subject: How Do You Know When An Essex Girl......? A Lesson In Reputation Management [print this page] How do you know if an Essex girl has been using your laptop? Theres Tip-ex on the screen.
For decades Essex girls have been the butt of many pub jokes, but they have finally had enough and are fighting back. Empower charity has been set up to deal with media relations and the hurtful public perception, that all Essex girls are trashy and sexually liberal. Essex girls have decided they are in serious need of some crisis management after the likes of Jodie Marsh Big Brother winner Chantelle Houston added to the stereotype.
Stereotypes exist for every nationality, race, gender and even hair colour. In their most menacing they can be racist, homophobic or discriminatory. For the most part though, people see stereotypes as an excuse for a laugh. Have you heard the one about the Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman?
So when do stereotypes stop being funny and start becoming offensive? The media is constantly full of discrimination court cases and you are never more than a few metres away from a political correctness gone mad debate. Perhaps it is a generation thing? The older manager, who was recently sued for patting his female secretarys bottom, may think this was an acceptable form of praise. Most people probably realise this is not the most sensible thing to do but he believed he was within his rights. Many women believe they face the gender stereotype everyday which has resulted in the red tape debate. Court cases cost companies millions of pounds in legal fees and often crisis management.
Aside from the more sinister side of stereotypes, many people use them to further their careers. The stereotype that men find skinny, big boobed women attractive has become a multi million pound industry. Many films play on stereotypes whether it is black people as gangsters, women constantly on the lookout for their perfect man or geeks wearing glasses. The film industry use huge images (sometimes of stereotypes) to promote their latest project and a PR agency will distribute images to every media outlet possible. Surely this is acceptable.
In reality stereotypes are only considered acceptable if no one is hurt or offended by them. So the generalisation that blondes are stupid is not readily believed and known to be a joke. Calling all people of a certain nationality criminals is offensive and not Ok. So before you make another one of those jokes just ask yourself whether you would mind if the joke was being made about you.
