Exploring Teenage Pregnancy and Media Representations of 'Chavs' by Hetty Frampto

I just read a fascinating article by Hetty Frampton of Bath Spa University about the perception of chavs and teenage pregnancies. I’ve never really considered the way the media directs and portrays one’s class ideologies in such a distinct manner. It’s obvious that media does affect our opinions, but I’d not thought about it in relation to the chav phenomenon before. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really come across ‘them’ in my everyday life, so it’s only via news and gossip that I hear about the doings of that particular stereotype. This article talks about the depersonalisation and distancing of this class, and the deliberate separation between middle and working class. It was a bit of an eye-opener. I’m sure much more educated people than myself were already well-aware of these issues, but it’s really just made me reconsider how much I actually know about people and their media representations. Whew.

Escalators, you can't get off 'em 'til the end

Now, I’m biased, so don’t take anything I say in this post to be absolute. But, I really, really like Michael Gardiner, and his collection of short stories; Escalators. There are nineteen gems to get stuck into, portraying facets of Japanese society that one doesn’t get to experience through watching copious amount of J-drama or anime. Rather, it’s that which runs just under the surface of the enclosed islands. Japan is renowned for its insularity and technological advancement. Often, what we get to see from the Western world is a wholesale adoption of culture – the exchange students who come here to learn English because well – where better than England itself? Let’s be English. They are the foreigners. We go through life only feeling like that on exotic holidays, and even then there’s a tinge of superiority as we put our hard-earned pound sterling in to support a tourist industry and wonder whether we left the tap on. On the other hand, Gardiner’s novelettes (dare I call them that?) provide a glance into what perceptions one gets as a ‘insider’. They’re the sort of stories that one reads and thinks: oh. Yes. I didn’t think it would be like that, but I guess it is. I was slightly terrified by Debut, because I can imagine myself in that position one day – fingers crossed it never happens.

This book is the perfect size to pull out in a queue – they’re twenty pages each at the most, although I read it voraciously in one go, having waited far too long for it to arrive via Amazon. Read it, and mull over it. If you don’t know anything about Nihon, count this as your introduction to it. If you do, then this simply reminds you of the cracks in a mechanic society. I could do the whole ‘Other-as-insider’ spiel but I don’t quite believe it in this case, and anyway, it’s about what you get out of it. But it’s not all sun-avoidance and cute eyes – it’s more of an exploration of the steps between individual and social realities. Having said that, I retract everything and say: go read it. I’ve already passed my copy on to a friend. It’s that sort of book. It needs to be spread.

C.S. Lewis

So, it's been a while since I last got here and I was thinking we should sort of start suggesting stuff to each other in a more formal manner than a text and a smiley face, though that works well too. Anyway, the latest book lying on my floor table is C.S. Lewis' The Pilgrim's Regress. Wikipedia tells me that it reworks " John Bunyan's 17th century novel, Pilgrim's Progress, recast with the politics, philosophy and aesthetic principles of the early-20th century" (note to self: find and read). The narrator dreams up a protagonist - a very detailed dream, I must say, he must have been in a coma! - and he goes through various stages, searching/desiring an Island. He gets various views from Father History, Mr Enlightenment, Freud, Kant, and all sorts of opinionated people, desperately trying to stay on track, but is easily led astray, adopting a mish-mash of opinions here and there until he finally accepts the existence of an ultimate being.

A note here - remember that C.S. Lewis was indeed a born-again Christian, dabbling briefly in atheism before J.R.R. Tolkien and other influences returned him to the fold and he became a Christian apologist. This will probably put you off (to put it lightly), but honestly, it adds to his work, not detracts. He's not a radical burn-in-hell fire-breathing evanglican, and he considered his position quite thoroughly before converting. I still love the character of Aslan, even if he is just Jesus as a walking lion! He doesn't kill off any other religions, either; remember Bacchus dancing around in the woods? All the pagan spirits of the wood and rivers aren't exactly Biblical canon either, so he's not sticking rigidly to the 'X-word'.

Anyway, there's a particularly great image of Reason saving the protaganist, John, from the Spirit of the Age, where she's described as a "Titaness, a sun-bright virgin clad in complete steel, with a sword naked in her hand". Talk about a sexual metaphor; this one is so obvious it hurts! Lewis is an acclaimed literary theorist for a reason (the way he characterizes Freud and wish-fulfillment is absolutely hilarious), and although this is a very early work of his, it's still well-worth reading. I highly recommend reading The Preface to the third edition alongside the book itself, as it clarifies a few things here and there, and gives an interesting insight into his intentions behind the novel at the time.

(I hope this works, I only wrote this on the spur of the moment to relieve myself from writing about the problematization of women in Victorian fiction. Which is really interesting, don't get me wrong, but it's just a bit overwhelming and theoretical if you try to do three books and an article at once. I need to grow more eyes, methinks.)