More media hype around our social pyjama party?

 

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Today the BBC reported that a notice has appeared at a social welfare office in Dublin which warns claimants; “pyjamas are not regarded as appropriate attire when attending Community Welfare Service at these offices” (see here).

Two years ago a Primary School Headmaster in Belfast, wrote to parents asking them not to wear pyjamas whilst dropping their kids off at school (see here). In January 2010 a Tesco in Wales asked customers not to shop in their pyjamas (see here) and more recently, in May 2011, a Middlesbrough head teacher asked parents to get properly dressed before the school run (see here). So what’s with this pyjama party thing?

It would seem that wandering around in your night attire during the day is nothing new, at least to some members of our society but one has to wonder; is this apparent love of pyjamas some sort of fashion statement or simply laziness? Further evidence to support the assumption in general that our society is slovenly and really couldn’t care less?

In many respects, the wearing of pyjamas on the school run is simply an opposite polarity of extreme. Does anyone comment or concern themselves with the mother who spends 2-3 hours getting ready for the school run? The “simply couldn’t set off without getting dressed darling” brigade are, in some respects just as bad. Their number is probably just as great as those who really couldn’t give a shit. We have all seen them, the type that couldn’t possibly venture outside without the correct levels of preparation.

They only set off to deposit heir little cherubs for a daily dose of education, once they are convinced all is absolute perfection. They ensure their hair is groomed to excess, their make-up has to be just so and, after carefully selecting the right ‘label’ from their extensive collection of Haute couture, they grab the designer bling handbag and load their be-labeled brats into the Chelsea Tractor.

After the drop off they’re free to shop for the day and “do lunch” with a select group of their effected friends, prior to the daily nuisance of school pick-up at 3.30pm curtailing their activities. You can hear them all on their pink bejazzled iPhones outside the school gate; ”don’t know if I can manage the gym today hon, I need to get to BJ’s coiffure before hitting the town tonight with Hollie-Jo darling. What? Monday? No sorry babes, have to fit my nails in after the sauna and doing lunch with Jessie. I’ll check my sched for next week, laters Mwwwwh!” 

Can’t say that I’m particularly keen on either extreme however; as extremes appear to be the the way of our society today, and mostly out way middle of the road normality, I suppose I’ll just have to ignore them!

Related articles

• Why it’s OK to wear pyjamas (mywaysavings.com)
• Designer Spotlight: Pyjama Room (fabsugar.com)
• It’s a pyjama day (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)
• But My Pyjamas are Comfy… (notesfromalittlemouse.wordpress.com)
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Observing Good Times: Binging Bimbos and Fun Time Ladettes!

Binge Babes!

Whilst pottering around the other morning my wife was doing a bit of ironing and watching daytime TV. One item in discussion on This Morning caused me to pin my ears back as I learned a new word - Fringer - but what the hell is a Fringer?

Before I get mashed up by every ardent feminist, or one of numerous happily married Moms, this post is not intended to be a slight on women per se. The content is merely an observation of some (unfortunately) prominent traits in many, but not all of today’s young women. I turned to my Twitter account to find out more…

@itvthismorning - In the papers today it has been reported that two thirds of single women go out on the town with uglier girls in a bid to make themselves look more attractive! (see ITV This Morning)

Apparently a fringer is a friend who is a minger that girls use. The ensuing comments on both the show’s Twitter feed and Facebook page were both amusing and interesting. Many respondents totally denied the ‘accusation’, some admitted it but tried to dress it down and as for the remainder? Well they actually coughed to being, or at least feeling like the group fringer. Whatever the response and for whatever reason, I can assure you from my observations, the fringer phenomenon is a fact, not just something invented by the media.

You see in general, many young women actually appear to be very shallow and display many overtly materialistic characteristics. Their aspirations and desires are often based solely upon fad, fashion and physical or financial attributes. I see examples of this all the time in my work as a bar tender. I’m always amazed how a so-called group of friends can be such bitches and so catty about each other. It’s no wonder they never go to the toilet alone, they’re probably scared shitless about what their ‘friends’ say about them when they’re not in the group. Perhaps when they take a pee in pairs, at least that’s one less member of the group slagging them off?

At the bar you also hear all manner of conversations and comments. You are often privy to stuff that would normally be private information and to be fair, it probably wouldn’t be offered up so willingly to others, if not for the fact people usually get significantly louder the more they drink. None more so than young women whose inner volume control appears to have an inbuilt OTT setting. One that automatically increases along with rising levels of consumed alcohol.

I despair at the quantity of airheads there appear to be today, although there are some very pretty ones, thanks mainly to five (expensive) hours in Chantilly’s Beauty Parlour before hitting the town, they’re still shallow simple-minded airheads all the same.  They neither possess or hold any desire to get a grasp on any of real issues in life. Their only interests appear to be who is shagging who and, how to become a celebrity and move to Essex!

Whilst formulating their life plan, there is little or no mention of anything academic or industrious, any real gainful employment is simply out of the question; “like I really fancy Billy’s brother, he’s well fit and single. You know he makes masses of cash!” After a brief foray into which celebrity is shagging which other celebrity, the discussion turns quickly to the type of makeup, must have designer label to wear and which bling handbag is required for the task at hand; to successfully snare Billy’s hapless brother!

Our girlies, caked in various thicknesses of beautition’s plastering and sporting eyelashes that look as if a family of hairy caterpillars have set up home on each lid, continue to get ever more loud (and pissed). The conversation moves on to boob jobs, other surgical enhancements and which shop ’Stacey’ got her “Fcuk Off Heals” from? During all this the group Fringer, although doing her utmost to be included in the ‘exciting’ conversation but mostly, shrinks away into obscurity of the group or worse, becomes the but of jokes for her drunken ‘friends’.

However local fat bottomed girls worry not, take solace from some information received on good authority… There’s a squeak on the street that suggests, our fringers don’t actually have to miss out on all the ‘action’ or go home alone after a night on the town… When I get more details I’ll let you know!

Related articles

• Britain’s ‘Buckfast Babes’? (bankbabble.wordpress.com)
• Binge drinking ‘harms’ teen girls (bbc.co.uk)
• British women match men for binge drinking (telegraph.co.uk)

Examining Grump’s Big Issue?

The Big Issue!

No, I’m not browsing through the news on the street, all be it an important but smaller part of my particular Big Issue. Many of my babbles thus far, have shown a tendency toward focusing upon policing. After 30+ years of experiencing all the issues impacting upon, what in my opinion is such an important aspect of our society, is this really so surprising?

The recent riots in England, and all the subsequent heated debate, have served to bring this factor to the fore in other people’s minds too. That said, policing is only one part of the framework we use to address our social ills, in our attempts to keep a lid on the bigger issues we face. There is so much more to examine in the so-called moral vacuum, an issue now reaching all levels of society.

Thanks to that almost continuous (but often unsuccessful) quest for answers to these social ills, which usually takes place at The Fisherman’s Arms, I’ve decided to try to broaden my horizons somewhat. This partial change of direction, mainly spurred on by ‘Rab’ (aka The Portree Kid) my regular social sparing partner and Teuchter that cam frae Skye, is aimed at provoking some response from a wider database of social observers.

This may however prove to be unsuccessful, let me explain… Throughout my many years of social observation I have noticed a worrying trait in that; people’s varied topics of conversation (in general), tend towards the more mundane subject matter of life today. Not only are these conversations often inane but also, tend towards insular and mostly unimportant subjects, conversation that is simply for conversation sake.

I suppose that has to be (partly) expected after all, the human being is a social animal and, conversation is an important component part of that social interaction. To many, the fact they actually have nothing more intellectual to talk about, or base any educated opinion upon, is immaterial. This trait appears non more prevalent than within the younger generations and I’m sorry to say, young females.

Before I get berated for ‘demonizing the young’ or maybe even overtly sexist, I’m aware these comments are generalistic however; many of our social issues stem from problems of a somewhat simple and general nature.

The word ‘demon’ has an inevitability about it, implying forces beyond anyone’s control either to prevent or to change. Do we really mean there are groups of children who have achieved such a state of wickedness that they should be blamed and punished rather than loved and cherished? (‘Identifying the demons’ – Christine Whatford CBE - Past president of the Society of Education Officers)

In Whatford’s opinion our “social and economic disadvantage, and a lack of hope and opportunity ever to escape from it” is the major reason for our creation of our ‘apparent’ underclass. But it’s not the ‘children’ I refer to per se, more their parentage . A parentage that has mostly insular and materialistic viewpoints on so many issues; thoughts which have travelled increasingly in that direction as generations have passed us by. Our intrinsically insular views come directly from a satisfaction of residing in a microcosm of self-important here and now values and vision. Or, as a recent respondent to a BBC News article on the recent riots debate put it;

BBC News: Riots ‘result of me-first society’ says Bishop – Comment – The level of greed in British society has reached endemic proportions. It seems that today a person’s worth is only measured by the kind of car they drive, the brand of clothes they wear and the type of gadgets they carry around. We have become a country that depends on greed and consumption to survive. I don’t think it helps when the underclass see the rich elite avoiding taxes at every turn! (Comment – MasterOfPuppets)

But, as many have found previously, trying to pin all our social ills on one particular causation factor is impossible. That said, taking a more general view sometimes helps in trying to find issues indicative of the problems. However, one must be guarded not to tar with the same brush when forming conclusions or the application of repair methods. It does however astound me that, given our propensity for hindsight answers and observations, we appear to take little cognisance of our history. But perhaps things aren’t as bad as we actually perceive them to be?

Perceptions of the general public tend to lag behind reality, so even when the statistics show a real improvement in performance of those groups, that on its own will not alter the person in the street’s view of them, so will not per se, end their demonization. (Christine Whatford CBE)

My personal take upon that root causation tends towards our inherent love of cash; an issue compounded by the cononomics of current politics, as opposed to the ‘economics’ mentioned by Whatford. We hear almost daily that our rich are getting richer, whilst the poor get poorer, especially (but not exclusively) within the inherent wealth condensation of our mostly capitalistic western world. It has been said “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (actually a quote from the First Epistle of Paul to Timothy). The choice of quote shouldn’t be taken in a religious context, far better to examine it with a purely historical viewpoint.

Another throw-back from religion, perhaps also worthy of our consideration when looking for social answers, would be the Ten Commandments. Although, given how many human conflicts were (supposedly) born out of religious argument, perhaps this isn’t such a sensible route to take either?  As a person who holds fairly simplistic (and non religious) views on many things, I can usually take words at face value, especially when they make moral common sense e.g. thou shalt not steal etc. However, and even more so as our society has progressed, we have a tendency to question or challenge anything and everything. Even more so when it doesn’t particularly fit within our individualistic tendencies.

Whatford suggests that education is a fundamental part of redressing the balance in our somewhat disenfranchised and dysfunctional society. I would have to agree but only partly… Firstly and in real terms, can we honestly say our society is ‘disenfranchised’ in true terms? Many of those, who say they have no power to influence decision-making process in governments, simply choose not to use their vote. Whether or not our vote actually has the power to drive ‘real’ change is a wholly different and arguable matter.

Secondly, if the root of ‘demonization’ is social unrest caused by poverty, “closing the social gap through education” is only part of the overall answer to the problem. Recently, in Our degrees of Chicken or Egg, I argued that perhaps our education system is a contributory factor in our great social and business failings. If as I believe it is, how can we then expect ‘education’ (in isolation) it to provide the answers we are actually looking for?

Until we can actually distance ourselves from the mostly materialistic views we attach to most things, I feel it will be a very long time until we achieve the results we keep searching for, if ever? Maybe we are just being far too simplistic and craving idealistic Nirvana? One thing I do know is; the mostly rhetorical use of the phrase ”we’re all in this together” is actually true… Unfortunately, too many of our equals are more equal than we happen to be most of the time! I’m sure the Teuchter and I will keep searching for the answers but until then…

Perhaps you’d like to join this secular hermit sometime at The Fisherman’s Arms as we continue our quest for the route out of the Wild, Wild Wood… Mines a pint, thanks!

Related articles

• Our degrees of chicken or egg… (bankbabble.wordpress.com)
• Starkey’s ‘Gangsta Rap’…And all that Jazz! (bankbabble.wordpress.com)
• Is Secular Humanism Bunk? (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Quit Pushing My Buttons (psychologytoday.com)