Gypsies: Classic or Dud?

I would like to be a Gypsy/Romany. I would like to because they seem pretty damn cool, at least the Gypsy stereotype, stealing children and reading fortunes and dancing for money. I'd love to do all that.

allegedly in Prague the best fun is to be had in the Roma parts of town. However, guidebooks recommmend against i) bringing credit cards with you or ii) accepting invites back to anyone's homes.

In my dreams I never tell people my real name and everyone calls me gypsy.

My relatives in Poland, though, aren't very kind when they talk about gypsies -- they almost sound like 1950's era Southerners do when talking about Black people. Odd because they're normally pretty cosmopolitan and not prejudiced as far as Poles go (one of my cousins volunteers for some sort of Polish-Jewish friendship club, for instance). I understand that Poland, and other former Eastern Bloc countries, have a lot of problems with anti-Gypsy sentiments.

Anyone watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding?

I thought it was a lot more interesting the last couple of episodes as they've moved a little bit away from concentrating on the weddings (which were all much of a muchness) and next weeks looks at the abuse they get from non-gypsies.

Watching it, enjoying it very much. It's the first proper watercooler TV show in my office for a good while, almost everyone watches.

One colleague complained that she felt it was very voyeuristic and all it does is encourage the audience to laugh at the subjects, but to my mind this is dead wrong. Beyond the typically provocative C4 title, the people it focuses on are given a very fair chance to present themselves however they choose - the guy behind the camera asks idiotic questions half the time, but the main voiceover doesn't feel judgemental. Sure there are lols at the dresses and bogling six-year-olds, but I've also been fascinated by the society it depicts.

The funny thing was, watching the 'fight', was that it reminded me of our playground back in the primary school, and the implicit violence and the 'respect' levels you had to adhere to, and the 'resolution of disputes by the means of fighting", even the 'fair-play' ref. (and we weren't gypsies, obv).

Sort of stops you thinking 'we be better than them'....

and we weren't gypsies, obv

... and neither are they

yeah, sigh, was expecting..

The depressing thing about the fight was that obviously it wasn't "the end of the matter". The main chap said it was a family feud that had been going for years and the winner was clearly unhappy that he hadn't been able to beat seven shades of shit out of his opponent. And then the winners son was going "well at least you won dad" and on it goes.

Taking Sides: Irish Travellers v. True Roma Gypsies

vs Czech gypsies w/Scarface posters on their wall who moved here like 3 years ago

I watched "Sky West and Crooked" the other night, which featured Ian McShane as a gypsy boy who falls in love with Hayley Mills. Depiction of Gypsies was, for its time, quite reasonable.

these "blond angel" headlines are kind of making me sick

No expert on the roma here, but I have done a bit of book-and-film research on them. They don't strike me as inherently superior or inferior to other groups and cultures, just clearly different and apart -- proudly and defiantly apart. In maintaining clear group boundaries rather than assimilating they have some similarities to the jews, but only using the broadest strokes.

I do not doubt that they engage in petty crime, pilferage, minor forms of fraud and so on, but that's part of the territory when you are vagrants among an alien and settled group. The crimes they gravitate toward seem to be those that empasize trickery and outwitting their victim rather than straight smash and grab stuff. It's their version of sticking it to the man. It is a kind of morality.