October 19th – There’s something about accents,
don’t you think, that brand the speaker in our fast-to-judge minds even before
they’ve finished their first sentence of greeting… I think the BBC did a great
disservice when they cleaned up every announcer they employed who didn’t all
come from London (as much as the folk like to think that London is the centre
of the universe…their universe, maybe, but not for the rest of the country it
aint) and taught them the middle-England, Received Pronunciation (R.P.) way of
speaking. That became the standard and because a lot of the earlier continuity
people, folk like Alvar Lidell (pronounced ALvaR La-Dell), were the voice of
the BBC and had come from more privileged backgrounds and uni’s, their
plum-in-mouth pronunciation became the way to go if work in the meeja was
required.
Now, of course, all that’s changed. Now, in both programme
presentation and continuity, we seem to be drowning in a sea of authentic
accents, some of them (many of them) completely unintelligible (sorry). The
glottal stop is now the accepted way to pronounce, along with street, text-speak
phrases and acronyms scatter-gunned throughout for good measure. Problem is
what this does is set off recognition filters in the brain.
We not only hear the accent but we make instant value judgements
on the speaker; we all do it (unless we’re saints in which case, WTF are you
doing reading this crap – piss off and save the planet or summat else useful)
and it clouds the background of what is, in all probability, a person well
worth getting to know; almost like a form of racism, I guess. Let me try
something. I’m gonna do this for me (and as you well know, if this guff of mine
is anything, what I write is absolutely true, no lies, no softening, as it is
for me; OK?) You can play too if you want, but you’ll just have to be
single-minded enough not to read what follows the heading until you’ve
considered it for yourself. Then read on; maybe we’re kindred spirits…you
should be so lucky. Right; what comes to my mind (without pause for thought)
when someone mentions the word:
Geordie
Football – Black and white – Shipping – Labourers – Poverty –
Jarrow – Fry-ups – Unhealthy lifestyle – Limited vocabulary – Drunkeness – Paul
Gascoigne – Waste – Inability to control themselves – Violent
Etonian
Hockey sticks – Quad – Posh – Privilege – City – Unworthy –
Unearned – Unhealthy Lifestyle – Sexual deviancy – Words as smoke screens – Wing
collar – Politician – Inability to control themselves – Waste
In the case of both these labels we not only tap into our own
background (mine is solid working-class) and also tap into popular culture
(film, TV, music, sport etc) but we also tap into a built-in stereotype
register that we all carry, no matter what nationality, creed or colour. People
jump up and down about it, condemn everyone who gives it credence and shout
slogans and write polemics about it, but we all have it: all of us. It’s what
we choose to do with it and how we harness it that counts. It’s a series of
shortcuts in order to identify, collate and recognise what we are faced with in
any given social situation, and that social situation can be threatening or
pleasurable. It’s what helps us to decide how much investment we’ll make in the
development of such a situation, what we think the return will be on that investment.
What you have to be, first and foremost is honest in its recognition. Funny old
game being a human, innit? Well, those above things are what kept me and Cyndi
Lauper apart for years.
On this day in 1986, Ms. Lauper’s single, True Colors hit the number one spot in
the US, became a kind of anthem and has been done to death ever since. Not keen
on it all; reeks of nationalism and jingoism too much for me… However, as for
her Time After Time single? Perfect.
Just perfect.
Thing is, you see, I’d done Ms. Lauper a singular disservice.
I’d heard her 1983 release of Girls Just
Want to Have Fun and totally fucked up, as I did when I heard her in an
interview, when I heard her trying to talk about herself, and I switched into built-in stereotype register mode as she
struggled to explain herself and her philosophy: How wrong can one be? Heard an
extended interview with her a little later on in late ‘84’, I think, after the
release of Time After Time (much of that
song co-written with Rob Hymen but the main thrust covering her own lifetime
experiences) which I really thought was a well crafted, well turned out song
(much to my annoyance) and this time made an effort to get inside her accent
and understand what it was she was saying; well worth it. Turns out she’s a
brave lady with no shortage of courage, compassion and talent. Her fundraising
efforts and support for LGBT and AIDS is huge, as are her human rights’
credentials. In the late 19th century she would probably have stood
alongside Pankhurst; in the 20th century she’d probably be working
alongside Helen Bamber; in the 18th century she’d probably have been
working with Elizabeth Fry. She’s what every century needs; women of courage
and conviction that we are prepared to make time to listen to, no matter how
many vowels they let slip and what their accent is.
This is my apology to her today; and hearing her back in ‘84’
kickstarted my resolution to put a delay on the light switch in the room where
I keep my built-in stereotype register.
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