"Outside of a Stevie Nicks song, the Romani people are an oppressed ethnic minority whose diasporic roots date back to 10th-century India and are currently in the midst of a centuries-long human rights crisis—one that is, in part, perpetuated by the stereotypes of the Gypsy. Yet almost no one but the Roma themselves are pushing back on the series’ title slur, the writing to the network and producers, or creating a petition to change the show’s title. Along with simple ignorance, anti-Romani sentiment is so normalized that in 2017, a premier streaming service can release a show that takes an actual racial slur as its title and no one bats an eyelash...
People who are oddly attached to the slur like to argue that the word can be used with good intentions. I often hear, “You don’t understand, ‘Gypsy’ means a free-spirited person!” But that image of the carefree wanderer exists alongside an ugly and continued history of persecution. When Roma first arrived in Europe around the 11th or 12th century, the Catholic church denounced these dark-skinned people with many gods and would not allow them to settle anywhere. The book Roads of the Roma: a PEN Anthology of Gypsy Writers notes that as early as the 1300s, European countries began persecuting Roma by driving them off the land, enslaving them, or ordering them killed...
Today, Romani women and girls are among those the most targeted by sex traffickers due to our supposedly sex-crazed, deviant nature, Romani women are also routinely forcibly sterilized. We see the specter of this dangerously sexual, mysterious seductress in countless pop songs: From Santana and Leonard Cohen to Lady Gaga and Hilary Duff, the list of Gypsy muses rolls on. Stephen King made sure to squeeze both an evil witch and a sexpot Gypsy into Thinner, and the racist TLC travesty My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding did its very best to misrepresent us as ignorant despots who are somehow both sexually repressed and oversexed."
Mmmm. I didn't watch the show since its premise sounded questionable, but I definitely remember thinking the title was cute, whimsical. I 100% thought about the stereotype of the 'gypsy girl' and 0% about the actual people it referenced.
I'm super glad the show was canceled, and I'm also really glad I read this article, my consciousness is expanded.
Fb: "Gypsy stereotypes offer escapism for gadje, or non-Roma people. Jean wants to be special, swirling above the world of work, parenting, and upper-middle-class white-lady obligations with a glass of Bulleit bourbon in hand. She expresses this yearning through lying, debauchery, near-cheating, and boundary issues. The show plays on Gypsy stereotypes honed through history, including dishonesty, promiscuity, hedonism, and mental instability, that actively hurt and erase an already marginalized community. In depicting “Gypsy” ways as a lifestyle choice for carefree travelers and adventurers, the real system of oppression is also erased."
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