Name: Essex girls.
Age: 16-40.
Appearance: White stilettos, hair extensions, rich mahogany tan, vajazzle.
Isn’t that just a cheap stereotype? Yes.
Is it fair to stereotype all young and youngish women from Essex? It’s fun.
That wasn’t what I asked. All right. No, it’s not fair. Nor is it true, obviously. That’s why thousands of people have signed an online petition about it.
Nothing says “unstoppable popular movement” like an online petition. Indeed.
Do they want to ban people from saying “Essex girl”? Sort of. They want it taken out of the dictionary.
What? The petition was started by two women from Essex called Natasha Sawkins and Juliet Thomas. They dislike the fact that the Oxford English Dictionary and the Collins dictionary include “Essex girl” as a derogatory noun among their definitions, and will write to the editors demanding its removal. So far, 3,283 people agree with them.
Hang on a minute. Dictionaries record language as it exists, not as it should exist. They contain every racial slur, every sexist epithet. Even if you wanted to start censoring dictionaries, why would you start here? Because Essex girls have had enough, OK? They don’t like being called “unintelligent”, “materialistic”, “sexually promiscuous” and “devoid of taste” in print. “These terms simply don’t define the women we know,” they say. “We sure as hell won’t let it define us.”
But it’s a definition of the stereotype, not of real women! I don’t think they want to get into that. Instead, they start talking about paramedics and hairdressers and volunteers at women’s refuges, who they say aren’t unintelligent or materialistic or any of those things.
Are they saying that every Essex hairdresser has taste? Yes.
That’s a bold claim. It’s also stereotyping women. Ah, but it’s a good stereotype.
And those are OK? I guess so. In any case, I think you’re missing the point. This is about raising awareness of the phrase so people will stop using it. Lots of women from Essex have gone on Twitter with the hashtag #IAmAnEssexGirl to say they’ve got degrees.
Raising awareness of something so people will forget it? Have they thought this through? Perhaps not.
Do say: “Essex county council had a commitment … to improve its public image between 2002 and 2005 … And yet here we are, still talking about negative stereotypes.”
Don’t say: “We’re talking about it because you started a petition!”
