International Women's Day - Dare to Clown?

 

Can you spare half an hour to show your support for IWD? (See end of post)

Mae West once said: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is right enough.'

And this quote from a sassy and inspirational woman resonates with what International Women's Day are hoping to achieve - with a ‘raise’ your hand high to show you're in and that you commit to choose to challenge and call out inequality.’

The ‘Choose To Challenge pose’ asks for those who are in, to ‘share on social media using #ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021 to encourage further people to commit to helping forge an inclusive world.’

How many of you are happy to stick your hand up high in a meeting to ask a question or make a point?

It can feel as scary as doing a bit of stand up? Yes? NO. Being vulnerable is risky. Unless we #ChooseToChallenge or ask questions, we are in danger of maintaining the status quo.  With challenge comes change.

There are countless people who have fought to challenge patriarchy, and women today stand on the shoulders of those before them.

Mae West (1893-1980), American actress, singer, writer, comedian and sex symbol often challenged the censors with her saucy and sexual sense of humour – “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.” I watched a Documentary: Mae West: And the Men Who Knew Her Her size and looks were repeatedly critiqued by men who simultaneously praised her skill to command attention. They say women loved her – I imagine lots did – but patriarchy feared her. Charming.

Pushing for change is challenging. Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927) was a radical avant garde artist. She was a poet, performance artist and much more. She created art out of rubbish, and raised brows, but for me, she adopted the clown to invade spaces with her naughty performance art pieces - such as turning up to be painted naked with a bra styled out of tomato cans and a bird cage around her neck with live canaries.

Her elaborate costumes were often very ‘jester like’ - mocking patriarchy - wandering around the streets of Grenville Village, New York, with a plaster cast phallus. Shocking. Needless to say, she was arrested on numerous occasions.

There is speculative evidence that the originator of Marcel Du Champ’s world-famous work of art ‘The Fountain’ (1917) was in fact a birthday gift from The Baroness; this has yet to be ratified. But if it is true, then it speaks volumes of the inequalities that bound women in proverbial linen cloths, a bit like mummification / suffocation of their choices, their freedoms and of the cavernous disparity of that period.

She made a spectacle of herself. She critiqued the economics of beauty and played with gender boundaries. She was a woman ahead of her time and if she was around today she would be still ahead of her time. She died penniless, whilst her male contemporaries became wealthy and famous. It wasn’t until decades later that her voice and art practices were recognised. Baroness Elsa is an icon of challenge - using art and humour to create change.

I invite you to don something ridiculous or unexpected on IWD - 8 March, even if it’s just for one Zoom call or out walking the dog. Raise your hand. Ask a question. Make a point. Cat outfits are in… Choose to challenge and call out inequality.

Can you spare half an hour to show your support for IWD? I’m donning my steel toe-capped, maroon Doc Martins clown boots on Saturday 6 March at 14.05 as Sedusa Medusa  - a gorgon trickster clown (a merge of the femme fatales and clown).  Maybe I am Madusa? OR BADUSA? ‘Marilyn Munroe said:  “Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she'll conquer the world." This 30 minute performance is part of the Funny Women celebratory Around the World event. Check out what’s on here.

If you want to become or feel what it is like to step into the shoes of a clown – join me on Thursday 1 April. 10am-2pm for an online taster session Dare to Clown.

Mae West: ‘Those that are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”