…By request*: Things which are lopsided
1. Beepbeep, beepbeep, yeah. The proportion of honking horns by Saturday night hoons on George Street to the necessity of said honking (and hoons).
2. M vs F. The gender split in key creative leadership roles in mainstream Australian theatre is under scrutiny. Being very much a fringe-dweller (fringe enthusiast, even) when it comes to theatre, I can’t give a qualified comment. However, I did attend a lecture at Belvoir St Theatre today (I came, I saw, I tweeted). One point that resonated with me was that women who are in key creative roles – directors, artistic directors, etc – could afford to be a bit more supportive of each other, of women who are long-term practitioners and of female emerging artists. In other words, the sisterhood is the antidote to the boys’ club. A point of concern was, anything outside a white middle-class male perspective is seen as ‘alternative’ which, obviously, includes stories told from a female point of view. It’s a bizarre notion that half the population is effectively viewed as a minority group, but this mindset seems to be affecting the perceived merit of creative work. It’s a worrisome and frustrating situation, but hopefully the floodgates for discussion and change have opened for good.
3. My eyes (these goggles they do nothing!). I noticed this one day and it freaked me out. I can’t tell which eye is the droopy one, but they’re definitely set differently in my head. I asked the optometrist and she said, “It’s common to be slightly asymmetrical. Or it could be a brain tumour.”
