This morning I called in to the South Square Centre to look at the latest exhibition in the Unit 9 Gallery.* The gallery is occasionally used as a venue for other events, and I had forgotten that a group of elderly ladies meet in there for their knitting circle. b (There is enormous competition for the limited space in the Centre.) Fortunately they were just packing up when I arrived, and I started by tour of the exhibition while they were still chatting.
I picked up very quickly that they were talking about the popular BBC TV series Strictly Come Dancing. If you are not familiar with it, the controversial innovation this year has been the inclusion of a single-sex couple …. both men. I was interested to hear one of the knitters say, “They are lovely dancers, but it doesn’t feel right.” Her companions agreed.
Their remarks set my thinking about my own childhood in East Lancashire, back in the early ‘fifties. My father was a Minister in the textile town of Nelson. There was precious little by way of entertainment, with the exception of the local cinema and the pubs. The churches in the town provided a welcome and popular diversification of social life and entertainment, including whist drives, snooker tables, concert parties and …. dancing.
This was not an activity in which everybody engaged, and I am am used in retrospect (wearing my ex-sociologist’s hat) to remember that this was an acceptable activity for middle class men, but not for working class men. As a consequence there was invariably a large surplus of women looking for partners. Not surprisingly, it became absolutely normal for women to dance with each other. The curious thing, to my mind, about the conversation I overheard, is that several of those involved must have been about my age, and if they were natives of the Bradford area (which I assumed they were) their experience would have resembled mine. In other words, the sight of single-sex couples dancing together would have been a commonplace event. Of course, these were women, not men.
I can’t help reflecting upon the curious lack of symmetry between the perception of single-sex couples.
*This is by Anne Barrans, and is a superb collection of textile hangings. If you are anywhere within range of Bradford do make the effort to see it. Her pieces are both technically very adept and very beautiful.