Wow. Someone should probably let the creators of "Big Fat Gypsy Weddings" know this! And all the people that participated in the show. And all of the Travellers that watched it.
Well, it's true the meaning of the word has evolved into a slur. At least some of the people who used to be called gypsies in English don't want to be called that.
As for shows, didn't Netflix's "Gypsy" take flak for the name?
>Well, it's true the meaning of the word has evolved into a slur.
Is it, though, or is it one of those words like "Indian" (referring to an American Indian, not someone from the country of India) that people say is a slur but is not considered offensive at all by the community it supposedly degrades (and in fact, refusing to use it in their company will get you strange looks more than anything else).
See also: my username for a similar "slur".
>As for shows, didn't Netflix's "Gypsy" take flak for the name?
Based on its Wikipedia page (especially in the "talk" page), it looks like it was mainly just a single author generating righteous outrage to get clicks.
> that's not what I'm talking about and you know it. I mean large well-known and easily accessible versions of those
Not particularly.
They existed at a small scale. Always. Smartphones let them knit together. That scale produced efficiencies. Authorities tried to clamp down but consumers loved them and policy adapted. The path from point A to point B looks linear and altogether unsurprising, albeit ex post facto.
Every city has had gypsy cabs and Craigslist hotels since forever.