It makes you think....

So last night, I was knackered. I was too tired to do anything but slump on the sofa and have several glasses of plonk – purely for medicinal reasons of course. Anyway, in my comatose state, I decided I would watch one of the dozens of videos – yes I still have the old VCR as it’s going great guns – I had taped. I watched Emma – you know, by Jane Austen. I think the actor that played Mr Knightley is dead sexy…see left. So, I watched Emma and it got me thinking about how hard it would have been to be a woman way back then. Oh sure if you were born into wealth and you had an income you did okay – even better of course if you married and you were settled in your life. But what about the women whose futures were not assured? What about the women who had to work for a living?

Imagine being a scullery maid or similar? What a bloody hard life they would have had. They would have worked their guts out for a pittance and yet been glad to have the job because it would have given them a measure of safety at least until they could get married - another safety net to cling to. I used to work in a hotel in London. It used to
be an old mansion that would have had it’s hey day in the 1800’s. Like the servants did back then, we lived in the basement. The kitchen was enormous and the many, many rooms had amazing old style cornices and ornate pressed ceilings. But the thing that got me was there was no elevators. So being a modern day chambermaid, as I was, I had to run up and down many, many stairs, often lugging a vacuum cleaner and sheets. But I used to imagine doing that in long, heavy skirts, being restricted by a corset and carrying heavy trays of food to people who were too privileged/lazy to get out of bed to have their breakfast. What a hard life those young women had – cleaning, cooking, getting up early and finishing late, with one day off a week – if lucky – for a pittance. I swear there were times I could feel the ghosts of those girls and my going up and down all those stairs was nothing compared to what they endured.

And how about being a governess? A governess was generally a woman of ‘good birth’ who was viewed neither as servant or part of the family and she had to look after and try and teach kids who she knew would eventually grow up and she would have to find another position. How scary would that have been? Added to that, because you weren’t a member of family you would have rarely been socially included unless there was the dreaded ‘13’ at the dinner table. So, there you are a smart, attractive woman having to rely on people for your living and knowing the axe would fall when the kids no longer needed you. Maybe you could become a ‘companion’ to some old crotchety dame or maybe you would jump at the chance of marriage for security from your precarious situation.

Think about the women who took to the streets because they had no references and the only way to survive was to have strange, unwashed men pay a pittance for a shag. What horrible short lived lives these woman had. Think about the diseases that would have been rampant then.

Yes, it absolutely sucks today that some women are not paid the same as men and that in some offices only by having a penis can you get to the top, but spare a thought for those women who have come before us - what they had to endure just to have a small measure of safety. No, I’m not trying to depress anyone. I believe sometimes movies like Emma come to me to remind me how bloody lucky I am as a single woman that I control my life, my finances and I am not worrying about not having a man to ‘look after’ me. Think of the choices women have in their lives now. Those women in the past would have had limited or no choice at all. It makes me very grateful.

Have you see My Brilliant Career? It’s an Aussie book by Miles Franklin – a female writer. It was made into a movie with Judy Davis and Sam Neil. It’s about a young woman called Sybylla who is trapped by circumstance. She wants to be a writer but that does not fit in with what society expects of her. If you get a chance – watch it. It’s an excellent flick. It’s about unpopular choices a young woman makes.

The winner of the Unbreakable contest has been emailed. Thanks once again to everyone who entered. As soon as I get a response from the winner, I will post the name.

Right I’ll leave you to it. I have almost finished writing a ménage. Will a publisher want it? Who knows? That’s all part of this writing business – write it, put it out there and wait for a response. If you are told it sucks, move on and try again. Suckiness is but a momentary thing.

www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?