Myths, monsters and legends: negotiating an acceptable working class femininity in a marginalised and demonised Welsh locale

The distinctiveness of Wales, in terms of its political life and culture, has grown considerably over the last decade. Nevertheless, beneath the imagery of the definitive nation, Wales remains a complex and divided land in which a marginalised and demonised working class has come to characterise areas of Wales dominated by poverty and social exclusion. Such polarisation has a spatial dimension that is illustrated in the creation of new ghettos of prosperity and poverty, which now dominate the Welsh socio-economic terrain; and this stigma of place permeates the identities of residents. Drawing on research with mothers and their daughters in a marginalised Welsh locale, this paper explores the ideology of unity alongside the divisions of everyday life; and the ways in which respectable and acceptable working class femininities are negotiated against a pervasive discourse of lack, stigma and classed moral panics