Cocktails and Records

I had a strange night last night. There I was, sitting at home, feet up in front of the TV, when I started to find myself feeling sorry for Margaret Thatcher.

The cause of this was BBC4 drama Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley which fictionalises the life of the young Margaret Thatcher and her quest to be elected to parliament. The programme suggests that Thatcher was constantly held back by Conservative constituency party members because she was from the ‘wrong background’ and because ‘a mother’s place is in the home’.

Oh, she was still annoying, power obsessed and downright bossy, but by God, the sexist old men who tried to keep her down would test anyone. So for the first time in my life, I found myself egging Margaret Thatcher on as she experienced 8 years of being patronised because of her gender.

I feel kind of dirty now.  

This weeks somewhat optomistically entitled Song of the Week is ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’ from the musical Carousel. Although this song has been on high rotation on the stereo for months now and never fails to make me want to skip around the room with glee, I have also chosen it partly out of spite.

Everytime I have mentioned my love of the Carousel soundtrack to friends they groan, not because it’s from a musical, but because it is from a completely sexist and corny musical. I’ve no idea whether this is true or not since I’ve never bothered watching it.

The sad thing though is that I, as a good feminist, couldn’t give a toss either way because, as a music fan, I have a record collection full of blatently non-PC music. Like my content acceptance of wafer thin plots in 80s teenpics, I’ve had to completely suspend disbelief on the sexist lyrics front for years. Pop and rock music isn’t exactly known for it’s progressive views on women and female/male relationships.

Two of my sexist favourites have to be ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ by the Rolling Stones and Sheena Easton’s ‘9 - 5 (morning train)’. In ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ Mick whinges about mothers finding that cooking fresh food for their husbands is just a drag and that popping pills all day is the better option, and in ‘9 - 5′ Sheena extolls the virtues of snaring a man who works all day so she can play all night.

I think that what makes a good proper sexist song is one that dumps all that boring testosterone filled Led Zep / Guns n Roses syle objectification, and goes straight for portraying women as lazy sods who sit around all day either taking drugs or waiting for their men to come home so they can fleece them for free drinks down the disco that evening.

Not sure how Carousel fits into this though - might have to see it one of these days…