One More Step
Just before the dam is about to burst, just before the volcano erupts, man gives up.
Just before the geyser bursts forth, and the mountain is moved, man gives up.
Just before that declaration of love, before that rainbow appears, man gives up.
Patience (Take Two)
Without patience we often only see a brick wall in front of us. It creates anger, desperation and panic. With patience we see a long road which stretches into the distance. Even though the naked eye cannot yet see the possibilities, there is the promise of wonderful lands ahead.
Forgiveness
Sometimes, we can’t stop life throwing us curve balls or dashing our hopes. Sometimes, we can’t stop the pain or the suffering, but we can control how we decide to react to all of those things. We can bring peace to our pain by letting go.
We have the power to love even when we are feeling crushed. No one can stop us blessing people or wishing them the best. No one can stop us accepting our situation and turning it into something wonderful. We can’t control what other people do, even if it impacts on our own happiness. If other people make decisions because they are hurting, we have to let them make those decisions. We have to let them go through their own life lesson, and when they come out through the other end, the only important thing, is to be there for them.
Hope
We overlook the wonders of our bad situation. We fail to see the jewels shining in the ashes.
Patience
The source of our tribulation will become our greatest ally, through patience.
Emotions
Some people leak, others cork up.
I’ve always loved quotes. When I was very small, I used to quote quotes often, because I had a memory for such things but mostly because it was a source of comfort. My father would scoff at me. ‘Let me guess,’ he would say, sarcastically, ‘what you just said, that was a quote, wasn’t it?’ So, daddy had me down as a parrot, a mimic, a quoter of quotes.
Little did he know, I was simply learning. I was merely a student on a journey through the absolute joy of quotes. And, little did I know, that a natural desire would develop to create some of my own. So I wrote my own, through the experience of love and joy and thinking too much and angst and torture and heartbreak and all those other things that make you feel alive, or make you feel that you want to die, also. Inspired by a million other quotes, by gorgeous broken people, and all absolutely heartfelt.
I also remember feeling a bit depressed about something and then my beautiful christian friend from the United States said to me one day, ‘It ain’t over ’till the fat lady sings’ and ever since then, when things aren’t going right, that phrase resonates with me and has really helped. And it’s true, it really ain’t over, ’till the fat lady sings.
Mere words can help so much, and sometimes can lead us out of depths of depression and onto better things, which means words are not just powerful, but miraculous.
All the real fans who give a toss will have seen Star Wars The Force Awakens by now. And to those who haven’t seen it, by your very actions, it’s obvious that you’re not really arsed, but I still have to do this
SPOILERS ALERT! SPOILERS ALERT!
I’ve already discussed sexism in Hollywood, and we’ve all seen what a terrible mess it is. Injustice doesn’t come into it, it’s horrendous, but ageism, oh my goodness, now there’s a can of worms, there’s a bargepole no-one will touch. Why, because it’s sticking up, in luminous yellow and undulating like the Alarm Meanies in Yellow Submarine. It’s the huge pink elephant in the room. These Hollywood big shots, these movie moguls, these polyester patriarchs (cashmere I know) just look what they did to Han Solo in Star Wars, The Force Awakens? It was like Euthanasia. Ageism at work. Why the hell didn’t they make him grow old a little more gracefully? Okay then, disgracefully. Beforehand, I had one of those dreaded sneaking suspicions. I sort of knew it was going to happen, I had the inkling, and it doesn’t surprise me one bit. Why? Well, because he’s over fifty, and if you’re over fifty in the movie business…At least, please, let him grow old I said to myself fretfully, don’t cull him, don’t cull any of them just because they’re getting on a bit. Oh, wait, you did? My worst fears were realised. I guess I’m too late, and even if I’d have got there in time, I still wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
Here’s a guy who has been flying the Millennium Falcon for about fifty years now, lovingly, O.C.D-ishly, manically, lustily even, and then, some snotty nosed kid comes on board, who has never seen its innards, and suddenly starts telling Han how to fly it. Okay, he’s been away a while, but this man knows EVERYTHING there is to know about the Millennium Falcon. He’s an EXPERT. He would have made love to it, if it would have been physically possible. He would have married it and had its babies. So they better not start telling me he’s forgotten how to fly it, or what buttons to press, ‘cos he’s always known how and where to press her buttons.
Just because he’s mature, does that mean he’s not quite up to scratch ? His mental faculties are not at optimum, is that what they’re telling me? That does not ring true with Han, simply because this is a man who has full control of his faculties.
Even though, every pirate and business associate in the universe, are all swarming after him, for debts and favours, in a DELUGE, he’s roguish enough to swindle them and avoid them which makes him competent mentally, in fact, makes him sharper than you’re average guy. He has game and if you’ve got game, you’ve got guile, and if you have guile…you have NOT FORGOTTEN HOW TO FLY THE MILLENNIUM FALCON!
In Star Wars, Episode VI, Return Of The Jedi, Lando Calrissian ‘borrows’ The Falcon for a Saturday night date, (yes I know, not really, but how cool would that have been) and he assures Han that ‘it won’t get a scratch’ and ‘no snogging in the back seat.’ Han replies, in what was to end up, a classic quote from the movie, ‘I got your promise now, not a scratch.’
Now does that sound like a man who, thirty years on, or so, would then allow the Millennium Falcon to get into such a state of disrepair? I don’t care if, during his mid life crisis, he forgot about his ‘oneitis’ (which, by definition, cannot be forgotten really). I don’t care if he bought a red sports car, an electric guitar, a leather jacket and a 18 year old Miss Corellia Coast beauty pageant winner, he would not abandon and neglect his beloved ship. (The Star Wars land, Corellia, is forest and jungle terrain but ‘Corellia Coast’ has such a nice ring about it).
Nowadays, they kill you off before you get your first liver spot.
Are people so afraid of death that we can’t have old people on the silver screen, for a long time, with lots of lines, having meaningful and important roles, that last through to the end of the movie?
So if Han would have lived, perhaps he would have smelled of wee and start wearing purple, who knows.
Come on, let’s give the up and coming stars of tomorrow a chance. We’ve had our day. It’s a young man’s game. It’s not like the forties any more, where twenty year olds would happily be played by fifty year olds. I’m sure that trend will come round again someday.
Until then, the desert is a great training ground, making brilliant pilots at such a young age.
Luke needed many months of training by the great Jedi master Yoda, before he got up to Rey’s standard and she’s barely out of her teens. It’s not like the old days, when skills got learned over time. Luke didn’t know how to spit in a bucket when he left Tatooine. People need a bit of green in them, so we can see the difference later on (I think it’s called growth) but Rey is successfully playing the Jedi Mind Tricks now. And yet it took Luke, what, five years of serious intense training with Yoda, on the Dagobah System, to achieve the same results?
Apparently, it’s fine to be an amazing pilot and learned mechanic, even though you’ve been barely irking out a living as a desert scavenger and can barely afford to eat. Nice to see that hunger and homelessness doesn’t get in the way of self teaching quantum physics, engineering and propulsion, and of course, don’t forget, what took Han Solo many, many years, learning the ins and outs of The Millennium Falcon, took Rey just a few seconds.
No-one likes a smart arse.
Even if she’s a girl.
So, if you’re over fifty, you will either be patronized, humiliated, killed off, given a couple of lines and forgotten about for the rest of the movie. Or, if your name is Mark Hamill, and you’re obviously over fifty, you won’t appear until the last five minutes of the movie. But I’m sure you’ll be in the second one, as you’re bearded and wiser now and a new Obi Won Kenobi. Get used to it.
I hope in the next movie, we are going to see General Leia kicking someone up the arse, telling someone they stink, to their face, and that they are a little too short for a storm trooper, and start swinging off ropes in the Death Star. I was genuinely disturbed by the fact that Leia implied that she had been sitting home night after night waiting for Han to come home to her. He says I know that you missed me, I know about the pain of missing me and that’s why I did it. I was surprised this powerful intelligent confident woman was waiting at home, pining for a man, to turn up, who gleefully enjoys ‘stirring anxiety.’ Of course, Han is a P.U.A, naturally. And then I saw that Han had gone from playfully misogynistic to seriously misogynistic.
Is Chewie going to go off on a big revenge thing or is he going to be resigned to an old Chewie home, which would be consistent with getting rid of the old, and bringing in the new.
I was woefully mistaken in my hopes that we would see some swashbuckling action from Han, in the whole three movie franchise adventure…instead of what actually happened.
What a fool I was.
As I say, it’s a young man’s game. Look at this doddering old man who can’t even start up his own ship. Let’s all laugh at him. Let’s look at the fact that he’s seventy odd and his memory is going. Let’s put that across, so we can then do a spot of euthanasia. Then everyone will think, well, we had to do that really. We had to put him down. It wasn’t fair on him.
Now, all these spring chickens in this movie, will happily attract other spring chickens to the cinema, as they have lots of spare cash and can make the film companies lots of dosh.
Don’t get me wrong, the new up and coming young actors in it are great, and you can see that they have a wonderful future ahead of them. Rey, Finn and Kylo are going to be wonderful in this new saga and will end up as iconic as Han, Leia and Luke. A new generation.
Harrison Ford as Han, is an iconic figure with so much mileage, but they have decided to kill off their golden goose. Han has been slaughtered and euthanised by Kylo. Let’s waste him, in favour of the young ‘uns. Youth is the thing.
Your grandparents are only good for one thing. Presents.
It would have been better if Han would have retired and played golf instead of being impaled like that. He may have made the finals of the desert golf championships on Tatooine. He does look a bit like Severiano Ballesteros, who was supposed to be the Han Solo of the golf word, but he is obviously more like Jimmy Connors, who was well known as the Han Solo of the tennis world in the early 80’s.
There’s another point. Han, at his age, and in his experience, would not still have two bit Chav gangsters coming after him, at this stage in the game. At his age, he’s have more seasoned rivals, more like himself and more in line with his level of experience and skill, which would have been gained by the time he was seventy. He would not still be in dealings with some teenaged gang on a street corner in Mos Eisley.
We keep banging our heads against a brick wall in our lives, sometimes…often, but we learn from our mistakes, even though we keep making them, but..surely Han would have moved on… in some way, somehow…It just doesn’t ring true.
There’s nothing wrong with Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, so why are they saying he’s forgotten how to fly his beloved Millennium Falcon and this child has to tell him how to do it? Humiliating in the extreme. Listen Rey, you’re a nice kid and all, and somewhere along the line, you’re going to defeat ultimate evil, and stop the destruction of the universe, but don’t teach your granny to suck eggs okay?
It doesn’t ring true. I know, I keep saying it. This guy has social skills. The only thing they keep, of the original Han, is his contrariness, which unfortunately, now that he’s getting on a bit, just comes across as ‘Grumpy Old Man’. They should have put him in a smoking jacket, a silver fox, puffing on Eldorian cigars and drinking sand cider. He married a Princess for Goodness Sake. He married Princess Leia. He would have come up in the world in some small way. He’s been conning the inhabitants of this mythology for a very long time and gained a great deal of experience. By the time he’s seventy or so, he’d be a dab hand. He’d have written a ‘How To Win Friends and Influence Jakku.’ manual, at the very least. I think he would have even run for president. He’d have gone up, on the democratic end, against Arnie of the Star Wars Universe, and probably won.
It would have been nice to see him moving on. Everyone changes and matures with age, even if it’s just into more alternative chaos, or denial that you’re no longer an 25 year old smuggling space cowboy. We all evolve into something, even if we’re losers, or in denial, or won’t/can’t grow up? (This is resonating with me) But we all evolve with time. We have to. He’d have changed, a little. Was Lucas pandering to his fans? Or rather J.J Abrams? That was exactly the case, he has said that, in a round about way, I can see where he was coming from, but, I was upset that Han has not moved on, has not ‘progressed’, has remained frozen, as if he was still back in carbonite, in 1984 in Jabba’s Hutt‘s Palace.
And he would not be in the same garb, we all love that garb, it’s the sexiest garb ever, but he’s older, we’re older. I’m not ready to grow up either but we all like consistency. He would not be wearing the exact same clothes. What if Marilyn Monroe had lived until she was 90, would she still be wearing that iconic white dress, from the Seven Year Itch, the one she wore while standing above the Subway air vent on Lexington Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street in New York City?
No…and only when she was alone in her bedroom, with a few sherries under her belt.
I admit at first, I liked the idea of Han in his black and white space cowboy stuff, because it appealed to my safe sense of nostalgia. How lovely and warm and fuzzy but fashions and trends change, even in space. Would you be wearing the exact same clothes twenty years on, even in space?
Even men don’t do that.
We all know people who stand still, but not like this.
It just doesn’t ring true to his character that he would let his beloved ship gather dust bunnies like that. It also doesn’t ring true that he would owe all these space gangsters money and favours and they would be still be trying to kill him? He’d have come up with strategies by now. He’d have evolved, surely? Had people to take care of more pedestrian business. Unless, we are really trying to say that he’s a loser, who doesn’t learn from his mistakes, or hone his game? That he was in his dotage and he doesn’t know how to turn ‘her’ on any more. And we’re not saying that, are we?
HAN: Yes, I pressed all the right buttons in my youth but it’s all slippers and afternoon game shows from now on.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time I guess.
But you can still pull a lever and press a button. You can still turn on the Millennium, can’t you, Han?
Okay, so we have encountered extreme ageism in this new saga, so far, but that’s okay, Ageism won’t cause a riot yet will it? It’s not yet politically incorrect to be ageist. It’s not going to get people’s backs up. So, we can let it go and no-one but no-one, will be character assassinated for ageism. So ageism will exist…in your face.
Apart from that, I genuinely liked everything else about the film, especially the fact that this new up and coming young Jedi is a girl. How non sexist! Oh, how forward thinking.
As Geena Davies might say, thanks for the tokenism boys, but will it actually be sustainable? Will it go anywhere? Will it be nothing more but the false girl power of yesteryear, a lip service, an opium of the masses, just to sedate the ladies for a short time? Oh look, a girl is going to be a Jedi! Well then, that should keep us satisfied for the next twenty blockbusters and for the next twenty years. Phew. Good to get them off our backs. Not that they were ever really seriously on them.
Now, after a nice quick patronizing pat on the head, we can sit back and relax girls. Surely we should be happy now. Something to be grateful for. Forget the revolution. Rey is the next Luke Skywalker!
All is well with the world.
Or is it?
Some of us might have thought thought sexism was a problem, and it is.
They way the older, iconic stars were treated in The Force Awakens upset and offends me, and it feels isolating, like no-one else can see it, but it was expected and that’s what is really disturbing.
But, I guess, we ain’t seen nothing yet.
I’m going to say one thing about Bernard Sumner, if I don’t say anything else, and that’s…I like him. He seems like a likeable guy. I could be wrong, but I just read his autobiography, Chapter and Verse, and not only was it informative and insightful, regarding his years in Joy Division and New Order, but Bernard comes across as…a very down to earth, reasonable person. The kind of guy you could have a pint with, down your local, and end up thinking, ‘Oh, that was a really nice evening. We had an intelligent, amiable night, we talked about intelligent, amiable things, in a very civilised way.
‘Life shapes you, and what life does to you, shapes your art.’
– Bernard Sumner- Chapter and Verse.
I may have completely got the wrong end of the stick…according to, perhaps one other former band member, ahem, who I won’t mention…well, not yet. In fact I’m afraid to speak his name. We’ve gone into old school nineties horror here. Just like you don’t say ‘Candy Man’ three times while looking into a mirror, you also don’t say ‘Hooky’ three times into a mirror, not even a cracked one. Oops, I said his name, but only once, I will mention it again later, but you see, in his defence, he thinks differently and he sees things differently. There are always two sides to every story and I will address that, in time.
In the first section of the book, Bernard talks about his upbringing and mostly he has favourable memories of growing up in Salford and remembers it as a happy time. He has many poignant and thoughtful insights about growing up and his sometimes troubled relationship with his mother. Chapter and Verse is also a fast paced, well written account of Bernard’s musical journey from the seedlings of Joy Division to the full bloom of New Order.
Joy Division were formed in 1976, one of the very many bands to be inspired by a performance of The Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester on 4 June 1976. Makes you think about the mathematical impossibilities, considering all the people who were supposed to be there, which would actually total 1,000+ by verbal accounts, That appearance spawned a generation of legendary bands, which is strange, because there were only around forty people there. Fortunately for Bernard, he was one of them, along with Tony Wilson and Paul Morley.
‘Punk and The Pistols blew a sneering path through the middle of all that puffed up musical pomposity.’
– Bernard Sumner, ‘Chapter and Verse.
Joy Division were originally named Warsaw, loosely named, after Bernard heard ‘Warszawa‘, a beautifully haunting instrumental album cut from David Bowie’s ‘Low’ album, (1977) co written by Brian Eno (had a huge effect on me too) The band consisted of singer Ian Curtis, guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris.
‘I was relieved to get a call from someone, (after placing an ad for a new band member) who wasn’t a weirdo, or a mad hippie.’
‘He’s a drummer (Steve Morris) and drummers are odd people. They like hitting things for a living.’
Bernard Sumner- Chapter and Verse.
Tony Wilson signed Joy Division to his Factory Records label and they released Unknown Pleasures in 1979. The producer of the album was heroin addict, and Sméagol impersonator, Martin Hamnet, a musical and creative genius (think Mancunian Trevor Horn) with some social interaction issues. As the band’s popularity grew, Curtis, who suffered from similar problems, including the obligatory interpersonal issues and epilepsy, found it increasingly challenging to perform live. The album was a success, but on the eve of the bands U.S tour, in May 1980, Ian Curtis committed suicide.
‘He said he felt as if he was pulled inexorably into a great big whirlpool. I didn’t know what he meant by that.’
Bernard Sumner. ‘Chapter and Verse.’
Ian married young and had a wife and a baby. When success came, and all that went with it, including late night parties and social opportunities, he embarked on an affair. He had never thought it through, but by then, it was too late, it became impossible for him to make a decision. Damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. There was no way out. And so he chose what seemed to be the only way out.
The album Closer was released in July 1980, it would be the second and last Joy Division album. A song from the album, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart‘ was released as a single shortly after Curtis’ death.
In the empty but restless void of bereavement, New Order was born. It seemed Bernard was the next natural vocalist for the newly named band. He could never fill Ian’s shoes, but then, he never wanted to. He went where he was gently nudged. But where he was gently nudged, seemed to work very well.
Steve Morris’ girlfriend also joined the band, Gillian Gilbert, playing keyboards and guitar.
‘Movement‘ the first album from New Order was released in the winter of 1981. At the time, it received a lukewarm reception, but has since, received much more favourable reviews. Like men and wine, it has aged better with time, and in 2008, the album was re-released in a Collector’s Edition with a bonus disc.
Their fifth single release as New Order was Blue Monday, 1983, which became the biggest selling twelve inch single of all time.
‘Power, Corruption and Lies‘ was New Order’s second album, released in the Spring of 1983, and unlike their first New Order release, was much more positively received. Mainly because it was seen as an album which cut New Order’s umbilical cord to Joy Division’s past. No more tied to the apron strings of Curtis’ legacy, New Order was finally able to run wild and free.
The band went on to release eight more albums and many compilations.
It was around this time, Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton put their heads together and opened their brain child, The Hacienda. It was financed by Factory Records, Tony and …er… revenue from New Order’s success, much to the bands surprise. For the basis of their ambitious dreams, Tony and Rob chose an innocuous warehouse on Whitworth Street West on the south side of the Rochdale Canal. The nightclub was active between 1982 and 1997, celebrating the upcoming trend of acid house and rave music. One of the first artists to perform there was Madonna. She faced a bored, restless, and typically hard to please, northern crowd.
While indulging Tony’s latest fantasy, albeit a guileless and genuine attempt to put Manchester on the map, the coffers of New Order and Factory Records, began to haemorrhage money.
Not that Bernard didn’t enjoy the spoils…
‘I started drinking far too much before gigs. Afterwards, I felt relieved I’d got through it and would drink even more.’
Bernard Sumner- Chapter and Verse.
This wasn’t just during gig time, the nightclub was open from Thursday through Saturday and Bernard and other band members were a permanent fixture at the bar, enjoying every square inch of it, but his Halcyon days in the Hacienda, were about to come to a timely end.
‘I’d been burning the candle at both ends for so long, the flame had finally reached the middle.’
Bernard Sumner – Chapter and Verse.
By the nineties, gang related violence, and a drugs related death, put an end to The Hacienda. When local magistrates and police visited the club in 1997 (I believe it was on a Saturday night when these middle aged, tea-total pillars of the community came round, and, witnessed (through their mini bus/car windows), a near-fatal assault, on an eighteen year old. They saw him being bludgeoned from behind, before being pushed into the path of an on-coming car.
It spelt the end of The Hacienda. It was a combination of the violence, oh, and maybe, just maybe, the dwindling finances, the security services who were unable, or unwilling, to maintain order, the rampant drug use, but mostly, mostly, the inability for anyone to pick up the nightly bar tab.
Peter Hook went on to own the name and trademark, ‘The Hacienda.’
In 1989, Bernard joined up with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to form Electronic. Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys provided vocals to a couple of tracks on their debut album.
‘Bernard got him (Marr) in the divorce.’
–Peter Hook. (A humorous and entertaining interview that puts Hooky in a good light…finally.
In 2007, Bernard formed Bad Lieutenant with Phil Cunningham. They released one album and two singles. Bad Lieutenant sound like New Order on amitriptyline. A more mellow, relaxed, laid back version of New Order, which is what you need, and, sometimes want, in your more mature and responsible years. I’m not sure that’s selling it. Hey, but this is good for the ears, whatever age, or rebellious persuasion. Bad Lieutenant calmly and coldly suffocates mid life crisis, with a well placed, well upholstered pillow.
Runaway is a lovely example.
Now Bernard has quite a bit to say about his former band member Peter Hook, and visa versa. It’s the age old story, creative peeps get together, they create ‘art’ together. When they get together, there is a certain chemical fusion and things are good, things gel, for a while, but then something goes wrong. Bonding creatively, through the good times and the bad,and, living in each others pockets in a very short and intense amount of time, well, it takes its toll. After all that, perhaps it’s not so strange when creative harmony suddenly becomes creative differences.
Hate is a soup which takes time to stew.
I can’t say too much about it, because I haven’t seen the other side yet. It’s important to get the other side of the story, as we said before. Peter Hook has written two books about his experiences in the music industry, Unknown Pleasures. Inside Joy Division and, The Hacienda: How Not to Run A Club. I haven’t read either but I will and perhaps review and be able to provide a neutralising and balancing effect to what I’m about to say now.
(When Peter Hook came out of Rehab)
‘Out of nowhere, Hooky launched into this unprovoked , finger jabbing diatribe against me, accusing me of f****** up his past, intending to f*** up his future and telling me that I was responsible for everything that has ever gone wrong with New Order.’
-Bernard Sumner, Chapter and Verse.
In the book, whether deliberately or inadvertently, Hook comes across as an alcohol dependent, angry and unreasonable man.
In this new frame of mind, or perhaps old, Hooky announces publicly, without informing the other band members, that New Order has split up.
‘I’ve neither the desire for, neither the intention, of being drawn into a public slanging match with him but it’s difficult sometimes, especially with some of the more outlandish claims and slurs, calling me highly offensive names in the press. He still seems determined to perpetuate this imagined rivalry.’
Bernard Sumner- Chapter and Verse
Imagined rivalry? You see, that suggests to me, that it is not altogether imagined. If one person is disgruntled then it’s already a reality for one person and the other person is simply choosing not to acknowledge that reality. I think what we have here is simply two very different styles of communication. Hooky is, by nature, more upfront and confrontational, Sumner is more introverted and sensitive.
When he’s not making music, Bernard enjoys taking to the sea in a shallow boating vessel. Yachting helps him relax and connect with nature. We’re talking about a family man here. Relaxed, content and finally at peace with himself.
Bernard comes across as an imaginative, intelligent, down to earth, live- and-let-live individual, with a fair amount of integrity and creative talent. I can’t speak for Candy Man right now, but I will, because, as I keep saying, there are always two sides to every story, and when we properly analyse each side, it will help keep the gossip mongers away and help prevent character assassination. Maybe.
‘They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.’
Psalm 64:3
I think these two like each other, they just don’t want to admit it. They went through so much and not just the shock and bereavement of Ian’s suicide. They made great music together. They need to give it up and shake hands. When creative types work together, it can be absolute HELL, but it’s the nature of the beast. Life is short and these guys aren’t getting any younger.
And the fans, well, they hate the fact that they’re having a go at each other and the vitriol doesn’t seem to dilute, even over many years. In fact it just gets seems to grow stronger.
‘I’m looking after myself better. I’ve given up getting f***** up all the time and, as Jimmy Cliff sang, I can see clearly now the rain has gone. Shit does happen in life, but you can get over it. Don’t let it defeat you. And with that, I think we’ll leave my story there.’
Bernard Sumner – Chapter and Verse.
She is tall and beautiful with a dazzling smile and auburn hair. She is an American film star, most dominant in the eighties, who has been in classic movies like Thelma and Louise, Beetle Juice, The Fly, Earth Girls Are Easy and Stuart Little. She has recently starred in successful U.S series Grey’s Anatomy as Dr. Nicole Herman. She is set to star in a Hollywood movie, currently in post production, called Majorie Prime.
Geena Davis discovered from an early age that she was musically gifted and could take to playing piano, flute and organ. She is fluent in Swedish, graduated with a bachelors degree in drama, is a member of Mensa, was a model at Zoli Modelling agency and wait for it, there’s more! … Davis was short-listed for the 2000 Olympics…as an archer. Is there nothing this girl can’t do! I hate her! No, only joking. I love the woman.
And I love her even more for her forays into the nature of inequality in the workforce, particularly in the creative entertainment business. Never mind Hollywood, sexism is prevalent everywhere, the work force, the sex force, the love force, the creative force, the just being friends force.
She has married, settled down and has children, but Our Geena won’t settle down into safe apathetic middle age. She doesn’t want to watch repeats of NCIS in the afternoons or camp down with Haggan Daz, and say f*** the world, I have a blissful middle class life. Who cares about the new sexy tight bodied female actors coming up in the world. Like I care. I got banana ice cream with caramel and cookie swirls and chocolate peace signs on this sofa. Or if it was me, cheesecake with Greek yoghurt and blueberry swirls.
It was a bit like the scene in Labyrinth where Sarah is temporarily hoodwinked into thinking life is good and all she’ll ever need is her teddy bears and her dolls and her hidden object games. She’s in a safe and very blissful place, just having a happy girlish time.
Anyhow, Geena said, hang on a mo, wait there a sec, there’s something not quite right here peoples. I’ve just noticed, I’ve done the math (As we noted before, she’s a member of Mensa) and I’ve been watching films and I’ve noticed that women are a bit like mushrooms. Kept in the dark and fed s***.
Well she didn’t say anything like that. Apparently, she was sitting down to watch children’s telly with her daughter one evening, when she noticed an inequality in male to female roles. Perhaps she saw that in children’s programming first, because she was watching with her children, and then in t.v and movies generally. She must have thought, hang on, I’m smarter than the average pigeon. One word, Mensa.
Having read, studied and appeared in theatre plays, I have noticed, rather gradually (as I’m a slow learner) and rather indignantly, that male roles are first and foremost. They are always the most meaty ones, with the most lines, not necessarily the most poignant or meaningful but they are just there. It seems to be about air time, whether it’s theatre, t.v or film, it’s about maximum male exposure. It’s the flasher made legal. They can be a cad, a rapist, a mad scientist, gangster, a writer, a war hero, an entrepreneur, lodger, bum, it doesn’t matter, as long as they’re male.
Having written theatre plays, I realise I may have been guilty, particularly as a youngster, of placing men in central roles, which is a product of deep seated conditioning, my environment, being a youngster, and a reflection of the social norms of the time. Having recognised that, I hope I can learn from it.
Male actors are always going to get more air time, more importance, more exposure and usually top billing. While men are the central character, always the maypole, the female(s) are not the reason for the story or the plot, they are always the bounce off, the supporting cast,the girl on the arm, the appendage, the trophy.
Geena officially investigated and intensively researched gender in children’s entertainment with the help of the Annenberg School For Communication at the University Of southern California., It was discovered that there were nearly 3 males to every 1 female character in the almost 400 children’s movies analysed.
‘‘When my friends and I would act out movies as kids, we’d play the guy’s roles, since they had the most interesting things to do,’
– Geena Davis.
This happened to me too. Between the ages of 8 and 11, I role played a 27 year old ladies man called Keek Jones. I played him in little original plays and scenarios thought up by me and my on and off screen brother (whose pseudonym was Georgie Jones. We were a kind of Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals. I was Bodie, of course) and got so deeply involved in the character,that I didn’t know I was female and twelve, until I was about twelve.
Geena may not be in main roles in blockbuster movies any more but she is still making a splash in the awareness of gender issues in the entertainment/media industry. Like perhaps many other women, I couldn’t fail to notice discrepancies in gender imbalances in the entertainment industry, but have never thought it any big deal, just accepting it as ‘our lot’ as women. Although the studies have only been done in children’s television entertainment, it sweeps across the board. You don’t need a study from a university to prove it, but it helps.
What would help disprove sexual and gender inequality? Well things like, if Geena had a main female role in a major movie and not be relegated to the sidelines as somebody’s mother …and to be cast as the love interest. Yes, that might do it.
Guys like Harrison Ford are in their seventies and yet, it would be perfectly acceptable for them to sleep with younger women characters. Doesn’t usually work the other way around. There we have the inequality that is ignored, denied and not recognised among the Hollywood moguls, or perhaps in any workforce or walk of life. Girl power never existed. It was the usual lip service, patronized by powerful patriarchs behind closed doors. The Spice Girls just created an illusion designed to make men breathe a little easier.
Geena is currently looking into gender equality in all areas at the moment, not just in children’s entertainment, which doesn’t surprise, as it would be a natural progression. I’ll bet she’s opening up a whole can of worms in that area. She says, “Amazingly, the ratio of male to female characters is exactly the same as it was in 1946. We see The Hunger Games come out and we think … things are changing, but the numbers haven’t changed.’
But apparently, there is an improvement in T.V, as opposed to movies, where women have stronger and more prominent female characters. An example being new marvel phenomenon Jessica Jones. Yet, women constitute just 12% of protagonists in both T.V and film. Only 17 percent of the screenwriters featured on the 2015 Black List were women. The Black List is what people behind the scenes are reading in Hollywood. Men predominantly write the scripts, a place where women are women and men like it. It’s only natural that men have a tendency to write from their perspective, a male one, so until women are represented equally in scriptwriting terms, until those scripts are chosen, until they are allowed to have a voice that writes from a female point of view, equality is not going to happen. What makes it worse, is that the Black List is the result of a survey of 250 entertainment executives, that is 40 percent female.
Geena Davis suggests that, although ground breaking films like ‘Thelma and Louise’ get made and are anticipated to induce a plethora of similar movies, in reality, this is just not the case. While people enjoy movies with female protagonists, they very rarely lead to any long term breakthroughs in gender presence. Instead, they remain simply novelties, designed to patronise and sedate.
Equality of the sexes is still a long, long way away. I open doors for men, as I open doors for women, (just because they’re human) and men get confused, as men do, and think I’m trying to get off with them, and the women never say thanks. I must have SOME motive? Sarcasm? Bitchiness? Likewise, I’ve seen men open doors for women (just because they’re human) and they get short shrift. (Probably, again, because they think the men are trying to get off with them or somehow trying to patronize them). Why can’t people just accept that maybe, just maybe, people are being polite and it has nothing to do with gender. When you open a door for someone, it’s about kindness and thoughtfulness and is just a very basic consideration from one human being to another. Or at least it should be. Why make it a gender issue. Let’s make it a person issue. The same goes for movies.
“Gender discrimination drives me crazy,” Streisand said. “Women are still treated as second-class citizens in the workplace and are not equally represented in Congress.”
Barbra Streisand and Geena Davis have offered a solution. The way forward is for women to join forces with each other in the industry. Women basically need to work together to change things. Nice idea. Well, we all know how uncompetitive women are with each other and how they don’t have a bitchy thought in their heads. If there are self confident women, secure in their own bodies, like Geena and Barbra around, then it’s gonna work, let’s hope it does, but it might take a bit more time and a bit more of a mind shift for others.
And we’ll let Geena have the last word here…
Geena Davis’ TWO EASY STEPS TO MAKE HOLLYWOOD LESS SEXIST’:
Step 1: ‘Go through the projects you’re already working on and change a bunch of the characters’ first names to women’s names. With one stroke you’ve created some colorful unstereotypical female characters that might turn out to be even more interesting now that they’ve had a gender switch. What if the plumber or pilot or construction foreman is a woman? What if the taxi driver or the scheming politician is a woman? What if both police officers that arrive on the scene are women — and it’s not a big deal?
Step 2: When describing a crowd scene, write in the script, “A crowd gathers, which is half female.” That may seem weird, but I promise you, somehow or other on the set that day the crowd will turn out to be 17 percent female otherwise. Maybe first ADs think women don’t gather, I don’t know.
And there you have it. You have just quickly and easily boosted the female presence in your project without changing a line of dialogue’.
Sounds like a plan.
Things In My Head 