Jade Goody Must Die (What are the problems with Urban Youth Culture?)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	What are the problems with Urban Youth Culture?
Date:	26/11/06 (1172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Are you kidding?

Disadvantages: Undermines our need to escape the idea of the class system

You could be forgiven for thinking that the British class system of a bygone age has gone. More people than ever go to University now; just about anybody can become a celebrity it seems and nobody wears a tie for business meetings anymore. And yet we feel that we have a social underclass lovingly referred to as “chavs” amongst us. Would you believe that there’s even a web site dedicated to this discreet group of people at…erm….. http://www.chavscum.co.uk. Oh dear. It was another one of those God awful shopping trips in downtown Northampton that made me ponder the notion of chavs and where this concept fits into the scheme of things in a supposedly enlightened age. To tell the truth, what brought it home was the usual tragicomedy scenario of screaming child in pushchair in the supermarket with mom hollering for the child to shut up whilst everyone else was covering their ears, faces contorted in agony. Yes, it was that apocryphal name that was shouted out that made me cringe and I wondered why as mom demanded with the intensity of a pneumatic drill that Kylie be quiet immediately or she wouldn’t get any tea or something. It was either that or she would be hung from the washing line and banned from playing her playstation for at least 10 minutes. Having returned home, I asked my good lady why I should assume that just because a bairn was called “Kylie” then that made her a chav and what did that say about our incessant ability to judge people? She just looked at me and carried on with something more important like stroking the cat or finishing her incredibly long Christmas shopping list (eek…who is paying for all this?).

Well having visited the aforementioned website, I’m now much more knowledgeable in the way of the chav. For a start, chavs go under numerous other names i.e. Hoodies, Neds, Townies, Kevs, Charvers, Steeks, Spides, Bazzas, Yarcos, Ratboys, Skangers, Scutters, Janners, Stigs, Scallies, Hood Rats to name but a few. The one I’m familiar with the most is Hoodies as anyone that wears such a garment seems to get blamed for most of our social ills these days. The image of a spotty youth waiting to mug someone on their warren-like council estate, masked by their Hoodie, is the popular culture underlined by the Media including that guardian of the nation’s morals – “The Sun”. Needless to say, I’m sure that not everyone wearing a Hoodie is a ruthless criminal that’s just done time in Borstal but you could be forgiven for thinking that way if you read the newspapers or follow the news. I was at the School Proms 2006 recently at the Royal Albert Hall in London (don'tcha know) for what was a wonderful evening of listening to the cream of school musical talent from around the country. We had jazz bands, a Ska band, 500 children from a collaboration of Northamptonshire schools (which is why I was there as me ladio had blagged his way into the choir) and even a full youth orchestra all the way from Belfast playing. At the start of the evening, the presenter who was introducing the various acts suggested that the children playing tonight were far more representative of today’s generation rather than the ASBO youth depicted in the media and everyone applauded the statement. Is he right, I wondered?

Which, like a silky smooth Ant and Dec link on “I’m a Celebrity Get me Outta Here!” (not that I watch it or anything *cough*) leads me to my next point – ASBOs. The ASBO was an idea introduced by the government to control anti-social behaviour. After all, that’s what an ASBO is – an Anti Social Behaviour Order. And yet this has apparently become a badge of honour rather than a deterrent. Case in point, at the lovely chav website, there is a book available called “How to Get an ASBO” along with a link to a site also all about how to get an ASBO. Whilst this is all very tongue-in-cheek, it does seem that going in front of magistrates and getting “done” with the requisite ASBO is like some kind of endorsement of a gang culture and clearly isn’t working in the way it was meant to. With noisy neighbours getting ASBOs for owning pigeons that are too loud and spotty Kev with the baseball bat getting done for assaulting yet another pensioner then the ASBO seems to just a certificate of bad behaviour to put on the wall and show to your mates.

If you want to put yourself out of your misery because in a fit of self deprecation you were wondering whether you are a chav or not then fear not: you can simply upload your photo to the chav site and people will rate you out of 10 as to whether you are a chav or not. I seem to remember something like this with folks uploading photos to establish whether they were “hot or not?” and/or whether they were classed as “mingers” on a different site (the word “minger” is surely one of *the* best words in the English language). What will earn you chav points on the Richter scale includes the hallmarks of a chav which are - wearing baseball caps, sportswear, trainers and bling jewelry that would embarrass the most stalwart customer of Ratner’s. Then again, bling jewelry covers a multitude of sins and I’ve been guilty of making judgments about those wearing such offending items myself on numerous occasions (I always assume people wearing loads of gold jewelry including neck and wrist chains are probably drug dealers – even when it’s a little old lady of 80).

I guess my favourite aspect of chavdom is the idea of celebrity chavs; those people that have made it into the spotlight but have consummately failed to shed their chav image even despite their new association with “Hello” magazine. Jordan, Jodie Marsh and Daniella Westbrook are all examples listed and who would argue but the most contentious for me is the Beckhams. With stories of golden toilets and complimentary duel thrones in Beck’s Palace then it looks like old Golden Balls and the stick insect will always be affectionately thought of as chavs. However, the most hideous example of chavdom is anything created by the monstrous Big Brother. Pete and Nikki are two recent examples of the chav machine spewing out yet more celebrity chavs although the most appalling creation EVER is undoubtedly Jade Goody. If ever anyone drives me more nuts that THAT woman then they will have to go some. How can anyone become famous and live off the back of being thick like that and yet that’s exactly what’s happened fueled by our national obsession with celebritydom. I’m always staggered that so many copies of “Hello” and “OK” are sold and can only assume that, in some sad way, it provides a missing link in our own dreary lives. Why *do* people want to navel gaze at these abominations of nature? I mean, Jade Goody has even managed to mess up owning and running a salon and now has her own programme about “Jade’s PA”. Honestly. *grimace*

It seems to me that our national obsession with pecking orders, class systems and Celebritydom are undermining the concept of everyone having a similar chance to succeed. As schools strive to level the playing fields of academic education and private schools are pressured into taking more ordinary children, we remain uncomfortable at the thought that there may be an alternative to the rich getting richer and the poor knowing their place. We are who we are and need to stop making judgments and start helping our kids to make the best of whom they are and could be. With the recent announcement of parenting courses in the national domestic blackspots around the country, it looks like we are finally trying to get to the root course of why so many kids go off the rails. It’s one small step of many needed but the sooner we stop laughing at ourselves and finally decide to put the class system to bed, the sooner we’ll disassemble the unfair weighting of wealth in this country and finally get the best of the next generation. Until then, the Jade Goodys of this world can continue to make a living by being good at precisely nothing and the popular culture of celebrities featuring in yet another fly-on-the-wall, Big Brother/stick me in the jungle/let’s have a circus/who is the least worst racing driver?/ will continue to consume us.

Thanks for reading.

Mara

Summary: Chavs - who needs 'em?