Thoughts From The Peacock Angel

Why the FUCK is no one talking about the Romani and the damaging “gypsy” stereotype.  I’ve read otherwise very sensitive books that introduce a “gypsy” character and just… FUCK THE FUCK UP.  Romani people have been marginalized and exotified, and traditional Romani culture oppressed to the point of near extinction. I mean Esmerelda in the Hunchback of Notredame?  They fucked that up so thoroughly I can’t even bear to think about it (actually that movie is just incredibly problematic on a lot of levels).

No one ever talks about this, and the silence even in social justice circles is kind of sickening.  Governments have put monstrous restrictions on traditionally nomadic cultures like the Romani and the Irish Travellers, in an attempt to assimilate them, and its largely worked, erasing the heritage of untold numbers of people, and the history, the glimpse of the heritage of nomadic populations we do get is twisted, busted, messed up and told from the perspective of outsiders who just worsen the problem of exotification.

Also, people have commented on the problematic nature of “asian flower” and “indian princess” halloween costumes, but no one says anything about this goddamn nonsense:

Do you fucking see that crap?  Yeah it’s called a “gypsy princess” costume, it would be one thing to call it a “fortune teller costume” but no, they went with “gypsy princess” not to mention that in traditional Romani culture the lower half of the body is considered unclean… no way in hell would a skirt that short ever be permissible… fuck this.

Also, the worst part is a lot of this whole “ooh I’m a magical gypsy” crap seems to be coming from people who are otherwise strongly and actively liberal, I mean look at the neo-pagan community, the burner community and a ton of other supposedly liberal non-oppressive organizations… and what do you see?  This damned nonsense.

I’d actually really like to see some general talk about settled privilege (as settled people do seem to have rather notable privilege over nomadic ones)