Welcome to the valleys

As most of you who have met me or have read this blog thoroughly will know, I originate from a little town in the South Wales valley named Merthyr Tydfil. In this area of Wales, we are simple folk - there are around 55,000 of us unwillingly residing there, many of us don't speak welsh unless we are drunk, (which we usually are), we have ironworks and steelworks that are, instead of being used to fuel our poor unemployment rates, used as museums that no one ever goes to, and it is nearly always raining.  Welcome!

The real valleys 

I'm not portraying my hometown in the best light to be perfectly honest, but then again, not many people will. The ironic thing it that I absolutely adore Merthyr, and my home villages of Aberfan and Troedyrhiw, (which are legitimate names, I assure you.) Since I left the Valley's upon receiving my A level results, I've been feeling very nostalgic about the place. Don't get me wrong, the moment I found out I was leaving home, I was ecstatic. Like most students, I was looking forward to having my own space, freedom to do what I wanted and when; to eat, sleep, work and stumble in from a night out whenever I liked, to essentially become my own person. But unlike most of my fellow students, I was also excited to escape from the shackles of Merthyr Tydfil. I was sick and tired of always driving towards a mountain, never mind my destination, of seeing sheep grazing on the side of the roads as I made my way to school in the mornings, and of being known by everyone as 'Mike Parry from the council's daughter', or 'Lynne Marshall's granddaughter', (my Nan is on what we refer to as the council of village elders.) More importantly, I was sick and tired of being tarred with a brush that says that Merthyr is one of the most miserable places to live in Britain, alongside some generally high statistics regarding youth crime and drugs.

Of course, this was all before the moving out stage. As I approached the last weeks of living in Merthyr, I found that I had fallen in love with it all over again. I started to appreciate everything a little bit more, even the abundant amounts of foliage and farm animals casually strolling down the road. So by the time it came to my departure, I found that I didn't really want to leave.

From my arrival to Swansea University to this very day, I cannot get through a conversation without someone asking or clarifying where I'm from, followed by a startled gasp and then an awkward silence, as I silently curse the person in front of me for judging my wonderful town. I can't say I blame them, because the media portrays us to be the worst place to live in Wales, especially the latest show to come out of it, which most of the population have probably seen by now.

Let's start on the right footing; The MTV 'hit' show, aptly named The Valleys, is absolute shit. I realise I'm a bit late off the mark on this one but, seriously, I've watched one episode of the show and I can't see what would possess anyone to want to continue watching it beyond the first few seconds. The general idea of the show is that MTV locate a bunch of young people from the Welsh valleys, (even though not all of them are actually from the valleys), who apparently have big dreams and aspirations of 'making it' in the music/modelling/porn star industries. These like minded individuals all believe that their only chance of making it is to get out of the valleys and try their luck in the big city of Cardiff. Not London, the capital of the United Kingdom, but Cardiff, the capital of the country they're trying to escape from. The mind boggles.

MTV - The Valleys cast

So, the show opens and the cast of Barbie dolls and drama kings come up on the screen and say how there are no opportunities in the valleys, no jobs and tell the cameras about how sick they are of the fresh air, the sheep, the hills and the pound shops, (which, as a student, I personally love), generally begging to be taken from this God awful place and leave the valleys forevermore, putting me out of my misery of ever seeing them in Tesco again. For those of us who live there or have lived in the valleys, those ideas aren't generally new, and not entirely out of place, especially regarding the unemployment rates. However, after spending 18 years of my life in the valleys and nearing 2 years in the city of Swansea, I can safely say that there are plenty of people in the cities who would also moan about the lack of jobs, who would say that they're sick of the concrete, stray dogs and cars. Basically, people seem to always be discontented wherever they are.

With all that being said, I still have a huge problem with the show.

Like most people who have objections to it, I could moan about the drunkenness, the immorality of it all and the irresponsible and sometimes vile attitudes towards sex and interconnected relationships that the show promotes. But, I think that that may be a little hypocritical, especially on the issue of states of intoxication, so I'll leave that job to the older and more moral generation of the Valleys. Likewise, I'm not going to do the obvious and bang on about how the show paints the valleys in a bad light. It's obvious that not everyone in the valleys behaves in that way, even if some of them do. But that can be said for any area of the UK. Nobody actually meets me and expects me to get my tits out within five seconds of meeting them, just because I'm from the valleys. It doesn't work like that, and, sorry to disappoint, but I certainly don't work like that.

MTV logo - The Valleys

My main concern about this show is that it promotes laziness, spinelessness and escapism. The idea that the show promotes to young people is that if you live in an area where 'making it' is tough, you need to leave it, rather than face the situation up front and deal with it. It's so easy to identify the problem and then moan about it and, let's be honest with ourselves, many people from the valleys do exactly that. It takes a lot more creativity and courage to make something good out of a bad situation, but I think that it is achievable. I admit that the opportunities in Merthyr are few and far between, but that doesn't mean that people should just pack up and go. You have to make your own opportunities, open your own doors and realise that not everything you want in life is going to be handed to you on a silver platter, as much as I would like it to be. That goes for anywhere, not just the valleys. Admittedly, I'm probably a bit hypocritical saying that, as I don't live there anymore but, for what it's worth, I'd go back in a heartbeat, even though I left and am currently working towards a degree in 'the city'. That kind of amazing stuff doesn't happen to someone who aims to grab five minutes of fame through becoming a WAG or a glamour model or joining a shit reality show that isn't even realistic.

   

I appreciate that the valleys don't usually have huge multiplex cinemas, bendy buses with TV screens on board or a vibrant nightlife beyond having a flagon in the park and running when you hear police sirens. Admittedly, whenever I venture to London to visit my boyfriend, I am always in awe of everything going on there and sometimes wish that we had all those wonderful things back at home. However, unlike London or any city in Wales, we do have some things going for us in the valleys beyond showing off our tits, the farm animals all over the place and the MTV show 'The Valleys', and they come in threefold;

1) An epic countryside to abuse

2) A genuine community spirit

3) And, above all else, a tidy accent.