Rumors and urban legends are powerful social phenomena. In part, this is because once rumors are unleashed, their circulation brings about new believers even as old ones become aware of their lack of veracity. Similarly, for anyone negatively represented or implicated in a rumor, clearing one's name is often near impossible. Just ask Richard Gere.
Taking these qualities to the realm of politics, some observers have rightly drawn attention to how rumors contribute to group power dynamics and help not only to legitimize the use of violence against others, but also create the conditions in which harming others is seen as prudential. The argument is that in helping to create the conditions within which violence directed at others is perceived as prudent, rumors are a form of violence themselves.
Over the past few months, rumors have been circulating via mobile phone text, email, and word of mouth in Huddersfield, parts of Wales, the Midlands, Northern Ireland, and the greater Tyne and Wear region about attempted abductions of young girls from local supermarkets. The text that is circulating--and one that we received this week--looks something like this:
- Dear [name of recipient(s)]. This is a very serious message that I hope you can pass on to others. Last night at the big ASDA [insert place name here], a three year old girl went missing. Fortunately, there policy when something like this happens is to lock the doors. The little girl was found in the toilets with two Romanian women, one shaving her head and one dressing her in boys' clothes. This comes from [a friend who works there/shopped there] last night. Please spread this round to as many as you can and remain extra vigilant with your own children.
The foundation of the rumor is an old one. Stories of child abductions--whether by humans or supernatural beings like faeries-- have formed an integral role in the folklore of the British Isles--and elsewhere--for generations.
Similarly, some of the specifics of the narrative have a long provenance as crucial elements of similar urban legends: an attempted abduction in a local public space, the altering of appearance, and the ultimate foiling of the plot through robust security measures, or an eagle-eyed parent noticing something that the would-be kidnappers overlooked in their attempt to disguise a child. According to Snopes.com, even the long running television series Law and Order has used this legend as the opening premise for an episode.
But there is something significantly different about this rumor that is circulating within the UK. Unlike previous incarnations, the current story specifically identifies the would-be abductors by their nationality and gender: Romanian women.
Why is the addition of specific identity characteristics significant? Well, it boils down to the socio-political context.
For the rumor to work, it needs to sound believable. The utilization of the nationality 'Romanian' works in a way that Canadian, Australian, South African, or New Zealander would not. Immediately, the deployment of Romanian draws attention to how Romanians are represented negatively in other discourses: as charlatans, criminals, human traffickers, and persons of moral disrepute not fit to live in the UK.
Similarly, the gender of the assailants helps to reinforce these negative representations. In general, we tend to assume that it is mainly men who prey upon, abduct, or traffic children. Yet, in this story, the idea that the abductors were women plays against type. And this is important because it accentuates the degeneracy that is being attributed to Romanians.
It is not just that Romanian men are predators or that Romanian women lack the proper maternal instincts. Rather, what the rumor does is present the argument that part of what makes Romanians so dodgy and dangerous is that Romanian women are as predatory as men. Moreover, the story plays into longer-standing ways in which violence perpetrated by women is represented as involving inordinate levels of deception, trickery, and deviousness.
As such, this urban legend is now less a story whose function is keep parents vigilant over the well-being of their children. Instead, I would argue that the narrative has a different function: to foment anti-Romanian, anti-Eastern European, and more generally anti-foreigner views that are gaining a scary amount of political currency, particularly in the geographic areas where this rumor has been circulating
Anti-immigrant sentiment, a distrust of foreigners, and the rise of a reactionary British nationalism as evidenced by the constant tightening of immigration restrictions under Labour over the past four years and the significant inroads made by the fascist British National Party in the recent European Parliamentary Elections have mainstreamed xenophobia. A growing minority feel no shame in proudly proclaiming 'Britain for the British' and denouncing the presence of Asian, African, and Eastern European migrants.
The circulation of rumors like this one will further contribute to xenophobia, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment even if only a very small percentage of the population actually believe their details--in full or in part. These particular types of rumors and the politics of fear--as well as the politics of hatred--are mutually constitutive. They feed off of each other. Each slowly helps to shift political discourse towards a very frightening and unpleasant place for those of us who may not have been born in the UK but have ended up calling it home.
Photo credit: jamescronin
