Blue Monday

Blue Monday is a load of rubbish talked about by people who know you’ve spent too much over Christmas but think they can make you spend more if they tell you that you are sad. Normally, I don’t feel any sadder on that day than any other but this year was different. I felt sad about big things I can’t control. 

I watched Question Time last week in horror, as a man, whose acting I like, acted in a way I didn’t like. You have probably seen the storm that has followed. Laurence Fox is now a horrible racist man who is milking this moment of notoriety, or speaker of truth for a group whose views have been suppressed for far too long now, depending who who you listen to.

It all started because someone in the audience wanted to know what the panel thought about Prince Harry stepping down to live in Canada. Laurence Fox, couldn’t care less but felt an opinion was required and seemed to get quite het up about it. A woman in the audience with darker skin tone said, “The treatment of Meghan has been awful. Let’s call it what it is. It’s racism...”

She might have gone on to explain why she thought that but Laurence Fox wasn’t going to let her. He was furious. He shouted and shut her down.

She countered with a very calm statement that he might not be able to understand because he is a white, wealthy, middle class man. He told her that she was being racist to him.  He properly threw his toys out of the pram and made himself look like an idiot. 

I don’t think the press treatment of Meghan has been fair. I think it’s because of her ‘otherness’. If you compare her coverage to Kate’s then she has had a raw deal but she isn’t just coloured; she’s also American, a feminist, an actress and beautiful in a way we are not used to. She has her own money and doesn’t need to be kept by him or the state. She’s also not going to be the next Queen, so is not as protected as Kate. If you compare the coverage of Diana and Fergie you would probably see the same thing and of course Fergie was ginger and married to a nonce. But, like Laurence Fox, I don’t understand the charge of racism, specifically. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been any but it’s not something I see, probably because I have never experienced any disadvantage because of the colour of my skin.

However, I am a woman and I see rampant misogyny around this whole issue. 

Why is his request to resign from a job he didn’t apply for seen as her fault? Why did Laurence Fox think it was alright to be so verbally aggressive to the woman in the Question Time audience? Adam ate the fucking Apple; why do we still blame Eve?

Yesterday, we experienced a very strange and subtle form of sexism that shocked both the Long Suffering Husband and myself. We have always kept our own accounts at separate banks and a joint account at my bank to pay bills. During an appointment to get some advice about my inheritance money we noticed that because his name was first on the joint bank account (convention) he became the person they were speaking to. The preferential credit card, the free travel insurance, the air miles were all in his name. (Honestly, the world is a truly awful place. I can afford travel insurance now) The investment advisor rang him to make the appointment. It has made us feel incredibly uncomfortable and aware that women still are not treated equally.