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Episode details

Radio 5 Live,1 min

Campaign wants ‘incredibly offensive’ term ‘Essex girl’ out of dictionary

5 Live In Short

Available for over a year

A campaign has been started to ‘reclaim’ the term ‘Essex girl’ and get it removed from the dictionary. ‘Essex girl’ is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a contemptuous term applied to a type of young woman, supposedly to be found in and around Essex, and variously characterized as unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic’. Juliet Thomas from Essex events company The Mother Hub set up the campaign. She says the definition “describes a very, very dated stereotype”. “There’s not much more you could say to a woman that is offensive, it’s incredibly offensive,” she added. This clip is originally from 5 live Breakfast on Tuesday 25 October 2016.

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