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AIBU?

Really fucked off and almost crying with feminist rage.

86 replies

SolidGoldStockingFilla · 18/12/2011 02:56

Just been listening to Stewart Lee's mostly quite good programme about Morris dancing. He's got lots on the culture and the history and the importance of it, and how it's fun to do, and all that - but all the way through it's about men doing it. And no acknowledgement whatsoever that there is a vibrant and thriving tradition of women doing it too. The one women's team mentioned are the Belles, who are great and I have no problem with their alternative take on Morris, but I do have a problem with the way the programme presents them as the only women's team and their formation as a hugely radical thing.

And yes IABU to expect most of you to give a flying fuck. Except that it is a really blatant example of how women are ignored.

OP posts:

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SylviaBells · 18/12/2011 03:25

I think maybe the fact that it is the wee small hours is making this seem more important than it possibly is. I'm not sure a programme about Morris dancing should make anyone cry. I appreciate your reasoning - I LOVE Morris dancing brings back wonderful childhood memories of going to folk music things with my mum and there were often women dancers, to be honest though, it was the men crashing the big sticks together that we loved as children

GwendolineMaryLacedwithBrandy · 18/12/2011 03:31

He should have been in the queue for the ladies' at the pub on the isle of Wight I was in in September. Bloody hundreds of them all jangling and rattling as they went for a wee (and took their time about it).

Dustinthewind · 18/12/2011 03:36

What about Rogue Morris? They've been around for a while, and were one of the very first all female groups. faced down disapproval and prejudice from the male dancers and kept going.
Down here, we've got an amazing group called Mythago, started off Morris and diverged. They are mixed rather than all female, but still breaking the mold.

CalmDownDearItsOnlyALikeButton · 18/12/2011 04:03

Rape is accepted in many countries. Barely prosecuted in ours. Women make less money than men have fewer opportunities in the work place are routinely subjected to DV.

But women in morris dancing brings you to tears?

ClaudiaSchiffer · 18/12/2011 04:05

I really couldn't care less about Morris Dancing.

I think you need to relax a little. There are far worse things happening in the world.

chibi · 18/12/2011 05:39

As always, there is no shortage of people available to tell you how to do feminism

i could give two farts in a high wind about morris dancing, but like you i am seriously angry about how women and their contributions are routinely disappeared from popular culture and media if whatever they are doing doesn't fit within a fairly narrow (usually sexxxxay) band of endeavour

YANBU at all.

HughBastard · 18/12/2011 05:45

Most of the responses on this thread could make me weep.

I get you OP. It's so bloody deflating and defeating to lose battle after battle after battle and for no one to care. Makes the big picture feel utterly overwhelming at times.

lifechanger · 18/12/2011 06:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BiancaStroud · 18/12/2011 06:10

Morris dancing and feminism. Such an attractive combination.

nooka · 18/12/2011 06:15

SGB am I right in thinking that you are a Morris dancer yourself? In which case I can totally understand your rage (not that marginalizing women is ever good, but it makes it much more personal). Stewart Lee is usually pretty thoughtful about his stuff, so I imagine that must have been particularly disappointing.

SlinkingOutsideInSocks · 18/12/2011 06:18

Clearly this thread isn't actually about Morris dancing.

Can't believe this needs spelling out.

moonferret · 18/12/2011 06:22

Do men ever get annoyed about synchronized swimming being a women's sport? No.
And to the person listing the Sports Pensonality shortlist, which woman or women should have been included, at the expense of which man/men?

moonferret · 18/12/2011 06:22

Personality*

lifechanger · 18/12/2011 06:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

moonferret · 18/12/2011 06:31

Well it's an Olympic sport, more than morris dancing! If morris dancing became a female preserve tomorrow, I wouldn't care less, nor would 99.9% of people. You clearly have a strange obsession with it though, along with the OP.

moonferret · 18/12/2011 06:36

Thanks for the suggestions. Personally, I wouldn't have placed any of those in the list. They even resort to giving the academic qualifications of one of them in order to make her sound worthy! I'm a fan of women's sport, just as much as men's. Paula Radcliffe, Kelly Holmes, Rebecca Adlington and Jessica Ennis (and others) have all deserved it in the past, but no women do this year.

NoobyNoob · 18/12/2011 06:36

'Really fucked off and almost crying'

I mean, really? It bothers you that much?

moonferret · 18/12/2011 06:38

Ha!

SuchProspects · 18/12/2011 06:44

moonferret - have there been any media pieces that look at the history and cultural position of synchronized swimming yet ignore or misrepresent the vibrant male engagement in the sport? Because that is what the OP was getting annoyed about - not the fact that women don't do it, but that they do do it and are marginalized, again. And if this were the only way the media marginalized women, I doubt the OP would be enraged about.

AKissIsNotAContract · 18/12/2011 06:47

Calmdown: majorly missing the point there.

I get you, OP. I went to the rugby at Twickenham a few weeks ago. The men played a really boring game. Then 3/4 of the stadium cleared out and the 1/4 who stayed watched the women play a bloody brilliant game. It was really depressing to see, especially when some prick near me started shouting about how they should swap shirts before the game.

lifechanger · 18/12/2011 07:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MabelLucyAttwell · 18/12/2011 08:05

Morris dancing was originally what men did when they returned to their villages from mining, farming, ironworks etc. A way of 'relaxing' and letting off steam for them. Early 1900s saw fewer men doing it because of the way their work evolved and WWI and women were interested and started to join in - often simply to make up a side / team.

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Auntiestablishment · 18/12/2011 08:15

There is a very active men's morris side where I live & my house looks over one of their regular dancing spots. Quite often they get visiting sides too (men, women & mixed) but very few of the visitors have half the vigour or drive that our morris has. The (mixed) black-faced ones with the big sticks are a notable exception.

I'd enjoy watching women's morris far more if they looked like they were really into it in the way the men here are. Mostly they look like they're desperately trying to remember what comes next. I don't think it does them any favours.

SkiBumMum · 18/12/2011 08:54

It's crap. I'm with you OP. Women's sport is disregarded for absolutely no reason. I'd definitely have put Sarah Stevenson in the list if not all of them. Sadly male golf is more interesting to the dull men who watch the show year in year out.

OldeChestnut · 18/12/2011 09:19

lol can yiou imagine a man almost crying with rage over the fact that they didnt mention a mans name in the netball team

pmsl

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