Random Events Recorded...

Yikes. What a week!!!!

1) What possessed me to take up a weight loss course based on hypnotherapy???

At work P. was in a previous life/pre-castle a hynoptherapist. He is now the one training a bunch of us tubby wardens who graze on the various snacks provided at work and pile on the pounds. In fact during one part of my Personal Development Review and being asked what was the best aspect of one of the items I did, all I could remember was the great food!! hmmmm.... but to be fair they had free mini Oreo biscuits!! They were immense :)

Anyhow so P is teaching us on the subconscious to not crave food. It has seemed to be working because I am not doing anything untoward i.e. eating snacks. However, whilst under the "trance" part lying on the floor surrounded by my colleagues, I gave an almighty snore, inhaled the blanket covering my mouth and choked cauisng a bit of commotion at my end of the room. Was the tranquility of the room interrupted? Pfft. Needless to say, most people were giving me a disapproving raised eyebrow afterwards.

Why can't I be graceful eh? Sometimes there just is not one bone of feminine grace and charm in me.

2) TEXAN MAN IN PUB

I went to meet up with my friend Em today and catch up. She has a lush new older boyfriend and her job at Ann Summers is going well- seriously this is like the ideal job for her- candid answers for every question! Anywho we were approached by a random Texan bloke working in Slough. I asked- couldn't he find a nice place in England to live? Apparently not. Anyhooo he was a little odd, kept saying fuck and trying to make me like 80s American music. It is not going to happen. It wasn't a particularly outstanding time for music to be honest and he was not making a very convincing argument. Anyhoo with some beautiful acting skills on my part and Em covering up her bemused face on picking up on my escape plan dove out of the pub ASAP. He gave me the creeps. Bless though, I think he was just lonely.

3) Walking Home in Pouring Rain

Yes, well. That just about sums it up really. Following this event in pub we walked around Tesco's for a bit as the shops were shutting in the high street. In order to work off the large glass of wine I had supped in the pub I decided it would be a marvellous idea to walk home. It was only drizzling when I set out. HA!
Half an hour later I turned up at my doorstep, my woollen blazer (oh yes!) was drenched through, the coat was shrinking a little bit but mostly smelling of a wet dog, my cowboy boots it seems are not water proof but were more comfortable than I had previously given them credit for, and my once-afro-tastic-curly hair was now plastered to my head. Hmmmm. Enough said on that I think. Oh no, I forgot. I put on non-waterproof mascara this morning. I came home looking like (and also smelling like) a corpse which had just been pulled out of the river.


In short, bit of an odd week the last few days!! Made for some interesting blogging- well more interesting than usual!!

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

I've recently discovered Death Cab For Cutie- who have been on the music scene for a good ten years, so contemporaneous with Muse and they have been Grammy nominated so it is not like they were unknown to the world. However I only discovered them through my love of the "Twilight" Soundtracks- I happen to know and like a lot of music already on them so its all good (for example they have Muse on them!!!!) Do not think less of me...


"Meet Me on the Equinox" was the song that first got me into them (on the NewMoon: Twilight soundtrack CD). I happen to like the video below because of its 'New Moon' aspects to it :)


I also like "I will possess your heart" and "Grapevine Fires and "You can better than me" too... when I get paid I shall be downloading some albums/buying some albums. I prefer to have the non-biodegradable, eco-unfriendly and space-taking CD to fill that materialistic physical need of the consumer inside me.

Anyhow, back to the band... I think they are really great... check them out... and I guess thanks Stephanie Meyer for getting me hooked on Death Cab for Cutie!! The review went a bit flat at the end there, but the music more than speaks for itself! Enjoy...

I LIED!!!

I perhaps may have overexaggerated in my previous post. I have lost three pounds and I am celebrating by opening a bottle of wine to have with my spagetti bolognase (sp?). Yes, this is how we do it my style!! LOL and I wonder why on earth my diets never work?? lol

However on a point of interest on my part- a girl I thought was way healthy and slim and essentially perfect on the fitness regime belongs to weight watchers. She was a bit of a chunky monkey once, but now is a lithe slim line figure. It makes you wonder where I will be when I am 25. Will I finally make the "maintaining the weight" status on a weight watchers lifestyle? WIll I have just got a job managing the museum part of the Wellcome Library? Hmmmm we will see. Either way for her, I am sorry to see her leave today at work and it is such a shame I only really got to know her in December.

I guess that gives me a lesson to not listen to what others at work say about people and give them a second chance. Sometimes people have an off day just like me and somewhere underneath all the preconceptions and assumptions there could be a good friend. Good luck to her I say- I will see her when I am hanging around the library :)

Happy Weekend everyone- Enjoy your Friday night! Me? personally- I am going to enjoy my bottle of wine, my spag bol and watch Jonathan Ross before an early night and work tomorrow :D

"Weight Loss" Scheme Update

I am not giving anything up for Lent because I think calorie counting is cutting out pretty much any fun I am having. LOLz

Well... has it worked?

*insert marching feet upstairs, insert the groan of the scales, insert marching back downstairs*

Sigh. Nothing. I haven't lost a bean. However, in the spirit of maintaining this positive personal outlook, I haven't put any on either. Woo hoo?

However, I am finding it increasingly hard to convince the parents that "No, roast dinners are not healthy... yes, there is a considerable amount of vegetables, but you have put butter into the carrot and swede, and the cabbage; the roast potatoes have been cooked in fat and sprinkled in a lifetime's supply of rock salt and the yorkie pudding is a heart attack in a cute round form "of eat me fatty eat me."" Then my dad said he would cook pasta salad for Monday night- YAY! I thought- FINALLY. Come home- he has put full fat mayo into it. *Sighs* Sometimes I think I live with the devil. So perhaps I should really marvel at not putting on any weight this week. Although fish fingers and chips tongiht- It is Ash Wednesday and my mam still insists on not eating meat. Meh. I don't mind, but battered fish and chips was not quite what I had in mind.

I would like to point out that I could refuse to eat this, but I am instilled with the sense of guilt and shame of not finishing my food- mainly from my Grandma who used to say I had to finish up to be a good girl, but she lived through the war years and it was like ungrateful if I didn't eat it all. That shame still lives with me and I have got to get over it.

In the hynotherapy class yesterday we had to think of one trigger that makes us eat so much- mine was either depression or guilt. Then come up with a positive image to combat that- "SWISH" movement it is called. It is the linking of the two that will make you get over that. I am still practising but fingers crossed.

So anyway, the positivity is ebbing and I need to keep being upbeat. I did my morning stretches and ab crunches.... no going to head up to do some weights and then bath and then historical reading. Victoria and Albert and their influence on the artistic culture for the masses. Interesting? Yes. Do I know anything about it yet? Nope. Better get cracking!! lolz

Have a good day!!

Thank F**k for today- FINALLY I realise a MA was for me!!

Okay, you know I said I didn't really do any reading for my class?

Well, I didn't need to. I harked back to literature and painting for all things!! LOL as always.

We were talking about social observation and the popularisation of this as a form of media entertainment (like newspapers and books)- it kinda hit the spot for me. We were talking about Dickens (who I am not overly fond of) instead I went off into the world of Elizabeth Gaskell and her way of observing the manufacturing classes in the North and writing about in things like North and South (a very good BBC production of it if your prefer the short-hand version as it were- mind you I can read the book in two days- albeit not doing much else!!) She characterises the manufacturing part of the middle-class as barbarous in the beginning but by the end she realises there is an inherent nobility to earn money honesty by labour. Margaret says "I'd prefer to earn money honestly" rather then let it accumulate. Her aunt calls her "revolutionary" for thinking like this. I was wondering how Elizabeth Gaskell related to the poor- did she? I would like to think she did. She really gets to grip with the working-class issues yet maintains a sense of dignity, albeit of a feminine variety- Nicholas a labourer in Milton cotton mills is effeminised during the course of the book as the unions fail and Boucher dies- in effect he becomes a mother of sorts. Either way she shows a compassion that is masked in Dickens for example. Dickens is preoccupied with satirising and although shows plight of the poor in Hard Times, A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist sensitively, there is an undercurrent of criticism that takes away the Victorian sentimentality that contributes to the pathos of the books. Then we moved onto Engels as a social observer and what his motives and perspective was on the situation.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Engels was a Flaneur(??)- a single man dressing down into a typical working-class person and walking the streets taking in all the information of what life was like in Manchester: "a living hell" as he had called it before writing his book The Conditions of the Working-Class. He was a social observer, but the question rose: were people like him, Mayhew and Booth (all social observers of the time) doing it for the improvement of mankind? For self-gratifing voyeurism? Morbid curiosity? To improve the plight of the working-class? Did they see themselves apart from the working-class? Was that a class apart or a race apart? The "Residuum" as the working-classes were called by Malthus I think were a "race" apart. This is what I am hoping to be looking at for my MA dissertation- what language women feminists used to describe the working-classes.

I love the beard, Engels.

Anyhow we came to the conclusion that Engels had a genuine interest other than an economic agenda to walking the streets. It was a good class... I may add to this post another time with some extra thoughts from the class... I have literally only just got back in... I shall ponder it a while whilst reading primary sources for my class on Monday morning on Women in the Crusades 1000-1300> I have never studied this period of history before!! It should be interesting.

Anyways in short I enjoyed today's class. The cuppa afterwards was also enjoyable. Summary: good day at the office. Rock on more days like this!!

PS. Alex the lecturer is such a dude!! he has a wicked laugh- his face creases up and he curls inwards. Really infectious!! It makes me feel better- I can have a real barking laugh when I want!! lol!! He is, in summary, a dude.

I am converted!!

WOW! Okay, week 2 of 'weight loss' regime and I have woken up a) half an hour before my alarm, b) already done my sit ups and ballet stretches (feet, legs, back etc) and c) had brekkie with a cuppa tea and now blogging...

I also have woken up with clearer skin again (this has been going on all week- just one tiny lil spot this morning but man! that is nothing!!) and I have woken up with more energy.

So I have university today: "Behind the Veil": Victorian Culture. I haven't done all that much reading about social reality and "Observing the Victorians" as the class is called, but I am hoping a lot of my A-Level shiz will come back and get me going with some outrageous opinions. I have been focusing on my essay which I am thinking about basing on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and how they influenced art etc, if in fact they did, and the gender constructions behind who was in the art, who painted it, who bought it/commissioned it and all that jazz. Debasing art by using it as a historical source. Secretly I am very excited. I love the Pre-Raphaelites in a big way. Bless their fluffy naturalist and beautiful pictures *sighs* "L'art pour l'art" = Art for art's sake was their motto. I like it. Sometimes it is nice to be a little bit erring towards the side of shallow to have pretty paintings (but of course there is always a deeper message than that, but still.... you get me!!)

"Flaming June" by Frederic Leighton. This is making me think of summer coming and banishing away this cold weather. It really made me happy when I was flicking through one of my art books last night rooting around for ideas. I like Leighton anyway, I have his print on my wall of "The Accolade". The Pre-Raphs had a bit of a thing about medieval themed and styled paintings- they wanted to hark back to the chivalrous code and protect everything that was right, fight for honour and glory and most of all defend the fair maiden. They had a thing about Victorian double standards and hypocrisy. Like, for example, I found out that Mrs. Beeton- you know... THE Mrs. Beeton with all those cookbooks- had syphilis which her HUSBAND gave to her because of his naughty indiscretions!!! Shocking...

Anyway, a blog that was supposed to be about dieting and exercise has turned into an art bog then into a historical criticism of slimy bastard men in the Victorian times. Just a typical day for me.

Toodles!!

Weight Loss Scheme #932 Ready to Commence

Right, I have said this many times before but I have actually stepped up my plans for weight loss. It was my New Year's resolution to hit a reasonable weight by the time I go to Spain at the end of July and I have yet another target to hit by December (and before the Xmas explosion of eat-everything-you-can-lay-your-hands-on!!)

So I have joined a hypnotherapy weight loss course at work- a tenner for a four week course is dirt cheap. it is going to help visualise yourself slimmer, make you think positive and bolster your self will- of which mine is very weak- place a lump of cheese in front of me and I crumble!! My brother is my weight loss buddy, so together we are taking on the chain-smoking mother and father who thinks we will starve is the plate isn't mounted. Needless to say they are not that worried about their health in that way. My mam is slim and small, my dad considerably less so and they are happy in their bodies so yay for them. However for me and my brother- not so much. It is about choices. I am choosing to be slimmer and the ability to pinch less fat would be lovely!! haha!! All that "pinch an inch" malarkey!! Grrrrr.... my rowing friend does that... if it is a centimetre she will be lucky- I need two hands for mine man!! lol!!!

It has gotta be hard for RJ as he used to be so uber slim, ate like a horse and had the energy of a rocket launcher all the time. He had a bad kidney disease for a time and had to have these steroids which made his lithe form bulk up to a not so lithe form. Then he lost it all working in construction. Then he piled it all on again after he was made redundant and didn't have a job for 11 months. Me? Well, I have always been a bit of a porker. Played the boys in dancing shows, I was the building block of any pyramids etc. I have just had enough of being chubby. So why wallow when you can do somehting po-active?

I am not being hardcore about it, just calorie counting and I am exercising everyday during the week for half an hour whilst watching the tellybox and having a couple of hours practice a week on my ballet technique that has soooo gone to pot over my university years!!

I have even signed up to a calorie counting website and made a profile where I log in my pitiful exercise and also everything I eat. And when I weigh myself every week I can log any losses.

I will reckon I will let you know how I get on from time to time.

I am feeling very positive about this :)

Now I am going to get showered and changed before mam heads back for her work lunch break and I am still in my PJ's lol!!

Daily Mail Review II: Terry Pratchet and Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia has been a contentious issue for a long time but with the recent focus in the media about it it has become of a hot topic of interest where everyone has an opinion. I am no exception. On reading the Daily Mail (please see previous posting for reasons of this) I came across two articles about "assisted suicide." In Religious Education at my convent school Euthanasia was an abhorent thing to support, although bless my teacher on this topic who was a nun- she was very fair and worldly in comparison to many backwards teachers (not necessarily nuns) at that school.

The Kay Gilderdale case- where Kay was charged with the attempted murder of her daughter after helping her to die- coupled with Terry Pratchet's two year campaign for his right to die when Alzheimer's affects him so much it ruins his way of life- have really brought to the fore the issue of whether someone should have a right to die if they chose their illness has become too unbearable.

Terry Pratchet delivered his 'Richard Dimbleby Lecture' and he outlines his choice in this lecture, which had been repreinted in the Daily Mail. In what is becoming his iconic statement: "When the time comes I'll sit on my lawn, brandy in hand and Thomas Tallis on my iPod. And then I'll shake hands with Death" he really nails that he knows what he wants.

He cites historical precedents for what we now term Euthanasia. And indeed he is correct. Before it was the doctor's duty to make sure his patient didn't suffer and if he was on the root to dying and was in such intense pain, a sip of laundenam or other drug would ensure a quick dispatch. It was considered all in a day's work. With the increase in medical advancement it is almost like we have come to believe we can beat everything if we drag it out hoping for that miracle cure that is only around the corner. Terry Pratchet locates this uneasiness of death and that as the length of life continues to expand how we become more uneasy about anyone under that age should die is terrible. He accurately states that "there becomes a time when technology outpaces sense, when we believe a blip on an ascilloscope is confused with life, and humanity unravles into a state of mere existence."

His upbeat tone considering the topic throws light onto the topic that it doesn't have to a labororious issue. As Professor Dumbledore states in The Philosopher's Stone: "To the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure." For those prepared it isn't a hard task, no more so than coping with their illness. His chant: "My life, my death, my choice" summarises his feelings on the matter. God I suppose after all gave us freewill. But it helps he doesn't believe in God either. He is a humanist believing in "rising apes, rather than falling angels". Rather wittingly he refers to the Victorian poet Arthur Hugh Clough: "Thou shall not kill; but needst not strive unofficiously to keep alive" and this he says should sometimes be heeded. He says it is about compassion and that we need to be reminded that we are human and that "humanity is precious" and further still the humanity in life and the quality of that life is precious too. A death worth dying, Terry Pratchet states. Indeed I agree. Compassion and understanding is all they ask. And at the end of the day if it is that person's choice then so be it.

Within one paper we see the two sides of the story and the victor is so clearly visible. A few pages before Terry's speech is printed, the Archbishop of York "condemns the push for mercy killings" (HERE). Where is his compassion? Hmmmm.... very disillusioned with the Christian faith as a whole. Where is the tolerance, forgiveness, compassion and understanding advocated throughout the bible and the religion as a whole?

Terry Pratchet, you are a legend and I support you in your right to die with dignity, on your terms and in your own time.

Daily Mail Review: The Pope and Intolerance

Now, I do not profess to like reading the Daily Mail or adhering to any of its statements/beliefs. However, it is an established purchase in this house for its double pull out section of puzzles. My mother is addicted to Sudoku- I am damned I ever got her into those!! I never get a look in now!

So anyway. She buys the Mail everyday for the puzzle pullout and casts aside the paper. I picked it up whilst chewing over my pasta salad for lunch whilst she proceeded to complete three sudokus and a crossword in her hour lunch break. Hot-Diggy-Duh-Dog she's fast!

Today I found two things, not just in the Mail, but also in the news and other newspapers too. The first one is the Pope's statement against the Equality Bill being processed through government at the minute. See Here. It is against "natural law" of the Christian faith. Humph. I am none to pleased with this. As a severely lapsed Catholic-cum-Agnostic-verging-on-Atheist I am not surprised I find myself in this vacuum of faith. I find it just appalling that such intolerance exists at high level institutions that provide a social and moral ethic code for people. Religious attendance isn't what it once was and looking at what the Pope said today, is there really any wonder?

What happened to all the acceptance and forgiveness preached in the New Testament huh? Seems that applies only to a certain section of society. The right section. Hardly seems fair some how. Times change, society changes and religion has to adapt to that. It has changed its stance so many times over so many things- do not get me even started on that!! The Bible is a historical text of sabotage and patriarchal and often misogynistic control anyway, but as the standard laws for the Christian faith it is the foundation and it does have (especially the second half) the assertion that a good Christian should be compassionate and understanding?? Go figure, huh? Maybe once you get to wear the robes you finally understand the hypocrisy.

Anyway, off my soap box. Church- just get with the times, or be gone in time.

Film Review: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

Set in London in the late 1930s, Miss Guinivere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is a down-and-out, strait-laced vicar's daughter, who has just been released from her former position but an alcoholic rich lady with bratty kids- the stereotypical governess' nightmare. She is the typical governess with her drab brown clothes, her tired/gaunt face and unfashionably frizzy hair. However, a stroke of luck for Miss Pettigrew who 'acquires' a post in desperation i.e. steals off a recruitment agents' desk and finds that Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams) is it: a social secretary to the flighty, man-using but simply lovely Delysia. Three lovers to toy and manipulate is a hard task for Pettigrew to keep her charge out of trouble. The slimy Nick, clubowner and generally 'Nasty Nick' character similar to that on Eastenders, Phil the pretty-boy-slash-muppet-with-more-of-Daddy's-money-than-he-knows-what-to-do-with who is staging a musical- one in which Delysia wants the main part- and the heart throb Michael- guess which one I liked the most?- is a cabaret pianist in the club where Delysia sings at night. He is humble (with an odd accent- possibly American, maybe English with a hint of the Gaelic about him) but morally upright yet dashing and not boring (which is what you can sometimes get with those morally upright characters- dull dull dull!) so ensue love square (rather than triangle- sometimes there are just not enough corners on a triangle), and added to that some poignant moments for Miss Pettigrew and her tentative love interest (Joe) who is shacked up with a hideous monstrosity of a woman- played by the actress who is Moaning Murtle in Harry Potter and Bridget Jones' best friend- the crying one in the loo of the bank right?!- so he so ditches her for Miss Pettigrew the lovely lady that she is. Sorry for the plot spoiler there. Plus Joe this dishy man (ok so he is middle-aged- he can be very dishy- I think its the gruff voice lol) Ciaran Hinds, who plays a fab Captain Wentworth in BBC's '90s adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion).

Okay so that is a summary of the plot. As an aside it is based on a book, which is something I didn't know. Winifred Watson (the first name of my great-grandma- or as I knew her- just Grandma- the crazy lady who at 87 would still crawl around on the floor with us playing Doh-Nutters wearing the silly elephant mask too!!) wrote the novel in 1938 and I soooo know I want to read it, and probably will knowing me!! I need a lifetime to read all the books I want to read.

No what made the film for me? It was sharp changes from humorous and poignant that flowed together to make a really charming story, twee but not sickeningly so. That, I think, is down to the actors who really weight down the story and lift it up when the occasion arises. The New York Times simply swooned over Amy Adams in Miss P: "[Delysia] may be an amoral, sociopathic vixen. But in Ms. Adams's portrayal she is also an irresistibly endearing creature of moods and whims, one who melts the hearts of the possessive, egotistical beaus she carelessly juggles while pursuing the leading role in a West End musical." I quite frankly I agree. She is one of the best young actresses to come to the fore in recent years and a better icon than say Jordan and the like. Recently I have watched three very different films of Amy Adams. One was Enchanted- a Disney film (and one I have seen many times because I bloody love its cheese factor), Doubt where she plays a nun alongside Meryl Streep who accuses a priest of molestation and Miss Pettigrew. In each her acting was different and she played each character differently. I like. *Nods head emphatically*

However the New York Times' swooning, however, does touch on the sycophantic: "Beneath their wiles, Ms. Adams's princesses are true-blue souls who would sooner die than hurt anyone. They're just a little ditzy." Yet they hit a key note with me- ditzy. Maybe that is why I like her acting- there is that element of continuity throughout all her roles though different- that ditzy element that is so endearing and classically her. Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock all have an endearing quality. This is her own style. And with the ditzy factor- I think I can relate to her, though she is approximately a third of my size, gorgeous and can act. Meh, trivial aspects teehee...

Yet you cannot forget Frances McDormand the lead role of this film. She is terrific. Believable and loveable. She capturs the time in the way she holds herself and conducts herself as Miss Pettigrew. No one will mess with her not even the slimy Nasty Nick and everyone wants and heeds her advice, an incredible phenomenon but again believable. She is the main reason that the story runs and flows so well juxtaposing laughs with poignancy. In terms of critical review the plot got a wee bit panned saying "[it] is an example of how a little nothing of a story can be inflated into a little something of a move with perfect casting, dexterous tonal manipulation and an astute eye and ear for detail" (NY Times). Okay so it is quite a nice, eloquent panning and accurate in parts- the act is terrific and the directing of the tone and nice nuances really make the film that extra bit special. But this review kind of misses out on the charm of the film. That unerringly jaunty and fast-flowing pace (the film is all set over the course of a day) and the nice sentimental touches that put you back into context that it was the Depression-era, not everyone one was having a fabulously exotic lifestyle like Delysia. The fact that Miss Pettigrew is always so hungry throughout the film and almost on several occasions manages to eat something more than an olive out of a cocktail glass and the cucumbers from her facial but is thwarted. At the conclusion of the film having gone all day without real food, she sees a half eaten apple left in the train station. She makes a lunge at it, but the train porter sweeps it up before she gets there. A moment after that lone shot of the look of grim desperation on her face, Joe turns up. As they walk off into the proverbial sunset together he asks her whether she has eaten- it is soooo sweet and we know that he must have seen her diving for the apple but was gentlemanly enough to let her have a moment to compose himself before entering her eyeline. It is the most amazing and uplifting scene I have seen in ages. The entire film ebbs and flows with such ease and doesn't seem in any way contrived, which can be hard for the kind of twee movies I like to relax to. I sat on the sofa and squealed and laughed and almost shed a tear during the course of this little mountainous film.

I loved it so much so I a) blogged about it, b) am fighting my Dad to keep it on the Sky Plus Box- something he likes to wipe down every day grrrrr- completely unnecessary really, c) am going to buy it on DVD meaning that this week Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day will be receiving plus one more DVD sale! I know Dad won't be able to resist seeing that "Viewed" sign and for fear of the memory being taken up by my stuff will delete it. Bless him. He is so fastidious.

But on a concluding note about the film, as always I recommend to watch all my blogged about movies. This one is for the light-hearted, only takes up a hour and 32 minutes of your time precisely and it will make you feel uber good for the rest of the week after watching it. After that you can watch Persuasion, Doubt and Enchanted XD teehee

Happy Viewing All...

MAUD ALLAN: Acceptable Sexuality? Part 1...

Just a large snippet from a bit of research I did for one of my Masters essays- "Female Sexuality in Soho: "Foreignness", Public Decency and the Visibility of the Female Body in the 20^th-century". It just amazed me how a scantily-clad, orientalised woman was frolicking around on stage, decapitated head in hand, in 1908 West End of London and to boot the "Respectable"classes flocking to see her!! Maud Allan- what a woman huh?!

In 1908 the Palace Theatre, just off Shaftesbury Avenue and on the edge of Soho, welcomed Maud Allan to its stage. She was an interpretive dancer from North America and it was her almost nude performance of "The Vision of Salome" that thrilled the audience, whilst simultaneously arousing concern about her performance. Salome was a Jewish princess in the bible who demanded the head of John the Baptist after her spurned her advances. However, surprisingly Maud's portrayal of Salome did not provoke a public outcry despite the divisive storyline, a considerable lack of undergarments and a sexual undercurrent towards the "Oriental" style of the piece. Instead she received critical acclaim instead. One critic of the Times, a newspaper known for all things cultural for the well-to-do and the socially prominent (a large part of Maud's audience), could barely contain his praise:

"every movement was beautiful. There is no extravagance or sensationalism about Miss Allan's dancing; even when crouching over the head of her victim, caressing it or shrinking away from it in horror... [her performance] is absolutely free of offense." (March 10^th 1908)

Her performances in 1908-09 are not to be underestimated. Maud Allan's display of her body on the public stage was risky as it had only recently just become socially acceptable to be even on the stage, never mind with a stringy bra on, and there was also still a strong association between actresses and prostitution. As Salome, Maud enacted a sexually assertive female and her performance raised fears about female power and sexuality that were already developing due to the suffrage movement (which I shall mention in further detail later on....) Overall the performance did not threaten her audience because she displaced the errant sexuality onto a foreign woman. It was not a 'western' woman. This is an example of how 'foreignness'/cosmopolitanism exploded into popular culture during the Edwardian period and raised the spectre of the racial "other". Middle-class sensibilities could have been offended by the physical appearance as a half-naked woman on stage exuding aberrant sexuality towards the severed head of John the Baptist (at one point almost dry humping it!?), but Maud achieved a precarious balance of notoriety and respectability. She made the 'East' visible to the West, but kept the 'foreignness' separate from herself and the west, so was therefore not upsetting public decency. The cosmopolitan nature of this dance was reliant on a nationalist rhetoric depicting the colonies as female, weak and inferior. This "Orientalism", a discourse through which the "other" is represented by the West as subordinate thereby providing an intellectual foundation for domination, was present in the dance and the Western patriarchal social order of imperial power was maintained. In essence it was not subversive.

As a western woman presenting an 'eastern' woman on stage Maud was in an ideologically difficult position and there was a need to manipulate the rhetoric of separate spheres, of imperial power and of 'foreignness' to keep the "overlapping and mutually reinforcing categories of Western woman and native distinct" (Walkowitz). It is this nationalist discourse that promoted unity in a time of increasing challenge from women in the form of the suffrage movement during the first two decades of the 20^th century. With the increase of public violence from the militants there was a need to reassert clear boundaries of public order and gender roles. A common argument made against women's suffrage was that the female nature was ill-equipped to deal with the rigours of colonialism, therefore, despite the initial appearance of Maud being sexually subversive, the reason her first performances were considered "acceptable" and not contrary to public decency was that she upheld the separate spheres gender ideology.
Allan's successful transformation of what was "Eastern" into "Western" and what was "erotic" into something "spiritual", she is permitted to continue performing her dance.

The pervasive imperial and nationalist discourse running through Britain in the 20^th-century had a huge impact on culture and society. The use of the dichotomy of masculine west and feminine east shows how Maud's performance was socially acceptable and 'safe' once placed within the confines of the pro-West nationalist discourse, or "Orientalism". There was such an omnipresent discourse in Britain at this time about race deterioration and national degeneracy that the foreign 'other' and race and what it meant to be British was already present in the public psyche.
There was simultaneously a fascination with the cosmopolitan and a great deal of suspicion attached to it too. There was a "double-sided cosmopolitanism" towards dance in pre-war Britain (Walkowitz). There was a "convergence of disparate, even antagonistic, geo-political associations", which means that Maud Allan's place within society was subject to social changes. The binary oppositions of male/female, east/west is not static but jostling against one another for redefinition through the suffrage movement and later the First World War. The fact that Maud was a symbol of femininity yet portrayed cosmopolitan sexuality blurs the boundaries the separate spheres and places her in a luminal position. Maud's dance style was 'foreign' and her audience was mixed due to the Palace Theatre's location on the perimeter of Soho, yet she conducted herself outside the theatre, in public, as adhering to the ideology of separate gender roles denouncing the suffrage movement, thus separating herself from the militancy of the suffragettes and also distanced herself from the sexuality of Salome by calling her performance a spiritual awakening.

So, 'foreignness" was visible in theatrical culture but it was also attached to a dominating nationalist and imperial discourse that obscured the more 'sexual' and deviant themes. The way the negative aspects of the character are all ascribed to the character's 'foreignness' demonstrate how 'cosmopolitanism' was made 'respectable' by distancing the audience from that person. The publicly visible display of Maud Allan's scantily clothed body writhing on stage was seen as an acceptable form of cultural entertainment because it was supported with a nationalist discourse of superiority of the West over the colonial 'others' and that Maud personally distanced herself from the feminist movement. Here cosmopolitanism was an active part of the culture as long as it did not subvert the social hierarchy. Both men and women went to see Maud Allan's performance as a cultural experience and it was her performances that facilitated the entry of 'respectable' women into the cosmopolitan spaces of the commercial West End, which had hitherto been social suicide to venture into.

And this month's theme is "RETRENCHMENT"

Ok, I failed.

Not to sound defeatist but I kinda failed, didn't I, on the blogging front?

Hmm, my humblest apologies.

However I am setting out to remedy that!! Aha yes I sure am!

It is a depressing state to be beginning the month still with that most hated monetary symbol ever to grace the ATM's screen- that dratted minus sign. Yup. So apart from cussing rather loudly in Bury St. Edmunds' high street on Sunday and scaring one lil old lady with wheelie shopping trolley I think I have dealt with it in a positive manner since. This new positivity (and believe me its hard to be positive for too long- I find in Britain that the sarcasm in humour and that belittling inherent in English culture does make it hard to keep that firm upper lip) so anyway this new positivity is standing me in good stead! I am saying yes, shit you have got no money but you are the one that spent and it is you who is going to be tightening that already tight belt. So voila. I am.

Retrenchment.

Funny that when I posted this title as a statement on Facebook that people wouldn't necessarily know what 'retrenchment' means. I then realised that I did spend most of my teenage years in my bedroom reading- Jane Austen, history books about 19th century politics and random crap that has weird words no longer used these days. So it is unsurprising that the cooler souls of my generation would not know this word. It throws into light my quirky little life 15-18 years :) I liked it, but I do come out with some awful shite sometimes!!

So it is with a quote from Jane Austen that I end this blog, apt I think:

"They must retrench; that did not admit of a doubt. But she [Lady Russell] was very anxious to have it done with the least possible pain to him [Sir Walter] and Elizabeth. She drew up plans of economy, she made exact calculations, and she did what nobody else thought of doing: she consulted Anne... 'If we can persuade your father to all this,' said Lady Russell, looking over her paper, 'much may be done. If he will adopt these regulations, in seven years he will be clear; and I hope we may be able to convince him and Elizabeth that Kellynch Hall has a respectability in itself which cannot be affected by reductions...'" (Persuasion)