The Law, the Judgement of Women and the Basis of Misogyny

12.06.2024

I read an article just now about how Asian women are trolled for dating white men. The context for the accusations is that the Western media portray Asian men as unattractive and the claims that are made by the accusers are that the Asian women have a colonised mentality and want to be dominated by white men as a result. Article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/12/asian-women-dating-white-men-fake-oxford-study

Just like incels, the men here feel betrayed and passed over by women. They feel like they have been judged unfairly by women. And it is in that self-perception of victimhood that they expel all their hate about women.

Without going into the power dynamics of interracial relationships in a majority white culture – and whether there is any basis for the complaints of these Asian men (easy enough to investigate this if you wanted to through cultural materials) – let’s focus on this idea of the unfair woman judge which is present in both complexes of misogyny.

Historically, it is the men that have been the judges in the west. And these men have portrayed themselves as disinterested, objective, masters of ‘abstract reasoning’, fair, with universally applicable laws. Readers of the law that see deeply. The rule of the law is based on these ideas.

Therefore, let us imagine a woman judge that would be the exact reverse of these things. Instead of disinterest, she has interests in judging. Instead of being objective, she is overly emotional and biased. Instead of reasoning in an abstract way, she wouldn’t be able to achieve abstract thought and look beyond the circumstances. She might perhaps look at the colour of someone’s skin rather than ‘reason’ in her judgement. She can only see superficially and not deeply like the male judge, only at skin colour. She would be unfair. Her laws are specific only in a narrow sense to one particular situation.

Now, let us apply this monstrous female judge to the situation. The point of this exercise is to show that the criticisms made of these Asian women in interracial relationships stem from the conceptualisation of a masculine law as its polarised opposite. Hence, that the conception of the law is itself complicit in shaping how difference – in the idea of the ‘ethnic’ or ‘foreign’ Asian woman – is controlled in a cultural misogyny against female rule and female judgement and law:

– Her interest in judging is to accrue power to herself by dating a white man and make an investment into white superiority.

– She is not objective in judging men, but is biased towards white supremacy.

– She can’t reason in an abstract manner and looks at someone’s skin rather than their character, so she is superficial as well when she forms her judgements.

– She is unfair because the main thing that matters in her judgement is skin colour.

– Her law is specific only to the situation of white supremacy and therefore it is narrow.

So, you can see that all these negative constructions of female judgement relate back to the ideal of the heroic, unbiased, male judge which a woman’s judgement is supposed to subvert. This is what legally fuelled misogyny looks like.

Unfortunately, this judge that is so heroic, this whole ideal, is itself based on whiteness. Because the judges in this country have been white. And they have based their laws of relationships between men and women on imperialism and white supremacy. That is historical fact. So, for example, the reason the age of consent is 16 is because the British ruled over countries like India where the people married young and wanted to differentiate themselves from such ‘uncivilised’ countries. The laws against bigamy are another example.

So, these Asian men that are making all of these accusations against Asian women are themselves taking on the unfair and illegitimate role of these racist white judges that have historically ruled relationships in the rule of the law. They are projecting their own unfairness onto the Asian women.

This is nothing new. Read Wilkie Collins’s novels like ‘The Moonstone’ and ‘Poor Miss Finch’. I hate to spoil the novels for anyone that have not read them, but the typical plot is that there is a superficial and shallow woman that can’t differentiate past superficial legal appearances and therefore gets the identity of the man wrong in each case, a man that she is supposed to love. It is the role of the jilted lover who has been ‘unfairly’ judged upon to make things right and correct the woman’s judgement. So, the misogyny is completely entrenched within Western legal culture and fiction – since ‘The Moonstone’ was formative of subsequent detective fiction which rules the roost in Britian in terms of popular reading.

Some ethnic minority women undoubtedly do date white men exclusively because they hate themselves and do want to be subjugated by them, and to realise some of the power of white supremacy. However, to know which one is which would require study and time – you can’t just make up fake studies like in the news article I read. Obviously not every single ethnic minority woman is a racist against the men in her ethnic minority group. And I would say that most of them are not, based on my own experiences, where many Indian descent women of my own age have tried to contact me on dating sites and liked my profile to initiate a conversation.

But this is not the point of this piece of writing. The point of this piece of writing is to explain that misogyny stems from the Western law. Because the Western law has its monstrous other in the idea of women’s judgement. A woman’s judgement is supposed to go against everything that the legal ideal of masculine judgement is thought to represent. And we can see the repercussions in the misogyny of these men who have been judged by women as not being worthy to date. Yes, there is genuine hurt that is fuelling these assessments of women’s judgement. But that is not an excuse. Because there is no excuse to become like the imperialistic fascists that have historically made up the rule of the law in this country or in countries like America. There is no excuse for victimising others – for the fact that they are ethnic minority women. Because then you show that the monstrous ‘female’ judge is not them – it is you. To be fair, you have to judge someone on their behaviour to you over a period of time. Not based on the fact that they are with a white person. If, however, their behaviour with white men is obviously different from how they treat you, then you have a case. And for that, obviously you need to know these women. Not pick on people that you don’t even know.

My work in the Museum on International Museums Day

18.05.2024

The views expressed in this piece of writing do not reflect the views of any organisation that I work at. They are my own personal views. I have heavily censored this piece and taken out more personal comments as this piece is intended to give a general and apolitical idea of my day to be on the safe side.

In the morning, I started off the day by giving the tours which I have written. My darlings and pets, my tours explore issues of art, fairness, equality and bias. What was best of all was that I was able to give the tours to families with children. The mothers are thankful because they get to hear about art and culture, away from the daily cares of the family and the children. The fathers listen patiently. Some of them are interested, some seem interested only because their partners are interested. Some of the children listen and interact with the questions. Some of the children clearly pay no attention to anything that is said. But, you hope that you are planting the seeds for the future and for justice. Preparing the grounds for all to share their vision in a just society.

This was followed by a stint on ticketing. The pleasures of ticketing are knowing that you know the knowledge about all of the various ticketing combinations: concessions, offers, third party vendors. You can use that knowledge to help the museum’s mission and to sell tickets to walk in customers, persuade them to purchase and come in with your knowledge of the museum. And, also, there is a challenge to try and sell as many souvenir guides and tote bags as possible. To aid carers with the special children with sensory bags and headphones. I helped quite a few today. I also spoke French to several customers – I am basically fluent for the purposes of the museum. Ticketing helps me practice my speaking skills in the language. For this role, loving the place you work at and loving to open access to it for everyone motivates you to perform as well as possible.

Next, there was the welcome to the museum’s galleries and helping the children to navigate activities around the museum. This is one of my favourite roles in the galleries. Because how often in life do you get to give people an adventure to go on together, which is what the activity is? I tell people about the story that we are telling in the museum. I show them the ropes to the wonderful place where I work.

More tours again. The highlights today? An Indian family who were completely enraptured by the tour and left me some wonderful feedback. And then there was a visitor from Colorado that was also a tour guide and she professionally assessed me and told me that I had done a wonderful job. She was very testing – she asked me a whole heap of questions about art materials!

There was the patrol of the main gallery next. Here, it is a case of problem solving. I reported some things to maintenance. I reunited families that had strayed from each other, including stopping a little blonde girl in a rainbow dress from crying like her heart was going to break and taking her worries away from her by showing her that I was a strong adult that could solve her problems – I made her stop crying in five seconds. I broke up an argument between some protective parents and smoothed things over. I investigated a dangerous incident which could have caused some injury – children being naughty. I talked to some of the customers and asked them how their day was going. I directed someone with a research enquiry. I showed directions to people. I stamped cards. I gave out stickers for completed adventures. I took photographs of families all smiling and enjoying their time in the museum. I also told off people for misbehaving, dealt with abandoned property and made sure everything in the museum was clear, clean and safe. I take all my duties seriously and don’t look at any task as being beneath me. The visitors are our guests and our responsibility.

I hadn’t bought lunch so I went to my cupboard and just heated up two small plastic tubs of spaghetti in tomato sauce.

After lunch, it was the main gallery again. Activities included dealing with a case of mild vandalism in the museum, investigating a potential issue with the facilities (luckily there was no issue) and also dealing with a first aid incident. I also had a full blown conversation in French with a woman who had a child with her. Good practice again. The end of the day was clearing the museum and making sure all the exhibits and art was in order.

Throughout the day, I talked to the other museum staff in Visitor Experience, the Learning Team, one of the Senior Managers who was very pleased to see me after a while, the Maintenance Team, the Cleaners, and the Retail Staff. It takes a multi disciplinary team to run a museum.

What was one of the biggest highlights of the day? Another staff member came to me with a query. This staff member had asked several other staff members about that query. Nobody knew anything about it. But I knew. And when I told this staff member, they told me that the knew that I would know even if nobody else did. That’s how much my colleagues respect me and my experience in the museum.

Quite a satisfying International Museums Day. I do love my job. I work in museums to spread education. And I always feel that I do that at the end of the day.

Why I Work in Museums and Art Galleries as a Visitor Experience Assistant

02.04.2024

I have a PhD and several degrees, including ones from a top university and First Class Honours. And when people find out, they ask me, ‘Why are you working in a museum as a Visitor Experience Assistant?’

The very fact that these people ask this question is revealing. These people think that the job is low status and low paid. They think it doesn’t require any skills, that it is a dead end job. That it is not a job for a professional person. Perhaps they think that the job requires no education or talent. That the job is not meaningful in any way.

Whey then, do I work as a Visitor Experience Assistant in Museums and Art Galleries? Do I really care what other people think?

No I don’t care what other people think. Other people are imposters, status-obsessed, uncultured, boring. They will work in an unsatisfying job for money and a bit of power.

On the other hand, I work in a job that gives me meaning in life. I believe in education and its power. When I work, I help people to educate themselves in their free time and have fun doing it. Unlike a state education and compulsory learning, I give them the things they need to be able to be free and learn. This job gives me a mission in life: to spread learning, to change this world of ignorance, to give culture to the people and, especially, the children.

This job is like a holiday to me. I enjoy it. I am in the most beautiful places in the world guarding treasures, the most important aspects of our history and heritage. I get to help people which makes me feel even better about myself. This job gives me not only purpose, but happiness.

And the people in this line of work are artists, musicians, writers, actors. All the creative people that you can find. We have wonderful conversations and we are all good friends with each other. We care about each other and we are all on the same wavelength.

This job gives me the time to think when it is not super busy. This job gives me a good life and work balance. This job lets me into so many museums and art galleries for free. I live the lifestyle of a millionaire doing this job.

People think you don’t have to do anything as a Visitor Experience Assistant. They are wrong.

While I have been working as one, I have helped to kick off the tours project in a museum and written my own tour scripts which involved research and original thinking – skills derived from my PhD course. I have given tours that other people have written – which required the skills of memory, performance, public speaking, humour, people management. Peppered with original research to add the extra flavour.

While I have worked as a VEA, I have planned and designed learning activities for children during half term. Which required the skills of imagination, creativity, planning, understanding of children and education.

While I have worked as a VEA, I have attended meetings about people and resources and contributed ideas and solutions. Skills which required creativity, compassion, empathy, public speaking, the ability to make arguments and the ability to innovate.

Those are the extra things. In the ordinary course of the job, you are responsible for giving a great experience to people, for being able to talk to everyone, to teach people about the exhibits, to look after the health and safety of everyone, to be able to work with several different teams, to be able to think on your feet to solve any problem that arises. You have to be able to know your museums and art galleries inside out and to know massive areas of history, culture and art.

So when people say do something with your PhD, do you know what I say? I say that getting my thesis published as a monograph with a top publisher or articles with the top academic journals didn’t make me happy. It didn’t give me anything. But working as a VEA has given me pay, good friends, good perks, good experiences and memories, happiness. It has given me a career in museums.

The petty, selfish people that undervalue arts, culture and people skills, that ask me why I work as a VEA, revealing their insensitivity and patronising nature, these are the people that are wrong. They think money, status and power is what you need in this world. What you need in this world is to find your niche, your people, your destiny, your happiness.

Working as a VEA allows me to remain a writer, an artist, a poet. Working as a VEA allows me to study an Art History degree with the Open University in my mornings and evenings. Those are my ambitions and those are the things that direct how I live my life, my work. For me, the most important thing is fulfilment, not what the ignorant value. It is what I value that matters. It is my choice. I have what I wanted.

Everything I want from a museums career I get through volunteering: art history scholarship in an Interpretation department, being a Virtual Curator on social media online. I am getting every cerebral pleasure and satisfaction from what I am doing. I am being read by tens of thousands of people on social media.

What more could you ask from a job than happiness and to change the world of ignorance? The fulfilment of duty, pleasure, education and inspiration?

Some Thoughts on Medusa in the Painted Hall Ceiling at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich

Some Thoughts on Medusa in the Painted Hall Ceiling at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich

17.03.2023 (amended 07.05.2023)

There is an obvious theme of mirroring in the Painted Ceiling, which you can see in the mirroring of the arches or balustrades and in the mirroring of defeated sea vessels. THE MIRROR OF PRUDENCE – important for royal authority to control the mirror and mirror images. I am looking at this around the figure of Medusa.

The Facts are that the severed head of Medusa is depicted on Athena’s shield as in ancient Greek myth. Perseus the hero slew Medusa while looking at her reflection in his own shield so that he could avoid being turned to stone through her gaze.

– Wikipedia: “Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion”.

Medusa means ‘guardian’ or ‘protectress’ in Ancient Greek (Wikipedia). Possibly why she is on the shield. Athena is wisdom/protectress of the city of Athens. So, there is a doubling between Athena and Medusa in the role of protectress. Because Perseus looked in the mirror to slay Medusa, there is a role for doubling in the original myth – I will argue that Medusa is associated with doubling that gets out of control later (as she is associated with the Hydra, which also doubles). (DEFINITION – Doubling means produces copies, reflections, doppelgangers, etc.)

– The most obvious Double: There is another Gorgon depicted right of the shield and to the right of Hercules who is clubbing away at the Vices with Athena. While it may be that this Gorgon is a sister of Athena (and it has been suggested that the gorgon is ‘Envy’ amongst the vices stamped out by William and Mary), there is an uncanny, visual doubling between the gorgon and Medusa at least. The uninitiated would not know that it is not another Medusa. The Vices also included the snake-like many headed Hydra – Hydra is a water monster (like Medusa – see below about her links to water). I AM ARGUING THAT THE WATER LINK IS CONNECTED TO THE THEME OF DOUBLING – WATER HAS A REFLECTION WHICH DOUBLES THE INDIVIDUAL LOOKING INTO IT.

– DOUBLING AROUND THE ROYAL CREST: Queen Mary as Athena at least

– MEDUSA’S LINKS TO THE SEA/NAVAL PENSIONERS – ILLEGITIMATE RELATIONSHIPS TO THE GOD OF THE SEA AND NAVAL POWER:

The three Gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale—were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys (or “Phorkys”) and his sister Ceto (or “Keto”), chthonic monsters from an archaic world (Wikipedia).
In a late version of the Medusa myth, by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.794–803), Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but when Neptune/Poseidon (THE GOD OF THE SEA) had sex with her in Minerva/Athena‘s temple,[7] Minerva punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into horrible snakes.
When Perseus slayed Medusa, she was pregnant by Poseidon. SHE WAS ABOUT to Reproduce/Double as the bad mother, dark mother (Jung), produce an alternative sea god, naval power, etc.

Subjective Facts

– We note that the Gorgon next to Hercules (THE ONE THAT DOUBLES AS MEDUSA VISUALLY IF NOT LITERALLY) has escaped the goddess and demi-god casting the Vices out of the kingdom. Instead of being under their feet and being trampled on, she is actually equal with them, as though she is divine herself (doubling the divinity of the gods).

– THE ROYAL CREST – Look at the gilding on the royal crest and compare it with the shield of Athena and Medusa’s head on it. The gold of Medusa’s head mirrors the royal crest of Queen Mary. However, the inclusion of Queen Mary as Athena on the right of the crest (doubling) creates a good double as opposed to a bad double (like Medusa). Let us remember the doubling of the idea of ‘protrectress’ (‘Medusa’ in Ancient Greek). Queen Mary was the ‘protectress’ of the Naval Pensioners…

– (The gorgon that visually doubles as Medusa is possibly Envy.) However, if it turns out the Gorgon that visually doubles as Medusa is Euryale, one of Medusa’s two sisters, this might mean ‘the wide sea’ (as a daughter of the sea gods) (Greek and Roman Mythology, A to Z, Kathleen N. Daly, Marian Rengel, 2009, 54). AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE, THE SEA REFLECTS – IT IS A MIRROR… Her mouth is open on the painted ceiling: she was known for an agonised, piercing shriek after Medusa was killed, which was turned into a lamenting song and music for humans (ibid.)

– Athena actually directs the shield with Medusa’s head on it at Hercules, not at the Vices – against men (Medusa is associated with feminism in modern scholarship – is this a coincidence?)

– Hydra kept on spouting two heads when one was cut off (doubling), similarly the Gorgons are repeating in the painting, or doubling. Doubling between Athena and Medusa as protectress. Deduction – there is a theme of doubling going on.

– Apollo killed the Python (snake/chaos) – snakes at bottom to illustrate their lowliness, killer of snakes at top as God of reason, light (enlightenment) etc. Is Apollo being badly doubled by Louis IV ‘the Sun King’ that is being trampled by King William? (depends on if this is Louis IV or not). Certainly, Truth is holding is a miniature sun in her hand – the doubling of Apollo with light (truth).

– Medusa was killed through doubling – in the mirror, when she was to give birth to the god of the sea’s son. Wikipedia: “In most versions of the story, she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry Perseus’s mother. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus received help. He received a mirrored shield from Athena, sandals with gold wings from Hermes, a sword from Hephaestus and Hades‘s helm of invisibility. Since Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon”.

– Woman as animal nature – is this is link to the sea and the power of nature in the water? That woman/nature can’t be controlled, but controls (as in Queen Mary controlling the kingdom of men?) Is this why the Gorgon escapes the casting out of the vices in the kingdom and mimics the power of the gods?

INTERPRETATION (Psychoanalysis, mirroring)

– Does Medusa and the other Gorgon represent a male artist’s misogynistic response to Queen Mary’s rule (as ‘Queen of the Sea) [part of the general expectation that only men rule and women’s rule leads to monstrosity and chaos – chaos as the snake which Apollo defeated]? This is a CONTROL OF DOUBLING – IF ONE WOMAN’S RULE IS ACCEPTED, OTHER WOMEN WILL RULE AS HER ‘DOUBLES’. Is this an example of the attitude to the daughter that usurped her father’s throne? We know that Athena is also doubling as Queen Mary from the arch. The whole game is about doubling: the ‘good’ double and the ‘bad’ double. On the one hand, Mary can double as the goddess, the good double. On the other hand, is she doubling as Medusa the monster, with illegitimate power, producing Hydra like monsters in the kingdom as the Vices? Is she the reverse of Apollo the Sun King?

– Between Hercules and the Gorgon, there is a V sign (largely empty, representing lack, something to be filled in as per misogynistic constructions) – if we look in terms of psychoanalysis, does this represent the vagina (and therefore female power?) Snake as phallic symbol – women seizing phallic power illegitimately in the form of Athena with the shield and with forming Hydra type monsters (i.e. more women that rule – Mary led to Queen Anne and no male heirs)?

Dora Batty Poster Parade – London Transport Museum

07.04.2023

You can see all of the posters in the Poster Parade here:

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/the-collection

1^st Floor, London Transport Museum

Adult ticket: 24 pounds, Concessions including students: 23 pounds (ANNUAL PASS)

REVIEW

While I have many interests in life, there is one game that has always captivated my attention. My friends, it is THE Game. The game of interpretation: finding meaning, making connections, excavating the context, trying to understand what others are trying to express underneath a rigmarole of deceptive diversions. I have played this game quite seriously, having studied for an English Literature degree and then having pursued doctoral studies in the subject (then publishing books and articles). The game is all-consuming and unending. I lie in bed at nights replaying conversations, working over sentences for half an hour at a time if they are important enough to warrant it in the conversations I have during the day. To play the game, I have studied all these subjects at university level: legal studies, English literature, history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, anthropology, criminology, sociology, psychology, the history of photography, feminism, Marxism, deconstruction, Postcolonialism – and now – art history. Besides forays in my spare time into mythology, archaeology, cryptography and the decoding of languages, language learning, politics, animal intelligence, evolutionary psychology, biology, and the physical sciences which reveal how humankind attempts to fathom the cosmos.

Why do I mention The Game? I survey the posters in the London Transport Museum Poster Parade because I love to play it. And above all, the most enticing thing is a mystery, a puzzle, a seeming dead-end, what first comes as a blank wall. As I have admitted so much, it will now do to admit more. It was a genuinely exciting moment to encounter an unknown female artist who has not received much critical attention and about whom I could make a big contribution towards understanding. The subject was the enigmatic Dora Batty…

Little is known about Dora’s life. She is known only for her professional roles and her output. Like other women artists, she has been neglected, never achieved the fame of her male compatriots… As a result, one cannot bring biography to a study of her artwork. Neither can one be misled by what others have written, which seems to be a particularly abhorrent current practice of the scholar, the interpretor and the guide. One imagines a woman that never made much of an impression. One cannot even visualise her appearance because a photograph has not even been recovered. For a moment, I had a fantasy of tracing her family genealogy so that I could try and contact any living descendants that might have a diary, a photograph, written records or objects of some description so that I could have something else than the art. In the game, it is permitted to cheat… What a delicious daydream: an expedition, an adventure, new people to meet, new avenues to pursue, a quest of interpretation…

But I am left to just looking at the work and thinking. Justice demands a scrutiny of the woman artist’s works, a redressing of her dismissal by (White) Man. Let us begin.

The first exhibit that meets us in the Poster Parade is ‘The Underground brings all things nearer’. We are in the conventional grounds of Greek Myth. As it clearly states, the poster celebrates ‘The Return of Persephone’. She is being rescued from the underground by Hermes. Dora loves to tease. The obvious play is upon the concept of the ‘underground’. While it signifies Hades and hell, it is also obviously referencing the Tube. For a poster commissioned by London Transport, this is clearly a subtle bite at the hand that feeds her, the delicious tease of a mocking and ego-defeating woman. From the Underground, hell and the tube, Persephone is emerging. The concept of the poster is that from the Underground, which we imagine as the realm of the dead, life and fertility is emerging in the form of Persephone. But there is a moment of feminism in that period of emerging women’s rights and the Suffragette movement – Persephone (woman oppressed, captured, imprisoned) is rescued from her controlling husband (the LAW, Death, Sovereignty, POWER…) Now, there is the question. What is the biographical aspect, what is the women’s movement? The Suffragettes were around at this time and they were fighting against the patriarchal laws of marriage, with its enclosure of the woman in the domestic realm. But is there something else in Dora’s life? Bearing the hallmarks of its time, Persephone is rescued by Hermes, a man… There isn’t total emancipation of the woman. Is there a new man in Dora’s life at this time, an extra-marital affair…? However, one also remembers that Hermes is the protector of travellers, the god of roads… He is dressed as a traveller, of course, with winged sandals. There are subtle resonances for the highly educated and the classicists in this poster about travel. Dora is clearly classically educated… The game, my friends. One has to learn the mythology of the world to play it…

The tragedy with the poster is that Persephone still had to spend months of the year in the Underworld – there is no ultimate freedom from MAN AS KING AND DEATH… Ambiguity and despair is always there in the background. Is this a realistic assessment of women’s politics at the time (and still now?) Or is it the acceptance that Dora cannot release herself from her marriage (was she married, or is the poster simply about a fantasy of emancipation)?

Now, let us talk about the flowers. Flowers flood the posters. Persephone is also holding a flower. Is the flower sex (the flower is a sexual organ which is ‘penetrated’)? Are we witnessing sexual liberation in Dora’s psyche? The implicit love triangle in the first poster – Hermes, Persephone, Hades. Travel itself as sex (a holiday romance, perhaps?). The fantasy of sex rather than its achievement from a repressed woman? Dear Dora, why do you not write what is the case? If the hypothesis that the flowers are sex is right, can it be confirmed by some of the other posters? [It is worthwhile to mention here that there are other suggestions. Not only have female artists painted flowers throughout art history, as a ‘woman’s genre’, but also that women themselves have been described as flowers throughout history and particularly guilty were the Victorians and those around at the start of the twentieth century – flower as woman herself in this art, or rather her sexual body and her body as a body of desire…)

In ‘Bluebells are out’, an anonymous female caresses the flowers lovingly. Her lips are upon them, her hand clenches them. Her senses are engaged. She smells them. So we have touch, the sexuality of a kiss, intoxication with the scent. Full sensory engagement. She also looks directly into the flowers. Is this look at the flower and sex what the viewer is expected to understand and echo? Woman playing with her own sex and sexuality? Is this the revealing mirror of subjectivity at the heart of the image? Let us be Freudian and make an insinuation about how the hand is holding the phallic bunch of stalks of flowers at the bottom of the image…

In ‘Crocuses are out’, woman swoons over the flowers which she caresses again with her hands. With her eyes shut in ecstasy and Lacanian jouissance… The flower she smells is pinkish red – the colour of sex…

So, perhaps we have an exhibition of a woman artist that is pursuing liberation, including sexual liberation. Perhaps we are seeing a woman fighting against the Law and the figure of the King for a new tomorrow and for ownership over her own body and desires… Perhaps we see Dora the fighter. But a jaded fighter. After all, what is the fight of the artist? It is true that many of the Suffragettes were artists, a disproportionate amount. Was the main fight in the visual arts and against the visual culture of the Law and the King, Oppressor Man?

Let us leave identity politics for a moment. Let us talk about Dora as she is in my favourite works of hers. I will write first about the interesting pattern in ‘Whitsuntide by Underground’. The artist has woven together many moments of leisure into almost a textile pattern (she worked in textiles). The composition is crowded and flooded with energy. People are joined in small communities by their pursuits, families, friends, athletes. They are also integrated in nature and the countryside through trees, fields and water, animals. There is a harmony of leisure and nature, life and the world, an inter-connected and unbreakable pattern. And let us not forget the female body’s interaction with the flowers in the early posters – nature is a body that unites with woman’s body. Woman is nature, humankind is nature – the celebration of the animal self that we have come from that lived in trees…

Similarly, ‘There is still the country’ shows the woman’s body wedded to the (phallic, it must be said) tree. The whole scene is blown about from a strong wind and enriched with the sun which seems to emanate from the woman’s head, her creative force and mind. There is pure energy, enlightenment (emancipation)… The leaves fall from the trees – there is transformation, the relentless but cyclical turning of the time as in Hindu thought… What is dead and dying is to be shed to make space for what is living….

So is this Dora? Or is this merely Suneel’s Dora? One makes an argument. One seeks to persuade. But more than that, one seeks to know. In the absence of clues, one looks to a Suffragette context. In the absence of a photograph, one tries to plumb a mind. The Dora exhibit is interesting and important because it brings these thoughts to mind. It asks why a woman of such talent has no place in thought. It seeks to rectify this wrong. Dora’s art is stylistically very Art Deco. I do not know if she followed the movement, or how much she contributed. I do not know how important she is in the history of Women’s Rights for making art that explores women’s issues and attempts to rescue them from the ills of sexual repression (if sex is the theme that I have not invented for our Dora). And finally, one makes an admission. The interest, the thread that I have followed is that Dora is Modern Woman. Someone that I do not understand – if anyone does. To understand the mind of this challenging and reticent creature, one often has to gaze at the expressions that she leaves about her in the world. And to form an opinion, one has to dare a conjecture, even as a man – which might wholly be wrong and is entirely contestable, of course…

You can see all of the posters in the Poster Parade here:

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/the-collection

List of Posters:

Dora Batty, 1923 – The Underground brings all things nearer
Dora Batty, 1925 – From country to the heart of town
Dora Batty, 1924 – Foxgloves, Kew Gardens
Dora Batty, 1925 – From town to open country
Dora Batty, 1921 – Travel with the children
Dora Batty, 1930 – Season ticket, travel cheaply, save money
Dora Batty, 1927 – Bluebells are out
Dora Batty, 1927 – Blackberry time
Dora Batty, 1935 – Special shows of tulips
Dora Batty, 1927 – Crocuses are out
Dora Batty, 1927 – Daffodils are blooming
Dora Batty, 1932 – Regents Park to see the rose garden
Dora Batty, 1928 – Buy a season ticket
Dora Batty, 1924 – Survivals of the past, Painted Hall
Dora Batty, 1932 – RAF display, Colindale station
Dora Batty, 1936 – Trooping the colour
Dora Batty, 1924 – Survivals of the past, Yeoman Warders
Dora Batty, 1934 – Easter
Dora Batty, 1938 – Out and about by London Transport
Dora Batty, 1926 – Make yours a General holiday
Dora Batty, 1931 – Whitsuntide by Underground
Dora Batty, 1926 – Hampton Court by tram
Dora Batty, 1926 – There is still the country

Hallyu the Korean Wave Review – Victoria & Albert Museum Exhibition

01.04.2023

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/hallyu-the-korean-wave

At home, they sit in a neglected and increasingly dusty pile – with my other language learning books picked up mainly from charity shops – or the internet when the owners lost their interest in learning them (14 languages in total and building). Untouched, they are marked out for future study when my life is not just about work and academia, carefully compiled: a set of Korean language books. I picked them up in a free hotel book sharing point in a country where they have many Korean workers (it is not Korea, my friends).

Although I never got onto the Korea loving bandwagon with ‘Gangham Style’ or ‘Squid Games’, and I didn’t watch the film that won the Oscars (‘Parasite’), I have taught several Korean people when I used to volunteer to teach English to refugees and migrants over five years. I watch some K-Pop, although it is just one band called (G)-IDLE as I like watching the young women dance and perform and I enjoy the cinematography of the music videos. So it was with this light acquaintance in need of improvement and because I wanted to see the Friday Late at the V & A that I meandered my way at the end of the night into the ‘Hallyu the Korean Wave’ exhibit.

The exhibit is exciting, eclectic and vibrant and speaks to the young. Inundated with interest, the walls showcase Korean film, music, beauty and fashion. All of the senses are awakened and rejuvenated by an immersion into a colourful Korean cultural life.

When you go in, you are confronted with several screens showing ‘Gangham Style’ and its parodies. Of course, this song is synonymous with K-Pop and is probably one of the only contemporary songs that everyone in cities around the world probably knows. We get to see the audacious pink suit that Psy wore for the music video. But the surprising thing to learn is that the song and the suit mock South Korea’s ‘hyper-consumerism and material pursuit’, using the district of Gangham as an example. The suit is a sneer at what the elites wear in that area and the iconic dance moves are snipes at posers and wannabes that emulate that kind of lifestyle.

If Korean culture is currently chic, then the next section of the exhibit makes us reflect on the historical miracle of how a colonised, war-torn country which was ravaged by the Cold War and also ‘one of the most violent conflicts in modern history’ in the Korean War of 1950 has followed a ‘remarkable trajectory’ to become a ‘leading cultural powerhouse by the early 2000s’. The formula seems to be ‘governmental control, daring strategies and IT innovation’, alongside quick hands and quick minds.

I will write about the parts that excited me the most in what followed on the journey through the massive space that the exhibition enfolded. A long term fan of athletics and gymnastics, I was entranced by the Volunteer guide uniform for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. The clothing draws inspiration from the national costume which is called hanbok. The outfit is beautiful, graceful, an accomplishment of functional style inter-weaved with the Olympic spirit and colours. It is the perfect metaphor of endurance, of a people that have kept their traditions while becoming truly international, even though enmity and colonisation attempted to destroy their way of life. Here, as elsewhere in the exhibition, I was reminded of the affinities of Korea’s history with India’s. In fact, there was even a Hindi film poster which showed a pirated (‘adapted’) Korean film, which influenced my finding of affinities with my motherland even more.

It was also a surreal experience to see the wig worn by Choi Min-sik in ‘Oldboy’. This is probably the most memorable Korean film I have watched. When I was immersed in this filmic universe, I just assumed that the wig was the actor’s real hair. In the exhibit, removed from the face, the wig was patently, even insolently artificial. Yet it still teemed with an energy, almost like that of life. The make up and hair director of the film, Song Jong-hee intended to infuse the wig with wildness to convey the ‘feral emotions’ and the effect of the years of incarceration on the protagonist of the film. To me, raised in Hinduism and Sikhism, where hair is sacred and the god Shiva is known for the strength of his hair, the hairstyle raised the resonance of India, religion, power, feelings hard to express or even describe.

A particularly interesting section of the exhibition was the exploration of beauty standards in Korean culture, since the nation is a ‘global trendsetter’ in this area. The historical background until the 1910s (perhaps longer?) is seven hundred years of maintaining beauty as a ‘moral obligation’ as attractiveness symbolises not only social status, but also virtue.

Where did I spend the most time in the exhibition? I sat before a big screen watching a compilation of snippets from K-Pop videos, admiring the crystal sharpness of today’s video cameras, the lightning flashes of Korean dance moves and the stunning physical beauty of the people. It was intoxicating. Yet, as I watched, the critical part of my mind kept on turning over the question of whether what I was watching was something authentic and organic, something different, or just indoctrination and influence from the Western world, a parroting of the Western music video. I am still not sure.

Surely, ‘Hallyu the Korean Wave’ is one of the most memorable exhibitions that I have been to. I was also pleased to see that the exhibition seems to have been put together from Korean descent people, which seems to give it the authenticity that is lacking from Orientalising Western depictions of Asian people such as Indians. I learned a general history of modern Korea, was amused, inspired to learn more, ever more determined to one day make a serious foray into the language. I felt the unity of Asian culture as a man of Indian descent, almost a sense of belonging. Out of the three exhibitions I went to in the V & A that day, the exhibition was my personal favourite. I never felt even a moment of boredom in it and my attention was focused entirely on the exhibits.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/hallyu-the-korean-wave

Winter Wonderland Poster Parade. London Transport Museum.

Winter Wonderland Poster Parade.

London Transport Museum, 1^st floor.

Entry: 21 pounds for an adult yearly entry. 20 pound student yearly entry.

05.12.2022

You can see all the posters here via a search of terms for your own virtual exhibition (Full Searchable Exhibition Catalogue given at the end of this short outline of my impressions as a viewer):

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/the-collection?f%5B0%5D=collection_type%3APosters

If I cast about in my mind for my most immediately accessible winter memories, there are images of Christmas and snowballs (with flashes of pain in some cases), hot chocolate in an ice skating park, women in smart, expensive coats on the London streets, lavish adverts on television, frenzied shopping during New Year’s sales, and an annoying range of mediocre songs that are played, unaccountably, every single year.

Many, if not all, of these topics are to be found in the Winter Wonderland Poster Parade on the first floor of the London Transport Museum. Certainly, shopping plays a major role in the collection, including a depiction of the Winter sales. For both critics of capitalism and its supporters, there is something for everyone – anonymous subjects wandering around in a state of anomie in between the stores, a cornucopia of street signs arranged artistically to show a virtual map of the sales in London, depictions of women consumers done in a futuristic style (make of that what you will).

The introduction to the poster parade proclaims that there is a focus on ice skating, country walks, shopping and the exploration of historic landmarks during the winter months. The parade emphasises the practical purpose of the posters which encouraged passengers to take off-peak journeys or appealed to our comfort-loving nature by persuading us that it was warmer to travel by public transport in London.

I have fond memories of ice skating, including watching my female companion surreptitiously distancing herself from me and laughing maniacally as I desperately clutched and groped at an innocent female bystander so I didn’t fall down on my first try. So I particularly enjoyed looking at the portrayals of ice skating. The poster that stood out most to me was ‘Ice Skating’ by Charles Pears, printed in 1928. It shows a beautiful woman engaged in a graceful movement across the ice, her face obscured in shadow, her scarf elegantly billowing against the pure snow behind her. She is entranced in the flow of the figure, lost in her skill to the world and its impurities… Such is the beauty of this season and of ice skating itself, one of the most beautiful of pastimes.

The other poster that I quite liked was ‘Winter’s Discontent Made Glorious’. Against an ominous, sublime, inhumane cloudscape, we see a train in which the windows are filled with scenes from dining, shopping and the theatre, spaces crowded with fashionable people. On one level, the poster reminds us that some of our liveliest and happiest scenes have been in winter. On the other hand, the fact that the train and its illuminated scenes are to plunge into the dark abyss of a tunnel which would extinguish all light seems to refer to the depression that can come upon us in sun-starved winter. It is a conceptually balanced design.

My overall impression of the poster parade is that it contains striking works of art and a good range of different artistic styles. I was interested in how optimistic the collection is about winter. We all know that winter can bring on sadness, and the posters all try to counter this impulse with a positive, upbeat message of hope and happiness. The posters have also inspired me to take a few winter walks, when traditionally, I have avoided long walks out in the cold in the countryside. The posters are intriguing as they show us the emotional appeal of Christmas and winter shopping in the recent past, how they act as a psychological booster during what can be very trying months and also because of the beauty and complexity of the designs and messages that they convey. As such, the poster parade really is what it says it is: a winter wonderland to which all of our senses and feelings are invited.

Exhibition Catalogue

Winter’s Discontent Made Glorious – Anonymous, 1909
Brightest London is Best Reached by Underground – Horace Taylor, 1924
Winter Cavalcade – Margaret Barnard, 1938
Empress Hall – Earls Court – Walter Goetz, 1937
Winter in the Country – Harry Stevens, 1965
Winter Sales – Quickly Reached – Compton Bennett, 1926
Winter Fun – Skating – Anna Hymas, 2016
Winter Sales – Edward McKnight Kauffer, 1924
It is Warmer Below – Frederick Charles Herrick, 1927
Winter Country Walks – Hans Unger, 1958
Hampton Court – Hanna Well, 1963
Ice Skating – Charles Pears, 1928
Winter Walks – Laura Knight, 1957
Keep Warm – travel Underground – Kathleen Stenning, 1925
Out and about in Winter – Molly Moss, 1950
Shop in Town – Leith, 1928
Winter Sales – Artist Unknown, 1920
Winter in London – John Burningham, 1965
Winter – Paul Catherall, 2006
Winter Visitors – Clifford Ellis and Rosemary Ellis, 1937
Brighter London for Winter Sales – Harold Sandys Williamson, 1924