Hi Mattyman. Sorry I've taken so long to reply, not had the internet for a week!
mattyman wrote:Yes, we definitely are much more informed about the world than americans, I can definitey attest to that.
Not saying much though is it
sorry Yanks.
I caught a programme not long ago (think it was posted here by Winston- something about American girls wanting to be 'English princesses', a sort of reality show. One girl didn't know where Australia was. Other horrors followed. I can't imagine the stupidest girl here not knowing that. I got pretty appalled when I heard a girl here recently say to me 'all food is organic 'cos it comes out of the ground' (I like to buy organic food when I can) but that's not on a par with 'where is Australia'. Bloody hell.
Abouth working class people. I think a major part of the problem here is the fact that family and community values have been heavily eroded. I think young people these days, especially in working class areas (hope I don't sound like a snob)
get a lot of their role models from the tv. In Eastenders for instance, people are mostly bitchy and catty towards each other. I think people pick this sort of thing up as a way to be. I also think though that we have a general climate of slefishness and an 'every man for himself' mentality, especially in those areas. This is, as you pointed out, because nothing is expected of them. I think we've had something like three generations of this. Very sad but true. From what I've heard from older people, not too long ago many working class neighbourhoods used to have good neighbourliness and good family values. You're probably right about nice girls being more common in middle class area, but even so you still get spoilt bratty snotty-nosed types that take everything for granted. You're right about that.
It's hard not to mention this sort of thing without being scared you'll come across as 'snobby'. It's fairly taboo to mention social class etc. in conversation for most Brits, and I think that's fair enough, but when you're talking about society it's hard to ignore the differences that crop up in social classes. I don't see the negative traits of 'British girls' as often in the middle-class. In fact I often find middle-class girls are outspoken
anti-feminists.
Celebrity saturation is everywhere but I think the working-class latch onto it more. They live in worse areas, might not want to go out, or have anywhere
to go apart from a pub. The community has completely gone in a lot of working-class areas. Only in middle-class or rural areas do I get strangers smiling, approachable, saying 'hi' as they walk past with their dog, or 'good morning'. In working-class areas I just feel like someone is going to stab me, haha. Not a good environment. So I guess the celebrity world helps them escape, but it just produces self-obsessed people who live on their own planet.
I must say that where I live though, nice girls are virtually non-existant, well, they tend to move away to go to uni. I live in a seaside town called Weymouth, have you been there? It is a very chavvy place, there are many areas that could be termed bedsit-ville, there are also many rough council estates and it's almost saturated with drinking establishments (most are absolutely appalling). It is in a very beautiful location though, with a great beach. Anyway, it's not the sort of place where one would find pretty Sophies and Emilies with mild manners and grace, that's absolutely certain. I think any american coming here expecting that is in for a bit of a shock.
Never been, might make a mental note to give it a miss. I went to Swanage last year, loved it, but was only for 2 days. Didn't see much of it.
Anyway, my belief is that nice, sweet feminine girls are very, very (times 10 to the power of god-knows what) rare in the towns and cities here. I think in general there is a shortage of those feminine qualities here, though I dare not mention any of this in public! I really honestly do think that they occur at a greater density on the continent and get progressively more dense the further from the sphere of americanisation one gets. What do you think?
You know, I think it's mostly to do with expectations of others. People like following herds. I don't necessarily think that's bad, it's just how we are. If these ladette girls were in a culture where it was looked down upon to behave like that, they'd straighten up pretty sharpish. I have been in a lot of circumstances myself where I thought it would be much easier to act like that sort of girl (but i can't! I think it's to do with my family. Family installs certain values in you, it's important. My mother would keel over if she saw me acting like that!)
So the more acceptable it is to be feminine, sweet, etc., the more girls would feel safer acting that way. In the middle-classes there's no pressure to be tough or like a ladette, you are not looked down upon for being even the most traditional girl. In some other circles that would be suicide.
In fact perhaps one of the main reasons I try to act how I do is because if I did otherwise I would disappoint a lot of people. Who knows how much of our personalities is conscious choice and which comes from the societies we live in? If I turned into a ladette tomorrow pretty much everyone I know would be shocked, confused and a bit wary. Maybe if I'd grown up in a tower-block flat in a horrible area I'd be a different girl altogether.
As for the differences in countries, it is far less acceptable in a lot of other countries to act like a ladette, so girls wouldn't do it, they'd go with what is more valued. On the whole people like others to approve. If they get approval from getting drunk, having casual sex and not showing respect for themselves, for being the tough, crazy one, then they might go that route. In most countries I think that would be almost unthinkable, for a girl to get approval acting like that, so they'd act more feminine as required. I dunno.
