Collective Blindspots

Every country, every nation has them, collective blindspots.  Those aspects of a given culture that just like with your best friend who holds on to his ponytail although he is going bald, are unflattering but somehow unchangeable.

Gun ownership and the obsession with private property are the top of my list when I think of the US. 

Elitism and classism are the obvious ones in the case of the UK.

In Germany, it is the fascination with efficiency that has  allowed asphalt wielding maniacs to turn landscapes into transit routes.

  

France, uh where shall I begin?  Vive la France!!

But this phenomenon of collective amnesia can be applied to all kinds of groups from families to institutions and from religions to men and women.

Similar to individuals, groups of people like to believe that they have figured it all out when, really, we all are but scattered ants on a forest floor.

No wait.  Not even that.

Cheap Food

£60 - that’s how much the average household in Britain wastes each months by letting some of their food go bad.  

Why does food go bad in times of tight-belting, one wonders?  Are our fridges too deep for us to reach the back or have we lost our appetite?  

If so then maybe for cheap food!  

I have noticed that I value the food that I buy from our organic farm cooperative much more than the prepackaged pale looking food items that come from the big retailer.  

Cheap food and lots of it creates bad habits and lots of them.  From over-fertilization and mass production to animal cruelty and malnutrition.  

Waste per capita is the least of them.

That ol' Bag!

Women’s fascination with hand bags of all sizes and colors has always puzzled me.  Even in charity shops the most sought after donation item usually are purses!  

Granted, there are now so-called man-bags as well.  But normally one of them suffices and the more purpose-built it is the better.  On the contrary, the amount of oohing and aahing going on about a well-placed buckle or a flashy zipper can be bewildering.  

In all fairness, I do have to admit to possessing three hand bags myself, but they fulfill a purpose in my life other than fashion statement or adornment, they carry my stuff!!  

Since their invention a few thousand years ago, small bags have been very useful items for transporting all sorts of things from prayer books and opera glasses to goat’s milk and drawing books.  But somewhere in their evolution from utilitarian objects to fetish, they were rebranded as feminine accessory.  

Needless to say, no one wants to be seen with an old one - or be called that!!   

Go Fish

After the "F" word was successfully reclaimed by feminist authors Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune some years ago, it was tragically highjacked again by Fracking&Co.  

What is it with the /f/ that makes it so appealing?  I recently finished my first full length manuscript on gender and fear and I entitled it FARCE.  Maybe I am headed the right direction.  Fffffantastic!

Back to the Drawing Board

Empathy, the cognitive skill that enables us to decode emotional cues and respond to them, is an ability traditionally associated with human kind.  Without it, we would fall not only behind primates, but also behind a large number of other mammals who display at least a basic levels of it, says primatologist Frans de Waal.  

And yet, the extend of atrocities committed by man against his own kind are unparalleled in the animal world. 

But well meaning researchers report on observations and experiments involving primates and argue that since they reliably display discernible levels of empathy, chances are that humans - despite the state of human affairs - function along the same vein.

Unless they reliably don't.  And now, why would that be, Frans?

British Schools - more BS

Here is another downer:  The British education system.  Nine out of ten Brits will readily attest to that. 

Not only is it horrendously skewed since anybody big in politics and finance usually comes from a handful of private schools - mostly boys only - it also has a regional, or should I say linguistic, bias. 

Getting yourself into one of the red brick institutions of higher education will be just that bit harder, if there is a trace of Cockney or, worse even, an Irish drawl discernible.

Once, after an audition for a leading part in The Mighty Mikado, which her choirmaster had recommended her for, but which she in the end failed to get, it was commented that my unfortunate daughter was lacking a “posh English accent.” 

That bit of blasé alacrity coming from a choir director of a children’s choir located in the Greater London diaspora was quite telling of the daily frustrations with the British class system. 

No it is not easy being British!  While this is a lovely country - indeed the best I have ever lived in - it is much more fun doing it while assuming the role of the eccentric outsider.

The British Bullshitting Corporation

BBC Radio 4 has an hourly program every morning called “Woman’s Hour” - during the hour in the day (from 10am to 11 am) when women can leisurely tune in to listen to a show that invites studio guests (mostly women) to talk about everything .  

But, of course, they don’t.  

Mostly the talk is about the arts, being famous, cookery and other pleasantries including the inevitable radio play sequel.  To be fair, topics including violence against women, arranged marriage, the double day and occasionally even the pay-gap do come up every once in a while, but they are never put in a broader context.  

The question why women world wide continue to be victims of sexual violence, why being a women still carries the risk of poverty, violence and the lack of access to resources and self-determination or, differently put, the blatant fact that sexual discrimination continues to be systemic across countries, religions, cultures and families is never raised.  

Too hot for the BBC?  Undoubtedly.  After all, we now know that even in public broadcasting a few guys determine what is aired.

I always had a feeling that “public” was a euphemism.