Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ shines a dark light on the reality of childhood in modern-day Britain.
“The English have won in the lotto of life” - aren’t we all English now? The coast is great ‘cos our cots were in it, our passport as good as it got. Now someone else wins the lot. ”
Anyone born in the 90s may be able to remember a show called ‘Byker Grove’.
Set in Newcastle, the show demonstrated your typical crude stereotypes of Northern England.
Think shell-suit uniforms, rampant drug-use against the backdrop of ‘unemployment in working-class Britain’ (whatever tf that means).
The BBC media-mill would have you believe that this is a ‘realistic’ portrayal of the North of England.
Unfortunately, many of these crude stereotypes continue to prevail.
Adolescence, however, was refreshingly different.
Why I hear you ask? Let me answer your question, with a few rhetorical questions posh wankers love to ask Northerners.
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A normal British secondary school. This is not an issue of the North-South divide, or an issue of ‘welfare’ Britain. ‘Adolescence’, shows the reality of modern-day schools, constantly hit with austerity and plummeted into crisis. Teachers and school admins, as well as local authorities are then blamed for the very crisis they have been forced to endure, and have to act as social workers, body-guards, psychologists and guardians. Most teachers buy student supplies out of their own pocket. The thanks they receive for their hard work? Constant vilification and scrutiny from the press and Tory governments, eager to find their next convenient scapegoat.
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More a statement rather than a question. Unfortunately, most people in Britain have to work a job to survive, and cannot rely on bank of mum and dad. Demonising large groups of people as spongers or scroungers, and judging people for their accent or ‘Turkey teeth’ makes you a bit of a bigot hun x
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Casual misogyny in society defaults the blame on the woman every single time. Women, especially young women, are placed in impossible situations where they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. They are constantly looked down upon whatever stance they take. Want to create a boundary against sexual harassment? Suddenly you are ugly, uppity and frigid. Charming x
“iT’S New- CAR - SILL - nOT NeWCAStle!”
As a Geordie lass living in Liverpool, I have learnt certain stereotypes still prevail.
Geordies seem to think anything under Sunderland is the South, and Scousers seem to think anything anyone with a non-scouse accent is from London.
Geordies and Scousers follow the same Northern patterns - an ingrained hatred for Thatcher combined with a level of politeness and kindness that could give elocution and etiquette coaches a run for their money.
Recently, however, in the wake of rioting and poor management from equally poor governments I have felt like a stranger in my own country.
According to my detractors, I am a loud-mouthed, twenty-something year old, bimbo, brat who only talks about herself. At this point, I am flattered.
Dreaming of whiteness, I did all I could to fit in.
I bought each and every Oxford English dictionary as if I was on their payroll.
I swapped my Fulla doll for your most generic, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie.
I refused my mother’s cooking, straightened my hair and became invested in the colour beige.
‘No-one will ever question I am British now’, I would think.
Unfortunately, society had other ideas.
Constantly deemed ‘uneducated’ for having the audacity to be born to Iraqi parents in a home where English was spoken as a secondary language, I worked myself into a near early grave.
Several meltdowns later, I still feel a sense of having ‘prove’ to people that being Iraqi, or Arab, or Muslim, didn’t make me stupid or less than.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Adolescence didn’t have a happy ending, so here is mine.
Coming from a long-line of beautiful, bodacious, vivacious and vibrant Arab women, I learnt to navigate ways through modern-day society.
As a Geordie lass living in Liverpool, I have learnt certain stereotypes still prevail. And they do not have to always be bad.
We are resourceful and strong-willed people. We don’t don’t pronounce grass like gr-arse, and frankly judging people who do makes you a bit of an arse x