Essex girl explained

Essex girl, as a pejorative stereotype in the United Kingdom, applies to a woman viewed as promiscuous and unintelligent, characteristics jocularly attributed to women from the county of Essex. It is applied widely throughout the country and has gained popularity over time, dating from the 1980s and 1990s.^[1]

Negative stereotype

The stereotypical image formed as a variation of the dumb blonde/bimbo persona, with references to the Estuary English accent, white stiletto heels, mini skirts, silicone-augmented breasts, peroxide blonde hair, over-indulgent use of fake tan (lending an orange appearance), promiscuity, loud verbal vulgarity, and socialising at downmarket nightclubs.

Time magazine recorded:

Accent

As mentioned above, the stereotypical Essex girl has an Estuary English accent, but with a very modern element to it. It has some pronunciation features of the Cockney accent but without the traditional element, and a very modern prosody.

Here are some examples of pronunciation features of the Essex girl stereotype:

Vowels

• Strong diphthongization of the FLEECE, happY and GOOSE vowels pronounced as /[ɪi̯~əi̯, ʊ̈ʉ̯~əʉ̯]/
• The FACE and GOAT vowels may be very open pronounced as /[ɛɪ~ɐɪ̯, ʌ̈ʊ~ɐʊ̯]/
• Very open utterance-final /ə/
• The sequences /uːl/, /ʊl/, /ɔːl/ and /əl/ may all be pronounced pronounced as /[oː~oʊ̯~ɔo̯]/

Consonants

• The sequences /ən/ and /əm/ are nearly never syllabic consonants.
• Very strong tendency to vocalise coda-/l/, thus pronounced as /[ʊ̯~o̯~ɤ̯]/ instead of pronounced as /[ɫ]/
• Final /ɪŋ/ can have pronounced as /[ɪn]/ or the typically northern pronounced as /[ɪŋɡ̊]/
• Strong degree of t-glottalization pronounced as /[ʔ]/ and glottal reinforcement before /t, p, k/ → pronounced as /[ʔtʰ, ʔpʰ, ʔkʰ]/
• The /k/ in like may be glottalized as well.
• Frequent th-fronting

• Tendency to lengthen the final syllables of words or sentences: happen pronounced as /[ˈhæʔpʰəːn]/; couldn't pronounced as /[ˈkʰʊdəːnʔ]/; lovely pronounced as /[ˈlʌv̥ləˑi̯ˑ]/; what's that? pronounced as /[wɒʔts d̪æːʔ]/

• Dipping tone on the final segments of words or sentences: basically pronounced as /[ˈbɐ́ɪ̯sɪ̥̀kl̥ə̀ˑǐ̯ˑ]/; someone else pronounced as /[ˈsʌ́mwʌ́n ˈɛ̂ˑʊ̯̌ˑs]/; say to me pronounced as /[ˈsɐ́ɪ̯ tʰə̀ mə̀ˑǐ̯ˑ]/

Challenging the stereotype

In 2004, Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester in Essex, appealed for debate in the House of Commons on the issue, encouraging a boycott of The People tabloid, which has printed several derogatory references to girls from Essex.

The Essex Women's Advisory Group was set up in 2010^[2] to combat the negative stereotyping of girls living in Essex by supporting Essex-based women's charities helping those in need as well as by funding projects that promote women's and girls' learning and success in science, technology, the arts, sports and business. The charitable fund is administered by the Essex Community Foundation.^[3]

On 6 October 2016, Juliet Thomas and Natasha Sawkins of The Mother Hub launched a campaign on social media to draw attention to the negative definition of Essex girl in the Oxford English Dictionary and Collins Dictionary.^[4] Their main goal was to raise awareness and to open a dialogue around the derogatory "Essex girl" stereotype. Their campaign centred on changing the definition of "Essex girl" to "a girl from or living in Essex" by encouraging women to use the hashtag #IAmAnEssexGirl and included a petition to change or remove the dictionary definitions. The campaign reached the national press.^{[5] [6] [7]} In December 2020, after campaigning by the Essex Girls Liberation Front, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, used to teach non-native English speakers, removed the term.^{[8] [9]}

See also

• Chav
• Airhead (subculture)
• Ah Lian
• Essex man
• Valley girl
• Trixie
• The Only Way Is Essex
• Educating Essex

Further reading

• • Germaine Greer, "Long Live the Essex Girl", 4 March 2001, The Guardian

Notes and References

1. Book: Biressi, Anita. Class and Contemporary British Culture . 2013 . Palgrave Macmillan . London . 9780230240568 . 23–43 . Heather Nunn.

   Part 2: "Essex: class, aspiration and social mobility", Section 4: "Class, Taste and the Essex Girl"

2. News: Essex girls set up their own charity. 2017-01-21. The Telegraph. 2010-03-05.
3. http://www.essexcommunityfoundation.org.uk/ Essex Community Foundation
4. News: Moore-Bridger . Benedict. Essex girl campaigners meet with dictionary bosses in bid to have term removed. 2017-01-21. Evening Standard. 25 October 2016.
5. News: de Bruxelles. Simon. The only way is out for Essex girl label . 2017-01-21. The Times . 2016-10-25. 1.
6. Web site: Bate. Marisa. The problem with the phrase 'Essex girl' . The Pool. 2016-10-25. 2017-01-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170202004520/https://www.the-pool.com/news-views/opinion/2016/42/marisa-bate-on-essex-girls. 2 February 2017. dead.
7. Web site: Essex Girl in Ancient Times . Beard . Mary . 2017-08-06 . The Telegraph . 2017-08-06.
8. News: Sarah . Marsh . 'Essex girl' removed from dictionary following campaign . . 2020-12-05 . 2022-05-26.
9. News: Dropping of 'Essex Girl' by Oxford dictionary welcomed by women . . 2020-12-09 . 2022-05-26.