I thought I might use this little pocket of time I have (well, it is a bit of a stay of execution as the endless chore of gardening beckons...) to indulge myself in a bit of blathering on things which have flitted in and out of my mind lately.
A while back, I heard on the Jeremy Vine show, a woman talking about body hair. She was in her early 20's, I think, and had not removed any body hair for about 2 years. Now while I bitterly resent shaving/waxing/hacking back the undergrowth with a Black and Decker, I can't quite reach the rebellious level this chick has ascended to, but what she said made so much sense, I felt a bit startled by it.
Her argument is that we have been conditioned by fashion/men/society - that sort of thing - to believe that body hair is unfeminine and therefore disgusting. She argues that there is simply no reason that we should feel obligated to remove body hair, it is as natural to women to grow body hair as it is for men, yet we pressure girls who reach puberty that removal of body hair is 'normal', acceptable and, more scarily, necessary. She is, I feel, absolutely right in her argument. However, it is sadly NOT going to catch on, however much 'right' there is on her side. It is too ingrained in us, too widely spread, too radical to contemplate. But a surprisingly simple and logical point of view.
Even longer ago, I think when Wimbledon was on during the summer as a lady was spotted on TV doing this: there was a discussion (JV again) on whether or not it is rude to knit in public. Pardon my french, but for fuck's sake. So it is not considered 'rude' to smoke in public where you are forcing everyone in the vicinity to passively smoke along with you, not considered 'rude' to yell personal conversations into a mobile phone so you are privy to information you would prefer not to have heard and not considered 'rude' to walk along the street with offensively loud music blaring from a mobile phone with shockingly poor sound quality, but it is 'rude' to create something useful or pretty from a ball of wool. Oh, be serious. That one had me screaming at the radio, I don't mind telling you.
What else. Hmmm. We have been watching this:
Well, have just finished it, actually, and it is darkly brilliant. It is about a family who run a funeral home. It didn't occur to me that because of the open casket thing in the states that there is a whole business built up around 'beautifying' corpses. Forgive my ignorance, but is that why there is embalming? To preserve the body while it is on show? Presumably we, in little blighty, don't go to the trouble because we go for cremation or burial without the whole sitting in a room and looking at our dead beloved? A friend of mine whose husband is American says that we have a very 'sanitised' attitude towards death in this country. Maybe that's a fair point.
And I am reading (again - I read the same things over and over usually - I get great comfort from it) this:
I am fascinated by Anne Boleyn. Because of her and her ambition, we have the Church of England and had Elizabeth 1, both of which I think are pretty hefty legacies. I have days when I feel that the words I have read describing Anne Boleyn could apply to me, 'half mad with rage' and 'shrew like'. I don't like to think of myself as 'shrew like', but the phrase does spring to mind often.
I must get myself outside to the garden. I can prevaricate no longer.
Tits.
Oh Janice, I love your pnderings and especially when you are on a roll.. I understand too the sense in the girl's hair argument but I am with you on the convention. I come from hairy stock, surprisingly the female side too, and my mum kindly (?!) told me afte I began shaving my legs that she agreed to it cos they were as bad as my teenage brothers...thanks mum.. !!!
ReplyDeleteJeremy Vine annoys me some days when he tries to make a debate with people who are so obviously on opposing sides of a strong argument, but Col heard him warning of the danger of wearing contacts in a pool or jacuzzi and for this he should be thanked... Xx
Ha ha, that's funny - from hairy stock. If I hadn't met you before I would be picturing a herd of Yaks!! You are a very feminine chick, nay worries there! What's the story on contacts in a pool/jacuzzi???
ReplyDeleteWell apparently the lenses act like a little greenhouse to incubate some nasty germs that a non lens wearer would just fight off.. Allows bacteria to grow and affect the eye.. As usual JV had some horror stories, but there were a lot of valid arguments..it was part of Vision Awareness Day, but a girl we work with knew all about it.. My Col is our family self appointe safety officer. ? ! so he has been passing it on.. X
ReplyDeleteYou never fail to cheer me with what you write, Janice! Have had the most terrible cold this week and your witty post has made me chuckle and feel better instantly - thank you! Now to what you say - interesting about the body hair thing - yes, it is illogical but conditioning clearly goes very deep. Wonder what it would take to turn the tide on this one - quite a lot I guess. I am with you on the knitting v smoking etc thing - and am currently wondering whether I dare take my hooky to the perpetually and stultifyingly boring meetings that I spend many of my evenings at. I haven't yet had the nerve but I ask myself, why not? Still equally possible to listen to what is being said and might save my blood pressure rising out of the frustration at the utter waste of time these things usually are. I'll keep you posted if I get brave on this! Now I haven't seen the film you are referring to but i can enlighten you, if you wish, as to practice among UK undertakers. No, I am not an undertaker myself but I deal with them a lot for work. Practices vary in the UK. Some undertakers prefer embalming as a matter of course - particularly if the family wish to view the body after death, even if only briefly in a chapel of ease. Also if there is likely to be any delay between death and the funeral - for obvious reasons. There is also an issue around health and safety for undertakers handling unembalmed bodies. But sometimes of course people don't want themselves or their loved ones embalmed and some undertakers prefer to keep handling to an absolute minimum and don't embalm unless requested to do so. As with all such related matters it's politic to ask directly in a specific situation and to be clear in what you want or don't want in your will. I am afraid that make up is standardly applied to embalmed bodies in the UK as well as elsewhere which I really don't like the idea of. I don't wear a lot of make up in life and don't want myself plastered with it in death! Sorry if this is too much information for a Saturday evening! Have a restorative glass of wine and curl up with Anne Boleyn instead! One of my all-time heroines, AB - such a brave, beautiful and talented, if tragic, lady. Send you a hug. E x
ReplyDeleteBlimey - I had no thoughts on how we handled dead bodies! Perhaps we really are 'sanitised', it is almost 'unseemly' to think about what happens to corpses in this day and age. Thank you for sharing, it's good to know stuff! x
DeleteJanice...this should be a forum, the comments are, with your blogs a thread worthy of reading by more people! I forgot to comment on the SFU series yesterday, I used to follow it when it was first on TV, I think I lost it when it was on late!
ReplyDeleteI read a book called Disobedient about a orthodox Jewish girl who had left home but came back when her revered father died and the undertaker rituals for her faith were detailed, just in the novel, but it was fascinating.. We speak way too little about death in our culture and even when you encounter it most people just allow someone else to sort it out.. I had an aunt, then my mum and Cols mum die in about two years and if this doesn't sound wierd, I was quite interested in the protocol and kind of assumed the family expert role..xx
Oh Kathi, you are so kind about the bollocks I spout!! People (including myself) are so afraid of death and therefore it is a real no-go area, I think. In the role I took on in January at work, apparently accompanying relatives to mortuary visits is part of the job!! Quelle horreur. I have stated I am NOT doing this, although it is, hopefully, unlikely as is most likely to happen at weekends....
ReplyDeleteWow, the embalming is a surprise to me, I had truly never considered how it all 'happened' after death. As I say, we are all, I reckon, so scared of it in this country, we don't like to imagine it at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd I won't give up shaving me pits either. Lol.