Pimp Debate - Another Open Letter to Maxine Frith at "The Independent"

Hi, Maxine,

You may remember me; it’s Doris, the one who wrote what must have seemed an endless reply to your 'Independent' article on drinking in the UK a while back? Enjoyed the “The Pimp Debate” article in Wednesday 22nd’s ‘The Independent’ “Home” section very much and would like to take this opportunity to expand on some of the statements and ideologies expressed in the piece.

Of the six women who were allowed to voice their opinions on ‘pimp-chic’, all but one, Joan Smith, gave entirely predictable views; indeed, any semi-intelligent person would, and could, have given a fairly accurate resume of the views those five others expressed just by looking at the names and occupations of those represented. Stereotyping, you, Doris? ‘Fraid so.

Firstly, as with all things “personal”, vested-interest will always play a part, hence the offerings of Max Akhtar, Dawn Porter, Caroline Coon and Alexia Loundras were completely foreseeable in their direction of travel and destination. Could you really see any of them ever saying anything other than reported? No, nor me.

Secondly, intelligence, and social and cultural position of those interviewed will influence the outcome and opinion garnered from “the street” in any straw-poll, so in a case such as this it really wasn’t a lot of use asking the aforementioned, London Dinner-Party-Set to comment on something that’s so far removed from their id that the only possible answer you’d get, all-in-all, would be a text-book-block of self-oriented and sectionalised reply; the replies we got in fact.

It would have been far more interesting if you’d’ve asked six, 10-year-old girls from a Sunderland housing estate, from a Swansea back-to-back terrace, from a Kent council estate, or six twenty-something mothers from those same places, for this is the shop front the pimp-wares are peddled in; this is their most lucrative sales area. These people, adults and children alike, use these “styles” as a gateway into a world where they can act like they think the real people act, mimicking their style, their behaviour, their mores, their lifestyle; the Yolanda Martin-Smith’s, Runcible Mivarnna’s and Creanna DeMowlow’s from the semi-rough end of Chelsea are just playing at it………hanging out with a bit of rough, if you get my drift.

It’s the ‘Soap’ generation the cheap-end manufacturers are peddling to, and they’ll lap it up not because it’s 'chic' or because they really think this is how the world works…but because many, many people lack the necssary skills of self discipline and regulation required by anyone wishing to negotiate safely through life and instead choose to believe and go with the far more exciting option; that what’s pushed at them through their daily contact with our media is their release point into a better world…………

You can tune into any T.V. Soap at any time of the day and I’ll guarantee that, if there’s not one person shouting at another, if there’s not a woman or young girl dressing and behaving in a sexually provocative way or being abused, lied to, shagged or murdered then hold on, there’ll be a couple along in a minute. Push this button often enough and, like Pavlov's dogs it becomes the norm, these lives they read about; who’s shagging who, divorcing who, cheating on who, beating on who in Celeb Street? To the Red Tops, TV drama commissioners and MTV and other music sites it’s a staple; their execs call it, “pushing the boundaries” but we know that’s a euphemism for being more risqué than the other outlets so as you can lift the viewing figures, particularly that of the young audience; and it is predominately young.

We see Beyonce, Madonna or Jordan strutting their stuff on the various media and we know they are at work, playing a part, earning a crust, but children don’t because they haven’t developed the skills necessary for this sort of discrimination and, through our dereliction as parents we deny them the opportunity to develop those skills. We short-circuit what was once a gradual growth through childhood to adulthood and the concomitant development of the sociability, integrity and personality necessary to become a responsible adult, by allowing them to parody the “celebrities” of our substance-starved culture. When we let them dress in the clothing of the style-celebrity pimps we hold up as desirous of our attention, in spite of all the warning signs we see along the way, and by doing so we reinforce the positive application of both the style and lifestyle that supports this ideology. We choose to ignore these signs when we buy them the base-ball caps and hoodies of the Beckhams of this world, the décolletage fashions of the Jordans and Emma Buntons; we encourage our children to gob on the football pitch "like Wayne", by-pass the social skills of discussion and compromise and start punching, dispute all and every ruling given against them……in short, we get what we deserve.

The most worrying thing in all this is that every child has a parent/s that supports this ‘pimp’ industry ……and it’s a considered and calculated choice of theirs. That is to say, in case it’s unclear, people go out and buy this fashion for their children, sift through racks and racks of the stuff and suddenly cry, “Eureka!” (or more probably, “Fuck, this is fuckin-A!”) and then buy it.

So, what does this say about society? Well, unfortunately it says that those of stunted social growth think the celebs in this world have got it right when they dress their children in adult costume. They support the projected front of ‘cool’ and ‘fame’ that the newspapers and celeb mags pick up and show as “the way to go”. But the celebs of this world have the money, position, privilege and staff to be able to counter these things when they go wrong, are able to buy their way out of trouble; 22-year old Stacey from the council estate in some inner city flat with two kids and a husband/partner who is conspicuous by his absence (has been for three years now) can’t. Once she’s bought into it then the demands of a child on an already overstretched parent will form the basis for perpetuation. Lacking the intellect to realise that the “Transport Café” advert, with Joanna Lumley as a “privileged” insurance customer is not reflection of social good taste but in fact reinforces the 'coal in the bath' legend, they mimic this “celebrity” behaviour in their own way with the money they have and the goods that are pushed…or peddled…or pimped at them. We see a Jordan, Madonna or Beyonce wearing the stage clothes of suggestion on TV one day, the next day a sweat-shop somewhere in Burnley is churning that same fashion out for a fiver……..

So we get children dressed (or undressed) in clothes that are far beyond their years, wearing inappropriate clothing bearing inappropriate statements. To see the many inner-city centres thronged with skimpily-dressed, 8-10-12 year old girls bearing the logos of FCUK or statements such as “100% WOMAN-100%SLUT” written on the front of a mid-riff framing “T” shirt has all the aspects required by a poulation with more than its fair-share of freaks and sexual predators; we denounce the crime but supply the trade for it. These tribes of pre-pubescent girls can be with or without parents, it matters nothing. Their parents choose to ignore, or simply cannot see, the risks of this character formation that their children are entering into. They have neither the intellect, experience nor time to understand its implications because, in many cases the parents themselves are the result of the ‘Soap’ generation. Weaned on a diet of dysfunctional lifestyles, characters and families that our media, particularly those of the film and TV variety, have posited, and a level of social creativity that emanates from the Attila the Hun school of charm, these parents choose not to explain the behaviour and strategies used by these “actors” (key word there) that their children adulate and emulate.

Much of what Anita Roddick talks about in your article is pretty standard fodder and has been the perceived opinion of concerned people for many, many years, from when performers (and I use this phrase in its loosest possible term) like Madonna or the Spice Girls first came on the scene what, 20 years ago? The moving picture, in all its forms is a very, very powerful tool, we all know that. What is recognised but not voiced is that, in 95% of cases, the advertising and imagery that comes from and through it is man-driven. It suits men to keep women in subservient positions, to keep them undereducated, underachieving, under them…………and we choose to ignore it and maintain the status quo through our projection of "good taste" as exhibited by our children. Not surprisingly, 'Grease' is supposedly the “nations favourite musical”; it’s the one where she has to dress like a whore to get her man; I know, I know, there is willing participation from the women in the adverts and media representations that perpetuate the “female” as an “object”, but what we must remember and disseminate is that these things are only become 'real life' if we take them out of context and onto the streets; unfortunately our children are the ones that carry the billboard of our carelessness.