Chav-tastic

[dreamer_easy]

Oh, now I get what the hell a "chav" is. They're the young people in Britain you're supposed to be afraid of and allowed to sneer at. It was a reference to "the national sport of chav-baiting" in a news item that tipped me off. The Australian equivalent at the mo would be young Lebanese-Australian men.

Comments

[adrian-middle.livejournal.com]

You know, being a Doctor Who fan I find it rather ironic that, while chav culture strives to be an acceptable alternative to the middle class, the new series of Doctor Who is a middle class institution that strives to be acceptable to chav culture.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It is a lot more inclusive than the old show, especially when it comes to class!

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

It's true, you wouldn't see a character like, say, Ace coming from a single-parent home in an area implied to be dangerous, racist, and less affluent. :) Point taken, though - it really was only in the last couple of years there that the world became a non-white, non-middle-and-upper-class place. Most race and class issues seemed to be dealt with in SF allegory before that. (Mind you, Rose's council estates seem very affluent, safe, and free of all race tensions, which I think probably does say we're looking at something essentially middle class aspiring for the visual trappings of a class that's not, without the actual downsides of a character who's been raised somewhere that actually features any racism or muggings or being poor. She's never really blurted out anything awkward for middle-class viewers to hear, unlike, say, "white kids firebombed my friend's house".)

[saltmarsh.livejournal.com]

She's never really blurted out anything awkward for middle-class viewers to hear, unlike, say, "white kids firebombed my friend's house".

I have to absolutely agree with this. Disclaimer: I am a huge Seven/Ace fan. But... there doesn't seem to be anything about Rose or her environment that could be perceived as threatening. Even though the council estate setting is potentially very relevant in this current era of ASBOs, underclass conflict etc, there's no hint of these problems in the show at all. Quite interesting to compare the portrayal of Rose's harmonious council estate with that of Perivale, which was condemned as a no hope pit full of NF supporters and lost youth. I think both could be argued to be middle class representations though?

I'm quite uncomfortable with the use of the term 'chav, actually, even for comedy purposes. Perhaps that's just me.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

No, it's not just you. Actually, it was pretty funny watching fandom debate whether Rose was a "chav" after New Earth, apparently blithely unaware that the Lady Cassandra is a stuck-up snob.

I dunno whether showing one of these council estate places and its inhabitants as fairly safe and normal is subversive or patronising. I wonder if at some point RTD will retool Damaged Goods for the new show? Probably leave out the scene where the gay-bashed man stitches up his own wound with needle and thread, though.

[saltmarsh.livejournal.com]

No, it's not just you.

Ah, fair enough.

I dunno whether showing one of these council estate places and its inhabitants as fairly safe and normal is subversive or patronising.

That's what I can't work out, either. I mean, in one way it's a positive model, and there are seven squillion children watching, so that's good, and it could be wonderfully subversive, but at the same time, there's a sort of 'look at these comedy poor people!' feel about it to me, especially with Jackie Tyler. Again, MHO. Jury's still out. It's like it's as political as the McCoy era, but angled somewhat differently. I'd be intrigued to see if Damaged Goods worked its way into the new series.

Oh on an entirely different subject, dunno if you're at all into funny little synchronicities, but in this week's Time Out (London) there's a special feature on Paris, and one of the people they've talked to about their favourite places in the city is a young African woman called Kadiatou. Tickled me, anyway.

Um, hope you don't mind if I friend you. I've been a big enough fan for long enough, I should really... :)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

No of course not - the more the merrier!

[saltmarsh.livejournal.com]

Thanks - done!

[infinitarian.livejournal.com]

It is a lot more inclusive than the old show, especially when it comes to class!

The portrayals may have been somewhat lacking in authenticity, but two of the first Doctor's companions, to whit Dodo and Ben, were supposed to be present-day working-class people. Admittedly it would take the show until 1987 before that happened again (unless you count Benton), but it deserves points for early effort, at least.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Think you might be using a bit of Internet mathematics there, mate. :-)

[infinitarian.livejournal.com]

Well, I wasn't trying to extrapolate a general rule -- just suggesting that, for a BBC programme in the mid-60s, mid-60s Who tried to be more class-inclusive than one might have expected. Of course it did so from a very middle-class perspective -- Dodo and Ben are clearly working-class characters written by middle-class writers. (But then so are Rose and Jackie.)

Later on, the programme wouldn't even make this effort, which I agree was a shame... and Ace on TV isn't a much more convincing working-class teenager than Dodo was, so they hadn't learned much in the interim either.