Back before the wedding and Whistable Biennal we hosted a Chap themed Evening at the Montague Arm featuring the return of Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer. ‘Gentleman’s Night’ seemed a bit misogynistic so I was going to call it ‘Ladies and Chaps Night’. Martin at the pub had kindly offered prizes for the best dressed ladies and chaps. However, all the ladies I invited wanted to dress like chaps, not ladies.

I only curated half the live programme for Whitstable Biennale. Emma Leach curated the other half during the weekend I was busy getting married. Emma’s weekend presented a series of intimate and delicate and feminine performance artists. My weekend was more noisy and blokey (in Dave TV or Radio 6 sense of bloke entertainment, not the Nuts Magazine sense).

All this got me thinking about the old performance art stalwart of gender politics.

As Cherie Blair has shown over the last few months, the way to success as a female is not by becoming a respected member of the court, but instead by courting the gutter press. Cherie Blair is not a good role model for women.
The Spice Girls can now only be found in the bargain basket at Woolworths - girl power was too cheap and it didn’t work properly. Burning bras were replaced with wonder bras. However, all those sexy girls wondering the streets has led to a concerning increase in the number of reported rapes and the decrease in the number of successful prosecution. Wonder bras too easily confuse men. Forget Girl Power. We need some Lady Power. The lady is feminine and demands respect.

On the 10th of July in the Montague Arms I decided to host a Ladies Night, but there were no strippers. I wanted ladies whose performances are feminine and demand respect. Gentlemen were welcome.



The night featured Caroline De Lannoy, Holly Darton & Jenny Hunt, Lucy Panesar, Emma Leach and Jo Stephenson.

Labels: Caroline De Lannoy, Cherie Blair, Emma Leach, feminism, Girl Power, Holly Darton, Jenny Hunt, Jo Stephenson, ladies night, Lucy Panesar, Montague Arms