SoSensational is launching a campaign to reclaim the reputation of Essex (#stopcasualEssexism). Essex Girls Are Fighting Back!
We want to try to put an end to the Essex stereotype, and initially, are joining a move by website Mother Hub to end the stereotyping of Essex Girls.
Why Essex? Because Jan, Cyndy, Rebecca, Kayleigh, Jade#1, Jess, Emily, Michelle and Mark are not only all key members of the SoSensational team, but were all born and raised in Essex. So were Dame Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Charlotte Rampling, Juliet Stevenson, Michelle Dockery, Jilly Cooper, Ruth Rendell and (by adoption) Germaine Greer. Oh yes, and Jade#2, also a key member of the SoSensational team, who recently moved to Essex.
How it began…
Even before TOWIE piled in to confirm the prejudice, Essex had become the paradigm for vulgarity, excess and stupidity. We don’t quite know how it happened, but we’d like it to stop. We know columnist Simon Heffer played a part when he identified “Essex Man” during the 1984 general election.
But Heffer’s “Essex Man” wasn’t the nasty, brutish stereotype that the epithet has come to signify. Back then, Essex Man epitomised the new Tory voter: a man who aspired to put his working class roots behind him, own his own home and work unhindered by the tyranny of militant unions.
A few years later, the Essex Girl Joke Book, co-written under the pen-names “Ray Leigh” and “Brent Wood”, further trashed the Essex Girl’s reputation.
Are there Essex Girls with shrill voices? Yes. Are there Essex Girls who turn their skin orange with fake tan? Yes. Are there stupid Essex Girls? Are there promiscuous Essex Girls? Almost certainly there are both, but there are very many more clever Essex Girls; very many more talented Essex Girls; very many more modest Essex Girls; very many more hard-working Essex Girls; very many more compassionate Essex Girls, articulate Essex Girls and exquisitely-dressed Essex Girls and that’s not counting Dame Helen Mirren, Charlotte Rampling, et al,
How it can stop…
The first move is to sign the Mother Hub. Founders Natasha Sawkins and Juliet Thomas, who recently moved to Essex, have launched a petition calling for the damagingly derogatory definition of “Essex Girls” to be removed from dictionaries. And we can see why! The Oxford English Dictionary states: “’Essex girl’ is a derogatory noun: a contemptuous term applied… to a type of young woman, supposedly to be found in and around Essex, and variously characterised as unintelligent, promiscuous and materialistic.” The Collins Dictionary offers a similar and equally uncomplimentary definition.
Mother Hub hopes its campaign will lead to the stereotype being listed as “obsolete”. SoSensational, which is based in Essex (did we forget to mention that?) wants to assist their campaign; because at SoSensational, we are all incensed by the casual Essexism we have encountered over the decades.
Perhaps the most acutely annoying aspect of the stereotype is “unintelligent”. Essex truly does not deserve to be a synonym for “unintelligent”; Essex schools consistently achieve exceptionally high grades at GCSE and A-level; and every league table published in the last 30+ years has had a disproportionately large number of Essex schools in the top 10.
The County of Essex has produced thousands of high achievers in many fields including the arts, publishing, science, medicine, sport, law and the judiciary. But thanks to Essexism, all those achievements are eclipsed. “Essex Girl” and “Essex Man” have come to define Essex.
Essex-based SoSensational would like Essexism to stop. We are signing the Mother Hub petition to have the damningly derogatory stereotype “Essex Girl” deleted from the dictionary. But long-term, we’d like to see an end to the “Essex” stereotype, an end to casual Essexism; #stopcasualEssexism… we’re going to fight it.
So come on, all women of Essex! If you were born in Essex, have lived in Essex, or still do, let’s campaign together and #stopcasualEssexism. Don’t keep your friends in the dark! Share this post with your friends, using the buttons on the left.
Never been to Essex? Show your friends you care about their Essex roots by sharing this post with them, using #stopcasualEssexism and signing up to the petition on Change.Org
Essex Girls Are Fighting Back!
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