At dancing last night I had a pretty good time, right up to the last figure of the last dance. I went the wrong way (quite a common occurrence) and was grabbed roughly on my wrist to send me in the right direction.
Now there are a lot of things to complain about with my dancing. I often go the wrong way, and I don't remember whole dances easily either. The toes don't point as often as they might, I am too vocal and I really don't like dancing the circles, but I am not heavy and don't take much effort to direct. In parlance, I'm light. A little pressure on the hand is all you need to direct me. So I wasn't happy about being pulled about like a trailer.
And it made me think about those women from Jane Austen's time who would have had to be polite and pretty to the crudest and roughest of men. They had those little dance cards, and I wonder if the women had any right to refuse to dance with someone if there was a space on the dance card... It would be a very effective way to make someone feel like a chattel, making them stand around, and when you wanted to dance with them you just walk up and book a slot, and they have no say in the matter...
I'm glad I'm not a chattel like that - I find it hard to Cceive of that kind of thinking, and can't believe I would have ever accepted that way of living. I know I would have though - brainwashing into it from infancy would work. Just like I have been brainwashed into thinking I am the equal of any man since birth.....
Posted by Toni at March 28, 2006 07:20 AM