch the original one and only caught the last half of the one the other night (thanks to this thread telling me it was on!) Did they say how those two crazy kids met? I forget her name, pink light up dress.
I think they said they knew each other from childhood where they were best friends, and then the boy left for a while. They met up again when they were older and fell in love.
Here’s a semi-recent article about the wife. She is currently pregnant. I thought it was interesting the boy wants to move into a house.
I won’t comment on the culture, but those dresses are spectacular! All too often nowadays, “stylish” means “bland”.
As for how they can afford them, I’m guessing they probably make them themselves. That’d cut out a huge chunk of the price.
The blonde lady with the fire extinguisher makes them (iirc from the original to the one the other night) and she won’t say how they pay her. That’s how she makes her living.
Bumping this thread because I am watching a marathon of this on TLC right now. There are no words. My words have failed me.
Bumping this again because my GF has been watching this, which of course means I had to watch it. Quite fascinating at first, but then I realized that if you simply replace their British accents with an American redneck twang, what you’re looking at is, with a few exceptions (like no sex until marriage, although mid-teen marriage seems to cancel that out), exactly American “trailer trash.”