GSCENE 65
CRAIG’S THOUGHTS
CRACKING ON
OR; THIS IS A MAN’S WORLD
AND IT HAD BETTER STAY THAT WAY
BY CRAIG HANLON-SMITH
As the season to be jolly and its preceding year disappears behind a
thick cloud of Channel 5’s 100 Worst Celebrity ****Ups and under the
cover of darkness we guiltily borrow half a recycling box from the old
dear next door to both simultaneously hide our festive drink problem
from ourselves, and rather cruelly, cast our neighbour as an old soak to
the bin men (I know that’s not particularly diverse but they are always
men. Always); we laughingly reach for the back of a soon to be
shredded Christmas card and sketch out the life improving revolutions
that we promise to keep until approximately January 4th.
Let us not be too cynical about the tradition of self-improvement,
setting goals is a great way to mark out a path of acceleration and
change, but a trying one devoid of any meaningful point if we do not
or cannot stick to it. Statistics (yawn) teach us that by mid-January
more than 50% of resolutions made will have been cast aside along
with the dried up naked skeleton of a Christmas tree, and that by the
following December less than 10% of us will have successfully steered
along the path of self improvement and across the finish line. So why
the failure? Well, it’s quite possibly not such a surprise.
“Was there a concern that
ordination ceremonies if led by
women would be littered with quips
from Victoria Wood sketches?”
By enlarge the intention is a positive one, a new year, new beginnings
and as the Magi leave their gifts in the stable at the foot of baby Jesus
we simply try to have an epiphany of our own. But perhaps equally as
inappropriate as the gift of gold to a child sleeping on bale of hay in
the shadow of a donkey, the goals we set are a bridge of change too
far. The trouble is that as a society at large we are not built for the
easy acceptance of change, whether it be the coach potato’s
introduction of a four times a week visit to the gym or a radical
alteration of diet; and if our culture demands the process to be a
difficult one, we are sure to follow suit; or the other way round –
either/or it’s a stop-start cycle of accepting the status quo. On the
whole, when we are ready to embrace change, we would rather it was a
slow gentle introduction of mild differences that will not frighten the
horses than an earthquake flattening of our former selves. To press
home the point, let us look no further that at two mighty bedrocks of
our green and pleasant land currently shivering at the possible onset of
change; The Church of England and Marriage.
2012 drew to a close with The Church of England General Synod voting
not to allow women to become bishops. In 2012? How shameful. Was
there a concern that ordination ceremonies if led by women would be
littered with quips from Victoria Wood sketches? Or perhaps that the
local Anglican Cathedral would suddenly find its stained glass windows
framed with floral drapes? Or perhaps more troubling that despite our
protestations to the opposite we are still a patriarchal sexist bunch
who would much rather have a man sitting in the pilot seat because
that is how it was when we were children.
It is now almost 25 years since we had a woman Prime Minister living
in Downing Street and we have not even come close since. When was
the last time a woman put herself forward for a leadership contest of
the Conservative Party? 1975 and she won – we must not allow that
again. At the most recent leadership election for the Labour Party there
was one female candidate, Diane Abbott. She came sixth. Last. Are
there really no suitable women for such a position or have the negative
memories of Margaret Thatcher tainted the path less trodden for
women forever?
In April last year I wrote an (other) article on the subject of gay
marriage which I swore to be my last word on the subject. Ahem. But
in the spirit of these thoughts, just what is it of which we [society at
large] are so afeard that the voices of objection consider the
possibility of success worth the effort. There cannot really be a fear of
two men or two women legally re-enforcing their relationship, the fear
must be a real phobia for change and how it might impact ‘me’. As
harsh as it may sound we are quite a self-centred lot, never really
concerned with the behaviour of others unless there is a fear of
ramifications upon the self, which during the festival of Epiphany when
we remember the bringing of the gifts to the Christ child, is a tad
ironic.
And whether it is the idea of gender equality or same-sex marriage or
both that might affect you, and you continue to celebrate the
possibility of social change for the greater good of your own
community, it surely cannot be so difficult to plan and stick to a
programme of self-improvement for more than three days should that
be to ‘eat less chocolate’ or ‘swim more’. Whether 2013 is our time or
not, whether we believe it is now our right to be equal or not, it is still
worth acknowledging that we are asking others to accept and support
quite monumental changes to how the world has be