Here’s Looking at You Podcast #6: Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You down.

Following its success at the Emmy Awards, where it won best TV drama, best actress and best supporting actress, it is probably time to release my podcast about the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale.

In this podcast I talk with poet, teacher, writer, musician and community activist Josie Moon, about the Margaret Atwood source novel and its recent, television incarnation.
A strikingly prescient pair of texts, both prompt us to discuss all manner of contentious topics, from women’s reproductive rights, to the process of othering, to hierarchies, freedom of speech and star activism.

As you’ll hear, as is always the case when Josie and I get together, this conversation is quick fire and there are no holds barred. Josie is a very political creature and it’s one of the many

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We Shall Overcome

 

Joe answers audience questions

 

Whilst the issue of austerity and food banks might seem an odd subject to blog about on a website about the representation of gender and sexuality in the media, I’d argue it is an ideal subject.

I hadn’t really thought much about food banks until recently, having been lucky enough to have never had to use one. However, that changed when I saw Ken Loach’s extremely moving condemnation of the austerity agenda, I, Daniel Blake. I defy anyone to see the scene whereby Katie gorges on food in the food bank and then breaks down or the scene where she is forced to steal sanitary products, and not be moved. Imagine having a period and not being able to afford to keep yourself clean.

Retrosexual: The Notorious Work of Bettie Page and Irving and Paula Klaw

I have written a blog for the ‘Screening Sex’ website, an academic blog curated by Darren Kerr and Donna Peberdy.

The blog briefly examines the fetish films of Bettie Page and Irving and Paula Klaw. In particular it discusses Page’s performances, the repetitious nature of these films and how the original point of interest in these short films may have shifted over time and context.

To view the article simply follow this link.

Meeting a Windmill Girl

A few days ago I met a real life Windmill Girl.

I came across Jill Millard Shapiro first through her rather wonderful book Remembering Revudeville: A Souvenir of the Windmill Theatre, and then through social media. We got talking and she very kindly suggested I we have a face-to-face chat.
Jill was a performer at the Windmill theatre from 1959 to December of 1963 when she left to have her first child so she is a well-placed, as well as eloquent and engaging spokeswoman and expert-in-chief for the theatre that she called home for a short but clearly formative period of what turns out to have been a very eventful life.

Sailing close to the wind, with the Lincoln WI

The public engagement element of my job is one of my favourite bits of being an academic. So whenever I’m invited to talk I’ll always try and make it, work and life permitting. As a result last night I was very pleased to be guest speaker at the Lincoln WI.

I’ve visited and spoken to a number of Women’s Institute branches in the last few years and I’ve never had a bad experience, but Lincoln WI are certainly one of my favourites. I’d previously spoken at one of their meetings about two years ago, along with my friend and performer Storme Chaser. Our talk had been about the British burlesque community and its feminist roots. They were a really receptive, fun audience with lots of interesting questions and many of them wanted to have a go with the set of oversize, ostrich feather fans I’d taken with me. I’d even got some them to have a go at doing a glove removal routine to the David Rose Orchestra’s ‘The Stripper,’ much to the amusement of the other members.

Charlize Theron: Fighting like a Girl

I was recently interviewed by PhD candidate Becky Jones* for Phoenix Talks – her podcast in association with the Leicester’s independent cinema, the Phoenix.

Becky invited me to talk about the noir spy thriller Atomic Blonde which recently ran at the cinema. The film, based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City and set on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is a visceral experience and features a blistering performance by Charlize Theron as MI6 agent protagonist Lorraine Broughton.

The film is notable for its director, David Leitch, who is a renowned stunt man but what I really  wanted to talk about was what our expectations around how action-packed this film would be were regarding Theron’s performance. I also wanted to talk about the discourse around Theron in relation to the film, her star persona and reputation as a skilled actress who really throws herself into her roles, about her as an ‘aging’ star, about Lorraine as an empowered character and Theron as a producer and the history of  ‘action women’ roles in Hollywood.

Here is a link to the podcast:

*Becky Jones’ PhD is on cyborgs and gender in film.

It’s different for Girls?: My thoughts on BBC 2’s No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free?

I’ve spent the last couple of days in the company of my two nieces who are five and seven.
They are such funny, engaging and intelligent girls. Every time I am around them I am aware of how impressionable children are and the part we can play as role models young people’s lives.
Whilst hanging out with these two young girls, I couldn’t help but think about the recent BBC two-parter, No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free? I wanted to watch the programme because of my interest in gender but also because as the documentary itself mentions, research undertaken at Stamford University suggests that seven is a key developmental age, because apparently this is when children develop fixed ideas on what constitutes men and women and that even this early in their life, children have already been conditioned to ‘think that boys and girls are fundamentally different.’ As I mentioned previously, my nieces are five and seven.

Here’s Looking at You Podcast #5 Why Burlesque Needs Rubyyy Jones

Image of Rubyyy courtesy of Matthew Kitchen. Shot at The Cat’s Pyjamas ‘Thanks For The Mammaries’ tenth anniversary, farewell show. Copyright

A little later than anticipated, but well worth the wait, here is podcast #5 ‘Why Burlesque Needs Rubyyy Jones.’

In this podcast I chat with the award-winning queerlesque star about how she defines herself, as a performer and persona, where the three yyy’s comes from, her roots and role models, her early performances, how her style came about and her experience as a promoter.

We also discuss burlesque audiences and their role in the form, the sense of responsibility she feels as a performer, promoter and activist, the current social context and where she hopes burlesque will go in the future.

Whilst we will return to the notion of the carnivalesque in the next podcast, it is also useful term to apply to Rubyyy.  When I talk about the notion of the carnivalesque and the unruly woman in the podcast,

Coming soon, podcast #5: You’re Welcome! Why Burlesque NEEDS Rubyyy Jones.

 

Award winner, burlesque performer and producer, and self-proclaimed ‘professional loudmouth’ Rubyyy Jones was kind enough to chat with me recently, about her star persona, her performance motivations and the politics of burlesque. This conversation will be available as Here’s Looking At You podcast #5, next weekI thought it was therefore appropriate to talk a bit about what it is that makes Rubyyy so very special as a performer. To do this I am going to talk a little about the act through which I first experienced her.

Working as a promoter and producer between 2006 and 2016, I was constantly on the lookout for acts that enthused and excited me and that I thought would enthuse and excite our audience too. A conversation with the fabulous performer Diva Hollywood prompted to me seek Rubyyy’s work out on YouTube. I’d heard rumblings, but never actually seen her but I liked the sound of what she was doing – namely, ‘queerlesque.’

I understand queerlesque to be burlesque

Here’s Looking At You Podcast #4 Wondering about Wonder Woman

 

A film depiction of  Wonder Woman acting as a role model for young girls.

Welcome to the fourth Here’s Looking at You podcast.  In this podcast I talk about Wonder Woman with Dr Rayna Denison, senior lecturer in Film at University of East Anglia and editor of the Eisner award-nominated Super Heroes on World Screens  and Melanie Adams, pin-up artist at Madams Pin-Ups and Wonder Woman expert.

We discuss Wonder Woman’s various iterations over the years, her feminist roots, the politics of her costuming, how she’s marketed in different national contexts and what we liked and disliked about the recently released origin story, directed by Patty Jenkins.

 

Now the world is ready for you… ?

First we discussed Wonder Woman as a recuring, and changing, cultural figure and how she reflects and reacts to the times.   While there are many