No. 58- Losing my Mojo- part 2- the covers

To date there have been 225 editions of Mojo. Below is a list of the handful of covers that women have been the ‘cover star’ (i.e without any other artist or not as part of a band). It stated out promisingly enough- two women graced the cover in the first year of publication. However it took almost five years for another woman to front a cover.

Here is a complete list of all those Mojo covers which had a female covers star

Issue 2 ( December 1993)- K.D. Lang

Issue 11 (October 1994)- Chrissie Hynde

Issue 63 (February 1999)- Debbie Harry

Issue 79 (June 2000)- Janis Joplin

*Issue 111 (February 2002) – Kate Bush – UK only

*Issue 145-(December 2003)- Kate Bush – UK only

*Issue 168 (November 2007)- Debbie Harry – US only for the UK edition it was Oasis AGAIN!

Issue 170 (January 2008)- Amy Winehouse

Issue 211 (June 2011) Kate Bush

Then there is the interesting case of Yoko Ono
For Issue 114 (May 2002) there was one cover with Yoko Ono along with an alternative cover with Paul McCartney (not stoking up division there!) and Issue 186 (May 2009)- Yoko shares cover and cover story with John Lennon but her face is obscured on by a hat.
So who are the usual suspects in terms of Cover boys? I have attempted to count up the numbers and here they are
Beatles (NB 2 covers shared with Bob Dylan)

Pink Floyd - includes Syd Barrett Covers)

Bob Dylan (NB 2 covers shared with Beatles)

Rolling Stones

Solo Beatles

All the above had a great percentage of covers in their own right than women artists combined. Other usual suspects include Neil Young, Kurt Cobain and Radiohead.

Of 225 editions women have only been the cover artist on 8 issues of Mojo in the UK and 7 in the US. That is not even 4% of all covers. Compare this with Word which in its 113 issues has had a woman on the cover 10 times. Still only 9% but a big improvement on Mojo. Clash is has had female musicians as cover stars on 9 issues out of a total of 75 (12% of total) Since 2002 Q has had 17 covers which have been fronted by female artists (I have not counted the November 2006 issue which had a choice of 20 cover artists, 5 of which were women). However this higher rate of female representation is immediately undercut by the fact that for least half these covers the women are portrayed in sexually provocative poses and dress more suited to a lads mag. There have also been covers where male musicians have been shown with semi-naked women draped around them At least Mojo has never once done ths! There is one bright note in that in the past six months Q has had Lana Del Rey, Florence Welch and Amy Winehouse as cover stars in respectful ‘portrait’ photos (i.e. not in sexualised poses or dress). I can only hope that these women’s undoubted musical talent and critical/commercial success was more to do with this as their physical attractiveness.

It is not just women who are underrepresented. I also counted Black artists as cover artist on their own right and they account for only 14 covers (One of which is a Motown artists cover). This is 6% of covers. Bob Marley accounts for 5 of these covers and Jimi Hendrix 3. No woman of colour has had a cover in her own right (although Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Lauren Hill have appeared on the front cover with other artists). K. D. Lang is the only gay woman to have been on the cover.

My intention here is not to point Mojo out for particular censure, although its’ rate of female cover stars is low even by music magazine standards. Mojo does include a good number of reviews and news coverage of female artists. It includes a reasonable proportion of female artists on its free CDs. But there is enormous room for improvement. If I may, here are my suggestions for Women who Mojo could have as cover stars and hey they may even sell a few issues!

Aretha Franklin
The Queen of Soul. Aretha has been on the cover of No. 36 (November 1996- cover story ‘The best of everything!) along with other artists but not in her own right. There is many a tale to tell and a stack of classic albums to devote articles to.

Nina Simone
A legendary artist. She did have an article in No. 224 (July 2012) about her discography. How about a cover story?

Sandy Denny
Nick Drake, a similar cult English folk figure has been on the cover twice- Sandy Denny is similarly loved. Again there was an article in No. 223 (May 2012) about her discography

Patti Smith
There have been a couple of covers with the Ramones and a few covers with Bruce Springsteen. Why not Patti Smith who is still making vital music after 35 years? Patti was on the cover of Uncut magazine last month.

Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell has been featured on the front cover of issue 87 (August 1998- cover story ‘American legends’) but this was a long with several other artist. Neil Young has been on the cover five times, and even ‘Laughing’ Leonard Cohen has been the cover a couple of times. Why not Joni Mitchell? Joni Mitchell has managed to be on the soon to be closed Word Magazine twice in its short run.

Emmylou Harris
Emmy has had a highly respected 40 year career and is still making highly regarded music.

Kirtsy McColl
Much loved and much missed singer/songwriter.

Dusty Springfield
We have had all the important Mod bands on the cover of Mojo- The Who, the Kinks, Rod Stewart, the Small Faces – why not Dusty? There is certainly a very interesting story there to tell or is Dusty’s sexuality seen as something that might scare the readership?

Carole King
Tapestry was reissued a couple of years ago- surely an excuse for one of Mojo’s cover cds where an entire classic album gets covered? It has only sold over 10 million copies! And that is before we get into her career as a songwriter for others. She has only written over 400 songs which have been covered by over 1000 artists!

Siouxsie Sioux
We have had domestic partner murderer Sid Vicious on the cover of Mojo at least twice. Yet there has been no cover featuring one of the many women of the UK punk scene. Siouxsie Sioux is a striking looking woman who would have a few stories about Punk/music industry. And while we are at it how about included the sadly late Ari Up and Poly Strene?

Marianne Faithful
Rather than put the Rolling Stones on the cover again- why not Marianne Faithful? She is still making music and her ‘ Broken English’ album would certainly be worth an article

Bjork
A unique artist- now here is my confession. There was a lengthy article on Bjork and her new album in the November 2011 edition of Mojo. The cover boy was none other than George Harrison. Guess the reason I brought the magazine. Say ten hail Bjorks as penance
P. J. Harvey
Twice Mercury winning- the only artist to do so.

Even dare I say it Madonna? If Abba and Michael Jackson can make the cover why no Material Girl
There are also so many female artists to write in-depth articles about. Here is just a small selection- Etta James, LaBelle (First African American women to appear on cover of Rolling Stone!), The Supremes, the female artists of Motown (Martha Reeves, Mary Love, Brenda Holloway, Tammi Terrell), Marcia Griffiths, Betty Davis (one time wife of Miles), Bettye Lavette (Deep Soul legend who has made a number of excellent albums in recent years), Missy Elliott, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Carla Bley, Doris Troy, Laura Nyro, Judee Sill, Poly Strene, Ari Up and the Slits, The Raincoats (beloved of Kurt Cobain), Aimee Mann, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, ‘Lovers rock Queens’ Carole Thompson and Janet Kay, ‘Mama’ Cass Elliott along with contemporary female artists such as Thea Gilmore.

Anyway here’s hoping!

No. 57 - Losing my Mojo- part 1

First off let me say- I love Mojo magazine. I find it a more intelligent and considered in its music coverage than any other part of the music press. I have been reading it since my mid 20’s (I am now looking at 40 coming up quickly in the rear view mirror!)

However there is one major problem. Out of 225 issues, excluding bands and covers featuring several musicians, women artists have only been featured on the cover eight times in the UK edition and seven times on the US edition. I will discuss this in more depth in my next post.

The lack of women as covers stars indicates a serious issue in lack of coverage of women musicians generally. Occasionally there will be an in depth interview with a female artist who has not appeared as cover star of the issue (both Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush have had interviews flagged up on the front cover) but examining the covers has also indicates how rarely there are in-depth articles about the careers of female musicians. The names of female musicians appear on the front cover a fraction of the time that male musicians do, and it is often difficult to tell if the female musician is the subject of an article or just a review.
I am also not saying that it is just Mojo that has a problem. A quick glance at the gallery of covers of most music magazines- (Uncut, Q, Word, Clash) confirms this (again I will discuss this in my next post).

There are numerous reasons why this state of affairs has probably come about.

Firstly is the perceived audience for these magazines. Many of the magazines, particularly Mojo, are aiming at the legendary ‘£50 bloke’ a male baby boomer born c1945-1962 who would spend £50 a time in a record store (of course the digital revolution and recession have somewhat changed the music market). Middle aged men are seen as the largest audience not just for music magazines but music and home entertainment, in no small part due to their disposable income. However as I have written above I have been reading and buying Mojo since my mid 20’s and a one-time female boss was a proud subscriber to Word. There are women of many ages who are interested in music (as I show in the discussion of zines at the end of this post).

It is important to note that music magazines are finding it harder and harder to find an audience. Word Magazine has just folded and Uncut has recently changed focus to include classic interviews to try and boost sales. Inevitably Mojo will put artists on the front cover that it will know will sell copies and the Beatles, Stones and usual suspects get sales.

But to really understand this situation, we need to look at two aspects of rock writing- the masculine values and culture of rock journalism and lack of women writers (alack this is a fairly widespread issue in the media).

There are several distinct and occasionally interlinking unwelcome tendencies within rock music writing. Firstly and significantly there is a tendency towards macho values. Hard living with drinks, drugs, womanising, fighting and ‘bad boy’ behaviour are seen as the marks of an authentic artist. We are not just talking about artists such as Led Zepplin, Oasis and Rolling Stones. This is linked with the coverage of the hard living, sexually transgressive male figure such as David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. Even though these artists may seem to challenge the hetronormative expectations of their audiences, their hard living stories and their sexual confidence actually align them with acts such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zepplin in the male audience’s eyes.

This is linked to the focus on the rock band as the ‘Boy’s gang’ reassuring male rock fans of the primacy of male friendship and the male gang. The conflict between band members is aligned a masculine concern with power The coverage of bands such as the Clash, the Sex Pistols and Ramones, and even the Smiths can be said to be part of this trend.

There is the ‘muso’ tendency which values intellectualism and musical ability (often at the expense of the musician engaging emotionally and socially with their audience). Thus the love of artists such as Pink Floyd and Radiohead.

Finally there is glorification of the mentally ill ‘Outsider’ male figure such as Brain Wilson and Syd Barrett. These figures ironically fit in with the myth of male exceptionalism, with their mental illness being a product of exceptional talent and behaviour (I have my own theory of Brian being a victim of paternalistic values and masculine aggression that were prevalent in his family but he ho).

Of course certain female artists slip through the net. Kate Bush is enormously popular in the rock press (as the number of her Mojo cover stories show) as she is undoubtedly feminine and physically attractive. She fits in with the model of ‘exceptional eccentric’ and is almost a prototype for the ‘Manic pixie dream girl’ trope. I want to make it clear that this is not to denigrate Kate Bush in any way- she is an astonishing artist who has dome things entirely on her own terms with integrity for over 35 years and unapologetically brings feminist themes to her music. It is far more difficult however for a female artist to challenge gender roles in the way that men like David Bowie have. None of the female artist who challenged the stereotypes of women in rock during the punk era – Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene, Ari Up, have featured on the front covers of any of the magazines I discuss.

The second serious issue is the issue of the lack of women both as writers and editors of these magazines. The NME only got its first female editor in recent years.

I have had a look through my own holdings of Mojo and there are few if any articles written by women (Sylvie Simmons is one exception I can bring to mind). This reflects a lack of women in music writing. I can only think of Lucy O’Brien and Charlotte Grieg as two excellent women writers. Significantly they write specifically about women artists.

Charlotte Grieg wrote the magnificent ‘Will you still love me tomorrow’ (published, tellingly, by Virago) which takes a serious look at what are pejoratively termed ‘Girl groups’ and also ‘Girl signers’ such as Dusty Springfield. These groups are rarely taken seriously be the rock press. There is the double issue with many ‘girl groups’ of race as that many of these groups are African American. Grieg shoes in her book how music produced by ‘Girl groups’ illustrate the effect that the social changes of the 1950s-1990’s have had women, particularly African American women have gone through. The changes in economic, employment, relationships and sexual expectations are reflected in the lyrics of ‘Girl group’ songs (i.e. a perfect illustration of the feminist argument of the Personal is political).

This points to another issue with rock journalism. Female artists are often aligned with pop or the more mainstream side of rock music. Many of the successful artists of the last few years (most notably Adele), no matter how credible their music, have not been featured on the cover of Mojo while they have made the front of Q and Word. Would the staff at Mojo be afraid of disgruntled readers complaining that these young ladies should not be on the front of Mojo?

There are few female instrumentalists, particularly guitarists in rock (or at least mainstream rock). Only a few of the groups that have been on the front of Mojo have female members (White Stripes, New Order, Smashing Pumpkins).

There is an undoubted difference in how women approach rock music. It is no accident that women dominate the production of music ‘zines (independently produced and distributed), which allow them to discuss artists that don’t appear in the mainstream music press (many of which are female) and that these zines often have a strong political content and are highly engaged with their readership. The informality and autonomy of zines suit women and their ways of communicating with other women (I know there are far more scholarly discussions of women’s music zines).

This is only a very brief discourse on the issues of sexism in rock journalism as I perceive them. So on with those Mojo covers!

56; Women in ‘The Wire’ pt.2- Women in the police, legal system and political system

NB – SPOILERS! Only read if you have watched ‘The Wire’ in its entirety

In this part of my essay I will be examining how women are portrayed in the three branches of government (executive, judiciary and legislature) in The Wire

Women in the Baltimore police department

The Baltimore Police Department, like the drugs organisations is a highly masculinised environment. As I notes in part 1, it is a highly competitive, hierarchical organisation. To assert their authority, police will use sexually aggressive language. The culture within the homicide department is so macho that Jay Landsmann, the department supervisor routinely shown looking a porn magazine in the course of his work

Women are seen in lowly administrative/clerical roles such as putting up the name of the homicide victims on the board in the homicide department.

It is telling that while women manage to rise to high positions with the legislature (Nerese Campbell becomes Mayor of Baltimore), and judiciary (Rhoda Pearlman eventually becomes a judge) there is no sign that a woman will be able to achieve any similar position within the Baltimore Police Department. There were no female lieutenants or heads of districts.

Kima Greggs

The main female character in The Wire is Kima Gregg, played by Sonja Sohn. She appears prominently in all five series.

Kima is reassigned from the narcotics department to the Barksdale unit at the beginning of series one. She proves to be a highly professional and efficient worker. This occasionally draws pejorative comments from her more senior male colleagues. She already had developed a highly useful informant in Bubble and her professionalism is noticed by McNulty. Through Bubbles Greggs is able to get identification of most of the Barksdale crew. Greggs later helps develop Shardene Innes as an informant. Greggs is made to go undercover in the disastrous ‘buy-bust’, where she is shot and seriously injured. Her partner Cheryl urges her to become a lawyer, but she joins the Sobotka detail in series two. It is Kima who helps uncover the secret alliance between Stringer Bell and Prop Joe. In series three she is part of the Major Case Unit, where she joins McNulty in rebelling against the re-direction of the Unit away from investigating the Barksdale crew. Kima is the first police detective to properly investigate Marlo and the first to realise what a treat he poses. She remains part of the major case unit in series four. After Marimow is make head of the unit , Kima gets herself transferred to the homicide unit, where she faces teasing. She is also assigned a politically charged murder case. She returns to the major crimes unit when it is reconstituted but moves back to the homicide unit in series five. Kima is often referred to by her surname ‘Greggs’ by her male colleagues, which is a sign that she is accepted as an equal.

Kima’s domestic life

Early in series one we find out that Kima is gay and living with another woman Cheryl, who works as a TV producer. They seem to have a happy relationship although Cheryl wants Kima to finish her law degree and leave the police. When Kima is shot, Cheryl makes it clear she does not want her going back into frontline duties. Cheryl is deeply unhappy when Kima joins the unit investigating Sobotka. This adds to tensions between the two women over Cheryls’ plans to have a baby via artificial insemination. By series three Cheryl has given birth to a son Elijah. Kima begins to feel alienated from Cheryl, and they separate. Although they are temporarily reconciled, Kima starts having affairs. By series four she has permanently separated from Cheryl. They remain on amicable terms with Kima paying child support for Elijah. In series five Kima starts becoming more involved in his upbringing.

Kima’s relationship with Cheryl is compared to the relationships her male colleagues have with their partners. In series two, she and Daniels support each other through having to inform their partners about their involvement in the Sobotka detail.

We only see one scene over the five series where Kima socialises with other lesbians. The other women work in more middle class professions and start teasing Kima about working for the police. Kima responds by telling the story of her first arrest and the praise she got from her commanding officer. This scene opens up the possibility that Kima is marginalised not just within the police but in the lesbian community. Cheryl’s desire that Kima become a lawyer is not just motivated by concern about the dangers of her work but by her disapproval of the seemly lowly status of police detective.

Cheryl also makes clear her displeasure at Kima going to conduct an interview with a stripper in a strip club in series two (to the point that she accompanies her to the club). After the interview Kima takes Cheryl to see the container that the fourteen dead women were transported in, to impress upon her why it is important that those who responsible for their deaths are brought to justice. This is the one moment over the five series where one woman appeals to another woman about the conditions women find themselves in the illegal economy.

Kima’s eventual revolt against domesticity in series three is compared with McNulty’s domestic issues. In series one she is shocked by the way McNulty talks about his estranged wife Elena ‘Did you just call the mother of your children a cxxt?’ However a couple of years later, after Elijah’s birth she is as exasperated by Cheryl as McNulty was by Elena. During one drinking spree, she tells McNulty “How come they know you’re police when they hook up with you. And they know you’re police when you move in. And they know you’re police when they decide to start a family with you. And all that shit is fine until one day it ain’t no more. One day it’s ‘you should have a regular job’ and you need to be home at five o’ clock’. Kima, like McNulty, Bunk and Freamon is shown to be ‘married to the job’ more than to her domestic partner. Like McNulty and Bunk, Kima’s rebellion against domesticity is shown to be a product of the stress of policing. The emotional demands of dealing with murder and drug trafficking on a daily basis makes it difficult to fully connect with the domestic female sphere. Many police take refuge in alcoholism and womanising. It is also no coincidence that Kima is also rebelling against Daniel’s authority at work at the same time she is rebelling against Cheryl’s authority at home.

Kima’s ‘masculine’ attitude towards domesticity is part of what allows her to bond with her male colleagues. Indeed, the reactionary Herc tells her in series two that she is better than most men in the police (but then goes on to tell her if she was a man her would call her pussywhipped due to the fact she has allowed Cheryl to pressurise into a desk job). They respect the fact that she takes her work so seriously. She is also able to join them in their misogynistic talk about their wives. Her male colleagues also know that as a lesbian she is off bounds sexually so they don’t try and make sexual overtures to her. It also means that there is no sexual tension that would make working together in close proximity awkward.

Kima at first resents Elijah, Cheryl’s son, seeing him as intruding on their relationship. However after she has separated from Cheryl she takes her responsibilities to him seriously and ensures she pays child support. Ironically it is through her work that she finally realises how important her role as his co-parent is. Kima is assigned the case of the home invasion murder of June bug. Kima discovers June Bug’s young son hiding in a closet at the murder scene and immediately starts behaving in a protective maternal manner towards him. Her reaction to discovering the young boy is not that of a police officer but an outraged woman. It is during a visit to the young boy that Kima makes a phone call to Cheryl to arrange to have Elijah to stay overnight with her. Kima’s relationship with Elijah is compared to her male colleagues’ (particularly McNulty’s) relationships with their male children. Kima discusses parenthood with McNulty and asks his advice about where to get furniture foe Elijah’s stay. We see Kima cursing as she tries to assemble Ikea furtinure, which echoes a scene in series one where McNulty assembles furniture in preparation for his two sons visit. Further parallels between Kima’s developing parenting skills and McNulty’s are underlined in one of the most well loved scenes of the series when Kima comforts Elijah by getting him to say goodnight to all the junkies, dealers, police and Baltimore street life.

Kima and Cheryl’s relationship can be compared to the relationship that Kima’s male colleagues have with their wives and faces exactly the challenges, which in and odd way is a form of equality. There are also no attempts to turn Kima straight and Kima feels no need to apologise for her sexuality.

Kima as a ‘Man with tits’

One of Sophie Jones main complaints in her piece is that Davis Simon admitted in an interview with mysteryone.com that “I tend to suspect that my female characters are, to quote a famous criticism of Hemingway, men with tits.”

Kima is shown on several occasions as being able to dole out aggressive behaviour. She ring leads the beating of Bodie in retaliation for his assault on Mahone in series one. She also assists with the beating of Bird later in the series. In series two when Cheryl and herself are held up in traffic by the behaviour of some frat boys, she wrestles one out of a car and arrests him responding to his ‘back off lady!’ with ‘I ain’t no lady! In series three when the Major Crimes Unit discover that Avon has been released from prison after only two years it is Kima who gives physical expression to their anger by pushing papers off a table.

Only once does Kima dress in a ‘feminine manner’ and assume a feminine role- when she is made to go undercover in series one as Orlando’s girlfriend. When she does this, it ended disastrously and she is almost killed. It is not just that by removing all the symbols of police authority she becomes more vulnerable. The top and tight jeans she has to do not allow her to conceal a weapon and do not allow for protective clothing. When Wee-Bey (who I argue in part one has particularly little respect for women’s lives) and Little Man start shooting at the car they see only a ‘ho’ whose life is not worth much.

Kima dresses in a track suit and a trademark baseball cap during most of season one but later starts wearing fitted suits when she moves to the homicide department. The final suit she is shown wearing even has a softening frill round the jacket collar. Interestingly Snoop also wears a baseball cap.

Kima and Sexism/Homophobia

Kima has to deal with a number of sexist/homophobic comments over the five series. Only once is she addressed in an outright homophobic sexist manner by Bird. In series one Herc makes comments both about her sexuality and perceived arrogance (in spite of being in a less senior position to Herc and Carver, whom she had been working alongside, she proves to be more efficient than both of them).

Kima’s shooting, is in no small part a result of sexism. Kima is made to go undercover to protect the money the DEA had given to make Burrell’s ill advised ‘Buy-Bust’ sting possible. She was chosen because as a woman she would be less suspicious as an undercover police. Unfortunately she proved too be too convincing.

After Kima is shot, her male colleagues have difficulties dealing with Cheryl. We see Carver’s discomfort when he goes to inform Cheryl about Kima’s shooting. When Rawls is asked if Kima’s family has been informed he says her ‘room-mate’ is with her, ignoring/negating their true relationship.

When Kima moves to the highly masculine Homicide department in series four she is made the butt of several practical jokes. Even Freamon joins in on these. She is also assigned to the politically charged case of the shooting of Braddock, a state witness. Landsman had been ordered to slow the case down to avoid any potential embarrassment to Mayor Royce before the election. Kima as a ‘rookie’ was perceived as not having the necessary skills to be able to solve the case quickly. When Carcetti then uses this against Royce, Kima is demoted to work under the original investigating officer, Norris. After further interference, Kima is finally allowed to work properly on the case. She reinvestigates the scene Braddock’s shooting and discovers that he was accidentally shot.

At the end of series five McNulty reveals the truth about the ‘serial killer’ to Kima, so she is able to concentrate on investigating June bug’s murder. Horrified, Kima decides after a carefully worded conversation with Carver to inform Daniels. Kima is aware that ‘snitching’ is one of the worst offences that she can commit in the eyes of her colleagues and that she should not inform on colleague to the authorities lightly.

We finally see Kima investigating a killing at the same location that William Gant was killed in series one. She is settling in to be a valued member of the homicide unit and partners with Bunk. Their banter has elements of an old married couple (Kima jokes about Bunk accidentally ruining her crime scene). Bunk cannot be to use the mock sexually aggressive/homoerotic talk he has used with McNulty and Freamon as a form of affection, so the pair find a more appropriate and desexualised context to show affection for each other.

Beadie Russell

In series two we meet Beadie Russell, played by Amy Ryan, who patrols the port. Her car both makes her a familiar part of port life but also distances her from the men who work there. She has a friendly relationship with Frank Sobotka.

In episode four Bunk and Freamon question her about her police work . She reveals she does little more than paper work issuing traffic tickets, patrolling and report writing. She explains she worked previously in a toll booth, earning $22,500 a year was not enough to support her two children after her partner had deserted her and their children. When she saw an advert for the job of at $33,000 and benefits for a port authority officer she took the opportunity. However the conversation ends with Bunk asking her ‘Did you want to be police?’ expressing concern about her motivations.

After Bunk’s gentle chiding about her lack of information, Beadie meets her ex-boyfriend Maui, who works at the port and flirts with him trying to which get him to become an informant. She manages to get the information that all the containers that have gone through the port would be recorded in the computer. This helps open up the case considerably.

Later in the series Beadie discusses policing with Kima asking what it is like to be part of a bust. Kima, prompted by Cheryl’s pregnancy, expresses concern about giving up the exciting cut and thrust of police work in order to be a parent. This is the one occasion in all five series where we have two female characters discussing the tensions between the responsibilities of parenthood and career.

Beadie tells McNulty that her husband left her because he did not approve of her working and ‘he did not get married to cook his own dinner’.

Both Herc and McNulty flirt with Beadie in series two but she does not act on either men’s attentions, although a mutual respect develops between herself and McNulty.

Beadie returns at the end of series three when McNulty decides to start a relationship with her. Her warmth and down to earth nature are in contrast to the coldness and arrogance of Theresa D’Agostino, whom McNulty had a brief relationship with during the series. Beadie acts as the ‘good girl’ to Theresa’s ‘bad girl’. In series four Beadie and McNulty are living together happily and Beadie seems to have pulled off the impressive task of domesticating McNulty. She is rewarded by Freamon and Bunk regularly teasing McNulty and trying to tempt him back to his alcoholic misbehavior.

At the end of series four, McNulty is pulled back into his old circle to help investigate the Stansfield organization. He soon reverts to his alcoholic womanizing ways. Beadie confronts him about his behavior and eventually throws him out. However in the final episode of series five, there is an ambiguous scene where McNulty and Beadie sit on the porch of Beadie’s house sharing a tender moment. They have either been reconciled and will attempt to move forward or are separating.

Caroline Massey

There is one last member of the Baltimore Police Department I want to discuss. Officer Caroline Massey is a member of the Major Crimes Unit in series three and four. She is a diligent and effective team member, working the wire taps and deciphering the drug organisation drug slang. She is shown coupon clipping. This both testifies to a highly practical nature but also illustrates that she may so focused on domestic affairs she will never be completely committed to the police force.

Massey joins in Freamon’s undercover operation to get Bernard and Squeak to buy pre-taped mobile phones. She greatly enjoys playing her role as an indignant shop assistant who complains that running up false receipts for the burners will mean she will be late for bingo!

Policeman’s wives

Any discussion of women and the Baltimore Police Department also needs to look at the wives of the various police in the series.

Elena McNulty

Elena McNulty is McNulty’s estranged wife and mother of his two sons Sean and Michael. Elena has left McNulty after she uncovers his affair with Rhoda Pearlman. She uses her lawyer vindictively against McNulty. She also worries about the effect McNulty is having on their two sons and the influences he is exposing them to. One cannot help but sympathise with her. McNulty turns up to his son’s Michael’s soccer game with Bubbles (clearly a drug addict) in tow. He also takes Sean and Michael with him when he takes Omar to identify his murdered lover Brandon’s body. He also turns a trip to a market into a surveillance operation on Stringer Bell- in the course of which he loses his sons! This leads Elena to seek further restrictions on McNulty’s access to his sons.

In series two it is revealed that Elena is a successful real estate agent who is helping to price the likes of Nicky Sobokta out of their own communities. She is also shown playing with McNulty’s emotions. She initiates a one night stand with McNulty then coldly throws him out the following morning. This sends McNulty on the famous self-destructive binge at the beginning of episode 8.

In series three, Elena has begun a relationship with a man called Dennis who is clearly finically successful (Bunk speculates when McNulty and himself see him at the baseball game that he is a uptown lawyer). The implication is that Elena is behaving like a gold digger.

However Elena’s character is somewhat softened in the last two series. In series four she is happy that McNulty seems to have finally settled down and made a happy domestic life with Beadie and in series Five she warns McNulty to not throw away his relationship with Beadie away.

Marla Daniels

Marla is Cedric Daniel’s wife on series 1-3. In the first two series their marriage is shown as being strong with Cedric respecting Marla’s opinions. However there are shown to be some tensions. Marla is highly ambitious for Cedric and is shown perhaps pushing him in a direction he would not want. When Cedric complains he has been given a poisoned chalice in being made head of the unit investigating the Barksdale Organisation, Marla urges him not to play his superiors game and tries to talk him into leaving the police department to become a lawyer (Daniels has a law degree). In series two she is displeased when Daniels informs her he has taken on command of the Sobotka detail. The marriage is also childless, although neither Marla or Daniels ever mention any regrets about this.

These tensions have finally lead to the couple separating between series 2 and 3. Daniels agrees to hide their separation in order to assist Marla’s political ambitions as she now standing for a seat in the Baltimore Council. She is shown as the right hand woman of Odell Watkins, a powerful figure in Baltimore politics. However her ambition to take over the seat of one of Mayor Clarence Royce’s allies Eunetta Perkins means that Daniels promotion to Major gets blocked. It is only through Watkin’s intervention that Daniels gets his promotion. Daniels pointedly tells Rhonda Pearlman when they go for a meal to celebrate his promotion that Marla had always wanted him to become a major but she was no longer with him when he achieved this rank. Marla is eventually elected as a councilwoman for Baltimore’s 11th district.

In series five Marla and Daniels are shown to still be on amicable terms with one another. Marla helps to advise Daniels when Burrell threatens to make public a damaging internal investigation into Daniels behaviour while he was based in the Eastern district (Daniels was found to have $200,000 in his account he was unable account for) to prevent Daniels from taking his place as Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department. During this conversation that Marla mentions Daniels’ past has already cost them their marriage, which was price enough (she holds his hand at this point of the conversation showing that she places no blame on him). The viewer is left to fill in Daniels’ back story and make up their own mind as to whether Marla may have pressurised him into this behaviour in any way.

In the final episode of the series Daniels is promoted to Commissioner. However Nerese Campbell tries to blackmail him into ‘juking the stats’ in order to aid her ambition to make Carcetti Governor of Baltimore and herself Mayor of Baltimore. Marla visits him to advise him to resign. At the end of their conversation Daniels makes reference to the fact that ‘Someone I care about’ (i.e. his partner Rhoda Pearlman) could get hurt. This causes a frisson of tension between the ex-spouses.

There are aspects around Marla’s character that make me uncomfortable. She is shown as being highly ambitious to the point where she may have pushed Daniels in a direction he may have been happy with. She may or not have pushed him into the misdemeanour that casts a shadow over his police career and eventually ends.

Nadine Morland

Nadine is the never seen (but often referred to) wife of Bunk. Rather like Maris in the show ‘Frasier’, the audience never gets to see Nadine. Like Maris, this helps turn her into even more of a comic monster. The most telling anecdote about Nadine and Bunk’s marriage and Bunk’s attitude towards her is the story he tells McNulty about dealing with a mouse in series 1. Bunk was at a critical point in investigating a murder when Nadine called him to deal with a mouse in their bedroom. She refused to respect the fact that he was busy working. He was obliged to go home where he dealt with the mouse by shooting it (‘I lit up his ass’ as Bunk puts it). He admits he accidentally ‘killed’ one of Nadine’s shoes in the process. He then returned to his investigation. This story illustrates for Bunk and McNulty why women cannot be respected- they are too weak natured and no not understand the serious business of policing Baltimore.

We are never informed what Nadine thinks about her husbands’ alcoholism or if she knows about his womanising. The couple however remain married throughout the series. Perhaps clue to why can be deduced from Bunk’s similarly firmly established role in the homicide department. Bunk, unlike McNulty and Freamon, is able to be a team player and comply with his superiors wishes, without compromising his commitment to justice.

Women in the legal system

Rhonda Pearlman

The other female character who plays a significant role in all five series is Rhonda Pearlman, played by Deidre Lovejoy, who is a public prosecutor. Rhonda plays a critical role in all five series as it is she who is responsible for getting legal authorisation for the wiretaps. She also plays an important role in trying to get plea bargains after major arrests are made (She tries to help D’Angelo and Frank Sobotka). Rhonda also plays an important role in trying to get prosecutions for public figures who have received drug money, such a Clay Davis. Rhonda is promoted by Rupert Bond in series four, in spite of her fears her work on these prosecutions will lead to her demotion.

In the final episode of the series, Rhonda has to deal with the fall out when Freamon and McNulty’s fake serial killer and illegal wire tap are uncovered. She ensures that Chris Partlow pleads guilty to the murder of the twenty two bodies found in the vacants at the end of series four, and that Marlo Stansfield steps away from the drug trade.

Rhonda is shown to be efficient and principled. Her behaviour is contrasted with Maurice Levy, an unprincipled lawyer who works for the drugs gangs. Rhonda also has a number of female colleagues such as llene Nathan whom she can network with.

Rhoda’s style of dress- trouser suits in pastel colours with satin shirts emphasises both her efficiency and femininity.

Rhonda’s personal life

In series one and two Pearlman and McNulty have an on-off relationship. McNulty’s affair with Rhonda had been one of the main factors in his wife Elena’s decision to leave him. McNulty is never able to commit properly to Rhonda as he still mopes after Elena. Pearlman complainst that their relationship was more functional when he was married to Elana.This leads to arguments between Rhonda and McNulty. Rhonda realises McNulty will never commit to her so the on –off relationship finally goes off. There are also the additional tensions of class- McNulty is unapologetically working class whereas Rhonda is most certainly middle class and educated to a higher level than McNulty. As a public prosecutor Rhonda is also a figure of authority (who McNulty always feels the need to rebel against). McNulty is also unsupportive, if not out rightly critical of her ambition to become a judge with all the necessary compromises she will need to make to advance to this position.

In series three, Rhonda realises that Daniels has separated from his wife (David Simon says this is a sign that Rhonda is someone who cares about people). She initiates a relationship with him which becomes the most stable and happy of the entire show. Rhonda and Daniels are both educated to a similar level (he is has a law degree and eventually becomes a defence lawyer) and are both middle class. Both are ambitious about achieving high office. Both also have to deal with the hostility of those who they have to manage (there is an amusing scene where they discuss Freamon’s passive aggressive behaviour in series five).

Rhonda is confident and assertive in her sexuality, initiating a tryst with McNulty in a police car park in series one and it is her who initiates the relationship with Daniels. She is never portrayed in a negative light because of this. Her sexuality is linked to a pragmatic but caring nature. Rhonda manages to deal with the low level sexual harassment she is subjected to in a humorous manner. She finds Judge Phelan’s flirting more amusing than annoying, in spite of his patronising nature.

Rhoda also shows no interest in motherhood throughout the entire series, preferring to pursue her job. This is never equated with her being ‘unwomanly’ and she is shown as being as hard working and professional as any man.

One of the few happy moments in the final montage is when we see Rhonda has been appointed as a judge and trying her first case. However there is a slight sting as she has to recuse herself as Daniels is the defence lawyer for the accused! But she is shown as contented and having reached the top of her profession.

Ilene Nathan

Ilene Nathan is head of the violent crime unit during the first four series of The Wire. As such she is responsible for bringing prosecutions for murder. She is shown to be hard working and dedicated to her work and genuinely concerned to ensure justice gets done. She also proves to be a valuable ally to Rhonda Pearlman. Rhonda and Ilene’s professional friendship is the one incident of female networking and women supporting each other professionally in the series.

Nathan manages to get Wee-Bey to accept a plea bargain at the end of series one in return for him receiving life imprisonment rather than the death penalty. She also successfully prosecutes Bird for the murder of William Gant, whose murder occurs in episode series one, episode one.

Ilene is so impressed by Omar she gives him a ‘get of jail free’ card. Omar calls this in during series four, when he is held on remand for a murder he was framed for. Nathan gets Omar transferred to safer prison but considers her favour repaid in full.

Women in the Political System

If there is any group that the makers of ‘The Wire’ hold with complete contempt it is politicians. At best they are power hungry comprised idealists who delude themselves that they are following their quest for power in order to help others (Carcetti), but most likely cynical career driven opportunists such as Mayor Clarence Royce. At the very worst they are venial corrupt pocket liners such as the infamous Clay Davis.

Theresa D’Agostino

Theresa D’Agostino is introduced in series three. When we first see Theresa she is sitting alone in a bar where Carcetti and his fellow politicos are discussing strategy. Carcetti spots Theresa and goes up to her. We at first think Carcetti is trying to hit on Theresa, but he is actually interested in offering her a job as his campaign manager when he runs for mayor. At first Theresa rebuffs him saying that there is little chance of a white person winning the mayorship of Baltimore with its large and highly politically active African American population. But in the end the challenge proves too irresistible

McNulty meets Theresa at a fundraiser for his son’s school and they quickly fall into a sexual relationship. After their first tryst Theresa throws McNulty out in a manner which impresses McNulty with its matter of factness. It is worth comparing Theresa’s sexual confidence and autonomy with Rhonda Pearlmans. While Rhonda’s sexual confidence is shown as being linked to a warm and caringnature, Theresa’s is a sign of emotional detachment and coldness.

There is the scene at the beginning of series 3, episode where Theresa calls up McNulty for sex on the night of the presidential election 2004. We see a naked post-coital Thesesa arguing against the analysis of the television pundits. McNulty, who has no interest in politics returns home after the tryst and rather than watch the election coverage watches a documentary about world war two.

McNulty explains his disaffection with politics during a dinner with Theresa explaining that Washington politicians completely ignore the problems of West Baltimore that he has to police every day.

While McNulty is at first impressed with Theresa’s tough demeanour he eventually explains to Kima how demeaned he feels by Theresa’s arrogant attitude towards him.

Theresa finally sets up a ‘romantic’ dinner with McNulty in order to get information from him about Bunny Colvin’s ‘Hamsterdam’ project in order to aid Carcetti. A disgusted McNulty ends the relationship and his experience with Theresa helps him prepare him for his relationship with Beattie who is the antithesis of Theresa with her warmth and down to earth nature.

During series four we see Theresa working on Carcetti’s campaign. When Carcetti is elected Mayor of Baltimore, Theresa claims her ‘Win bonus’ and tries to seduce Carcetti. However when he nervously rebuffs her, rather than being offended she ironically complements him on being aware of already being more mayoral (ie being aware of the effect that any

The programme makers show their disapproval of Theresa by showing that she is far more at home in Washington D.C. where she scarpers back to after she has successfully got Carcetti elected. She has no long term interest in Baltimore and les still in its problems.

Nerese Campbell

Nerese Campbell is introduced in series four. In series five she is keen to ensure Carcetti’s success as mayor to set him up as credible candidate for the governorship of Maryland. This in turn will set her up as a credible candidate for Mayor of Baltimore (which is her long term goal). When Daniels is appointed as Commissioner of the Baltimore Police department Nerese orders him to ‘Juke the stats’ in order to aid Carcetti (and herself). When Daniels refuses she threatens him with making public the investigation into his behaviour when he was based in the eastern district. Faced with this, Daniels decides to step down as Commissioner, robbing Baltimore of the one person who perform the task with integrity and sense.

Nerese is shown to have close links to the African American churches and their pastors who have an important role in Baltimore politics. Their approval is shown to be necessary to any person trying to gain the mayorship and maintain political approval. One thing to be admired about Nerese is the way she can handle a group of middle aged powerful men.

In the closing sequence of the series, we see that Carcetti does indeed become Governor of Maryland and Nerese becomes Mayor of Baltimore.

If there is one thing to be grateful for in the portrayal of Nerese Campbell it is that in spite of her physical attractiveness she is never shown using her sexuality to manipulate others or get what she wants.

Nerese Campbell is clearly based on Shelia Dixon who became major of Baltimore in 2007. Many US viewers would have been aware of this while watching series five in 2008. While the makers of the show admit that many of the characters in the show are based on real people, such an explicit referencing of a real person, particularly a woman makes me uneasy.

Dixon’s career ended in a manner even makers of ‘The Wire’ might have found rather extreme. She was eventually forced to resign after three years in office when she was found guilty of embezzlement

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/06/AR2010010605022.html.

Eunetta Perkins

Eunetta Perkins is the Baltimore council woman who Marla Daniels is trying to unseat. She has become notorious in Baltimore politics for not bothering to turn up to Council meetings. However Mayor Royce defends her and keeps her on his team as she is an ally.

We only see Eunetta once during series four when she finally bothers to attend a council meeting. She becomes a by-word for cynicism in Baltimore politics.

Jen Carcetti

Jen Carcetti is Carcetti’s long suffering wife. We know that Carcetti is regularly being unfaithful to her and it is never explained in the programme if Jen is aware of this and if she is what her attitude is.

We see that Carcetti is genuinely fond of Jen and respects her judgement. He discusses political matters.

In many ways Carcetti’s behaviour toward Jen is emblematic of his attitude towards his role as a politician. He does want to right thing but cannot help but give into his selfish desires.

A final point I would want to make in defence of the programme makers the female politicians in The Wire are shown as no more corrupt than the male politicians. That in a way is a form of equality.

55: Women and 'The Wire' Pt. 1- Women in the illegal economy

NB SPOILERS! Only read if you have watched The Wire all the way through

HBO’s highly acclaimed series ‘The Wire’ has won praise for a number of reasons. However there is one serious criticism that has been levelled against the series – the way that women are portrayed. This article by Sophie Jones on popmatters http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/women-and-the-wire puts specific criticisms of the show better than I can. Even the usually glowing Guardian blog felt it had to devote a blog to the issue http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/jul/07/the-wire-re-up-women


A quick word on Masculinity in The Wire

The two main worlds that The Wire explores, the Baltimore Police Department and the drug gangs, are both male dominated. Both worlds are governed by a tough version of masculinity where there is little room for sentiment or compromise. This is to be expected when the drug trade is to put it mildly ‘highly competitive’ and the Baltimore police department copes with the strains (social and political) of dealing with Baltimore’s appalling homicide rate.

Both the Baltimore Police Department and Drug organisations have rigid power structures, where masculine posturing and assertiveness is required both to advance within these structures, then maintain a position of power.

Male friendship and male bonding is shown as an important component of ensuring the formation of an efficient unit in both the police and drug gangs. It is a useful part of this male bonding to have women as ‘the other’ who can be either looked down on or rebelled against. Derogatory terms for women are used as put downs for men who fall short of their roles and fail to assert power over others.

Both worlds involve covert actions which require high levels of secrecy and trust. Because of this ‘Snitching’ is one of the worst sins that you can commit in either world.

Both the police and drug dealers use force, both direct and implied, to assert or maintain power.

Indeed the logical implications of the term ‘War on drugs’ is carried through in the show. The language that the police use when discussing or addressing the drug ravaged communities (Herc’s infamous quote ‘maybe we won’ and Carvers’ ‘You do not get to win, We get to win!’ to the young drug dealers in series three) betrays the aggressive attitude towards these communities. The drug gangs often speak of going to war with each other.

What role is there for women in such a world?

The Drug trade

The Wire has an unapologetic social agenda to explore the disintegration of a major US city and the failure of the US political system is failing to halt this. The show focuses on why the drug economy has become so entrenched in Baltimore and why the ‘war on drugs’ will never be able to properly address this. As part of this, the show gives voice to the young African American men who become involved in this trade. These young me are usually highly demonised and made in to amoral figures of fear in the media. The show illustrates the social conditions and pressures that lead these young men into the trade and they have intelligence, loyalty, courage and moral codes that govern their behaviour. The term ‘solider’ (with its connotations of bravery, stoicism and comradeship) is used for the ‘muscle’ and to a certain extent the ‘middle management’ of the drug organisations (such as D’Angelo and later Bodie).

The show also gives us some complex and charismatic men who work in the drug trade. These characters explode stereotypes of African American male criminality. There is Stringer Bell, a highly intelligent individual who applies economic theory to the drug trade and who but for circumstances would be a major CEO on Wall Street and Omar Little a free lance ‘stick up artist’ who keeps to a clear moral code and is a monogamous gay man.

But while The Wire allows for any number of complex male characters in the drug trade there are few corresponding female characters.

These usually fall into various categories

‘Dragon lady’ mothers

The central woman in the Barksdale organisation is Brianna Barksdale, who is mother of D’Angelo and sister of Avon. Her first appearance in the series is when she delivers lunch to D’Angelo when he is working in the pit. In the audio commentary, David Simon says this scene illustrates how entrenched the drug trade is in Baltimore.

When D’Angelo is arrested with a ‘re-up’ at the end of series one, Brianna pressurises him into taking a twenty year sentence rather than taking a plea bargain which would involve implication his uncle Avon and other Barksdale crew members, citing the importance of family. While he takes the prison sentence, he becomes further alienated from the Barksdale organisation and this results in Stringer Bell having him murdered.

Avon clearly respects Brianna as he discusses business with her (for example he discusses the problems with getting a reliable source of heroin and cocaine with her in Series two and Stringer gest her to try and persuade Avon to accept sharing the Franklin terrace with Prop Joe in return for a good drug supply). Indeed Brianna is put in charge of Barksdale’s finances at the end of series one when Avon is arrested. After Avon is imprisoned again in series three, Brianna is again left to administer Avon’s finances and Avon has financial transactions go through her (he asks Marlo to give Brianna $100,000 in order to arrange the meeting with Sergei). However Brianna’s role in the Barksdale organisation is never investigated by the police. Even Freamon and McNulty do not realise her significance.

Brianna’s behaviour is later echoed in an even more appalling manner by De’Londra Brice, Wee-Bey’s partner and mother of Namond Brice. It is implied that she may have used money which was to go towards supporting Namond on herself. When Brianna cuts off the money De’Londra and Namond were receiving from the Barksdale organisation, De’Londra tries to push Namond further into the drug trade. She bullies him to getting a drug package from Bodie to sell himself.

So while women are shown not to be directly involved in the drug trade in terms of actually running drugs organisations or selling drugs on the streets, they are portrayed in ‘The Wire’ as having an integral part as ‘enforcers’ who place pressure on young men to go into the drug trade, stay involved once they are part of a drugs organisation and carry the can when things go wrong. The Wire shows that the reasons young men end up in drugs organisations are highly complex and numerous. Pressure from female family members is only one.

Both the Guardian piece and Sophie Jones’ piece are particularly troubled by the portrayal of Brianna and De’Londra (and Jones in particular expresses concern about a lack of understanding of the circumstances that lead women to look to the drugs trade for financial security). One of the main strands of The Wire is the failure of government bodies to address or alleviate the massive social problems that the US inner cities face and how drug organisations exploit and fill this gap. A good example of this is in series four where Marlo provides Michael and Bug with a decent home and financial support and has Michaels abusive stepfather killed in return for Michael becoming a ‘solider’ in his organisation. Michael did not have confidence in social services to take sufficient action to protect Bug and himself from any potential abuse from his stepfather (or to address his mothers neglect). The appalling fate that Randy receives within the care system, being placed in a brutalising group home, confirms Michael’s misgivings. Given these failings it can only be expected that some women turn to drug money to support themselves and their families.

There is also no corresponding act of motherly altruism to mirror that of Wee-Bey Brice who sacrifices his own rights as a father so Namond may have a better future.

Failed Mothers

As well as ‘monstrous’ mothers there is another type of mother portrayed in The Wire’- failed mothers. These women are unable to be properly present in the lives of their children due to their substance abuse problems, often with horrendous consequences.

We find out in series one that Bodie’s mother was a homeless drug addict who died as a result of her addiction when he was four. His grandmother took him in but as she tells Herc , "he was only four, but even then, I knew he was angry." This anger is regularly acted out in series one.

Darcia Wallace (Wallace’s mother) is an alcoholic who shows more interest in getting drunk that acknowledging the fact that her son is in mortal danger.

Most damaging is Raylene Lee, Michaels’ mother. She is a long term drug addict who thinks nothing of selling the food out of her two son’s mouths for feed her habit. She allows her partner Devar back into the family home after he is realised from prison, in spite of the fact he has abused her older son Michael. Bunk goes to interview Raylene in series five about the murder of Devar (which her knows Chris Partlow was responsible for). Even though Bunk correctly guesses the reasons for Devar’s murder he still uses flattery to try and get information about Raylene, asking her if his murder was a crime of passion. David Simon does allow a moment of compassion for Raylene in series five in his commentary over the scene where she attempts to reconnect to Michael and Bug.

We see that these ‘failed’ mothers are damaged women and can assume that they have suffered experiences which have driven them to become addicts. However we do not hear these women’ stories. In ‘The Corner’ (an earlier TV mini-series made by the same team and also set in West Baltimore) one of the central characters is Fran Boyd , who in spite of her drug addiction attempts to try and guide her son DeAndre away from drugs and the drug trade and to keep her family together. This storyline is based on the genuine story of Fran Boyd and her family.

Both Wallace and Michael are forced by their mothers’ addictions to act in the role of parent to younger siblings. Not only do they have to assume the practical side of parenting (such as feeding and educational support) they also have to assume financial responsibility for their younger siblings, leading them into the one profession they can make money – the drug trade.

With both types of mother, young men are left with a considerable amount of anger against women. We see this acted out on by the older members of the drug gangs.

Girlfriends

Donette is the mother of D’Angelo’s son Tyrell. As the mother of a Barksdale child she secures a stake in the Barksdale organisation and with it a measure of prestige and affluence. However her financial demands on D’Angelo and her failure to appreciate his deepening discomfort at his involvement in the drug trade mean that he blanches from committing to a long term relationship with her.

It is made clear to Donette that being the mother of D’ Angelo’s child brings responsibilities. Brianna pressurises her into visiting D’ Angelo in prison despite the discomfort these visit cause both D’Angelo and Donette.

When D’Angelo is sent to prison, Stringer Bell exploits Donette’s feelings of loneliness to start a relationship. He does not do this out of affection for Donette but as a means to find out information about D’Angelo. As a result of Donette’s reports on her visits to D’Angelo (which to be fair she makes out of concern for him), Stringer decides to have D’Angelo killed.

Donette is then used by McNulty in series three. He tells her about his suspicions that D’Angelo did not kill himself but had been murdered. Donette then reports these suspicions to Brianna (which was what McNulty wanted). This will eventually lead to Stringer having to reveal the truth about D’Angelo’s death to Avon, placing further strain on their already fragile relationship. McNulty at least gives Donette some credit for caring about D’Angelo, which he uses as a goad to Brianna.

The last time we see Donette, it is in the montage at the end of series three. She is weeping inconsolably, presumably for the recently murdered Stringer Bell. In the foreground we see Tyrell playing, near pictures of his ill fated father. I cannot help but feel rather sorry for Donette and see her as actually highly vulnerable. She represents the many women who are ‘widowed’ by the violence of the drug trade (not just once but twice). This has a considerable emotional cost (as well bringing financial instability). I cannot help but fear for Donette in the long term. She may well take comfort in hard drugs, ending up an addict herself. Brianna will undoubtedly want to insure her grandson is brought up in the family trade.

One of the murders investigated in series one is that of Deirdre Kresson, a girlfriend of Avon Barksdale. She was not happy that Avon was seeing other women as well as her and threatened to tell the police about his activities. Avon had her killed some months before series one begins. As a drug baron Avon would see it as his right (if not an outright necessity) to be promiscuous as a sign of his masculinity as it acts as sign of virility and lack of sentimentality. Deirdre fails to appreciate this. She gives into jealously and vindictiveness. She also fails to appreciate the importance of ‘No snitching’. She pays for this with her life. It is worth noting that as a college student, and therefore presumably middle class, Deirdre is not familiar with the codes that govern street activity. D’Angelo tells two versions of Deirdre’s murder, one to his crew in the pit, the second to McNulty and Bunk. D’Angelo tells Bodie, Poot and Wallace a version of Deirdre’s murder where he alone is responsible for her death. He does this in order to command more respect and authority from the young men. In the version he tells McNulty and Bunk he correctly attributes Deirdre’s murder to Wee-Bey (this is confirmed by the forensic evidence). He claims no prior knowledge of Wee-Bey’s intentions, asserting that Wee-Bey used the opportunity of D’Angelo delivering an ‘eight ball’ (eighth of an ounce) of cocaine to Deirdre to shoot her. (Of course D’Angelo may be agin lying again about what exactly what happened). D’Angelo tells Bunk and McNulty that Deirdre enjoyed tormenting him by being naked when dealing with him (she is off limits to him as the girlfriend of his uncle, a far more powerful man). Telling his crew this would undermine his authority. I cannot help but feel that Deidre is killed as much for being a ‘bad woman’ who refused to accept the offhand treatment women receive in their relationships with drug gangsters for two reasons. Firstly her friend Tywanda is informed about Avon’s activities but is not pursued (although it can be assumed Avon is not aware that Deidre had informed her). Secondly Deidre’s is the first of several murders of young women with sexual undertones. She is half naked when she is shot. Her sexuality is something which needs to be destroyed as it poses a threat to the Barksdale organisation.

In series three there are two storylines which revolve about women who work for the Barksdale organisation. ‘Squeak’ is the girlfriend of Bernard, who is responsible for buying the ‘burners’ (disposable mobile phones) for the crew. She accompanies on his long road trips to buy the phones but quickly gets bored. She undermines the security of the Barksdale crew by persuading Bernard to buy several phones at one time from a shop rather than two (using sex to do so). This will make it easier for McNulty and Kima to track his movements later in the series as it both draws more attention to his actions from the shop owner and shortens the route he takes to buy the phones. More seriously, Bubbles is able to exploit his link to Squeak to persuade her and Bernard to buy Freamon’s wire-taped ‘burners’. We lastly see Squeak in the final episode of series three in handcuffs with Bernard and other members of the Barksdale crew. This leads to one of the most comic moments of the entire five series, when provoked by Squeaks’ nagging, Bernard tells another Barksdale crew member that he can’t wait to go to jail. It is worth noting Squeak has previously been a ‘booster’ (professional shoplifter), one of the few criminal roles which is traditionally dominated by women.

The other woman who works for the Barksdale crew is Devonne. She hired by Avon as a ‘honey trap’ to lure Marlo to an ambush. However through Snoop’s surveillance her duplicity is discovered and Marlo personally kills her (this is the only time in the entire series he performs a killing which shows the extent of his anger). The killing is highly sexualised with Marlo shooting Devonne in the breasts and mouth, an act which is both destructive and violating.

In both cases women Squeak and Devonne are portrayed as using their sexuality to try and manipulate men. In both cases they are punished for this. Another story line in series three which acts as a warning to young men in ‘the game’ about the perils of women is when Cutty has to deal with a drug dealer who has been embezzling money to buy gifts for his girlfriend.

The word most used by the young men who work in the drug trade use about young women is ‘shorty’, the same word they use for pre-teenage boys. Women are seen quite literally falling ‘short’ of having the necessary qualities to be part of the drug trade.

Snoop, Kimmy and Tonya

We now come to the exception that proves the rule- Snoop. We first see her in series three when she is assisting Marlo in his campaign to take over the Barksdale organisation’s territory. Many commentators on The Guardian Wire blog note that at first it is not clear what gender Snoop is. She has a slight figure, wears her hair in corn rows (a unisex hair style) and wears the same style baggy shirts and jeans, puffa jackets and baseball caps as the male gang members.

Over series four and five Snoop proves to be an efficient cold blooded ‘Solider’ who helps Chris Partlow to dispatch twenty two people in the course of a few months. However ‘Snoop’ is not seen committing any murders directly. She also helps train Michael up as a ‘solider’.

While Chris Partlow is shown to have a family he loves and wants to provide for (to the point where he agrees to accept murder charges against him in return for Marlo providing for his family) and it indicated that he was molested as a child (by his anger and violence during his killing of Michael’s stepfather), Snoop is not given such humanising touches. She is shown taken bloodthirsty delight in her work.

It is indicated by a single reference that Snoop is gay. When Bunk makes a comment about ‘getting some pxxxy’ when arresting Snoop and Chris towards the end of series four (asserting his power by comparing arresting the pair with picking up a woman), Snoop retorts she was thinking about getting some herself. David Simon confirmed that this was an ad-lib by Felicia Pearson for which he was very grateful! It is worth reflecting that Felicia Pearson chose to indicate that Snoop not only shared her name but her sexuality, making explicit what the writers chose to make implicit.

Snoop is one of several gay female characters in The Wire (I will discuss the other major lesbian character Kima Greggs when I discuss women in the police). Her sexuality makes it easier for her to work with Chris as it firstly removes any sexual tension (a dangerous distraction when they need to concentrate on enforcing Marlo’s authority) and secondly means that Chris’s partner will accept him working with Snoop as she poses no sexual threat to their relationship. However there is something rather disquieting about the way ‘The Wire’ portrays its lesbian characters. The only women who gain admittance to the drug gangs and police on equal footing to men are lesbians. Their sexuality is conflated with behaving in a masculine manner (i.e. aggressive, emotionally detached). I will return to this when I discuss Kima.

Snoop meets her own death at Michael’s hands with the stoicism and equanimity of a ‘ solider’ . It is only in her final words to Michael that Snoop becomes feminine. Her final words are ‘How my hair look, Mike?” with Michael answering “You look good, girl”. There is no longer any point maintaining a masculine demeanour.

Any discussion of Snoop cannot be divorced from a discussion of Felicia Pearson herself. Felicia is from East Baltimore and her memoir ‘Grace after midnight’ relates life story that would not out of place as a ‘Wire’ story line. Felicia was convicted at 14 of the second degree murder of another girl and served time in prison. Felicia’s story illustrates that girls and young women are not as immune to falling into drugs gangs or being involved in the violence that results as ‘The Wire’ would have. Felicia is also openly gay.

There are two other women, rarely discussed when looking at The Wire I want to finish by looking at. These are Tosha Mitchell and Kimmy, Omar’s associates in series two and three. Omar first spots them robbing a stash hose he himself was planning to rob. Impressed by this, he invites them to join himself and Dante, his then boyfriend. Dante, however is highly hostile to the two women. He believes that Omar wants to sleep with them, in spite of his protestations otherwise (I don’t bag no babies!) . It is never spelt out, but that Tonya and Kimmy are themselves a couple (again the show seems to be arguing that lesbians are the only women who are truly able to integrate themselves into the violent world of the drug gangs). Kimmy and Tonya prove adept at disguise and help Omar get into several stash houses. They often take on traditional female roles (nurse, mother) to do this, exploiting expectations of female behaviour. It is no coincidence that it is Omar, a gay man, who can appreciate the women’s skills and who can work with them without any issues of sexual attraction or misogyny.

Eventually Tonya is killed in a raid on a Barksdale stash house in series three. Dante accidentally shots Tonya in a gun battle, unconsciously acting on his ongoing hostility towards herself and Kimmy. Kimmy leaves Omar’s gang shortly afterwards. Bunk is assigned to investigate Tonya’s death and first assumes due to her sex that she was an innocent bystander who got caught in cross fire. However the forensic evidence indicates that Tonya was participating in the gun battle. He deals with considerable tact and sympathy with Tonya’s ‘people’ (family). We see that Tonya’s ‘people’ are all women. This opens up questions about what effect this would had on Tonya- did it show her a strong model of female independence? Bunk continues to strive to find out the circumstances of Tonya’s death, even reminding Omar about it in series four.

Kimmy returns to assist Omar with his raid at on Prop Joe’s major ‘Re-up’ at the end of series four. She disguises herself as a crack addicted prostitute (the most debased form of womanhood in the eyes of the drug gang members) to distract the men guarding the drugs. She knows the reaction of the guards will be annoyance, not arousal. She takes great delight when she drops her disguise and can brandish her gun. When Prop Joe complains to Cheese about the raid, Cheese retorts the consignment was attacked by a commando unit, specifically citing Kimmy pulling a gun from her pudenda as being an example of what he was up against. His final line ‘Shit was unseemly!’ reveals that he is if anything more offended by Kimmy’s transgression against female propriety than the stealing of the drugs. Kimmy makes literal the drug gang member’s misogynistic fear that female pudenda (and by implication female sexuality) are a place of concealed danger and treachery. She does this with considerable style!

Some final thoughts on masculinity and the drug trade in The Wire

While ‘The Wire’ may be harsh in its portrayal of women attached to the drug trade, there is also an unspoken but implied criticism of absent fathers. The only role models the young men who work in the drug trade have are older drug dealers. The absence of fathers leads to ‘hyper masculinity’ which values machismo, aggression and misogyny.

bell hooks, the noted African American feminist writer, explores the effects that the white patriarchal model of male/female relations has on the African American community. Single mothers are demonised. She illustrates the anger African A Kevin Powell in ‘Keepin it real’ “I remembered hating my mother and blaming her for everything terrible in my life”.

’The Wire’ shows how the escalating violence of the drug trade becomes a zero sum game, and it is not women who are responsible for this. As poet Essex Hemphill told filmmaker Isaac Julien “It is important to realise that it isn’t black women who are gunning down one another. Black women are not gunning us down and beating us to death. We are doing this.”

Women in the sex trade

As well as the drug trade there is one other illegal economy shown in The Wire which women most certainly are involved- this is the sex trade. The two are shown to be intimately related.

Drug Gangs and the Sex trade

In season one of The Wire the Barksdale organisation owns a strip club ‘Orlandos’ which Avon and Stringer use to run business meetings. This club is one of the organisations legitimate ‘front’ business. However Shardene, a dancer/hostess at the club, explains that prostitution does go on. Whether the Barksdale crew makes any profit from this is not ever made clear.

In series one, some of the dancers at Orlando’s work as prostitutes at a party that various members of the Barksdale organisation throw. In series three both Avon and Cutty have threesomes arranged for them. It is obvious that Cutty’s threesome is with prostitutes. It is not made clear if these are women who work for the Barksdale organisation or have been hired for these occasions. What is clear is that prostitutes are used as payment/inducement to members of drug gangs. Devonne who works as a honeytrap in series three may possibly be a prostitute.

At no point in all five series do Avon, Stringer or Marlo ever discuss prostitution. There is never any reference to any person who works in the role of ‘pimp’ or ‘madam’. In series two, Prop Joe is getting his heroin through ‘the Greek’ who is also trafficking women into prostitution. However apart from this there is no connection between Prop Joe and the brothel the women are trafficked into. The makers of the show were obviously concerned to not show the drug organisations directly involved in prostitution.

However there are a couple of women who work whose stories whose stories begin to reveal some truths for those women involved in the sex trade

Shardene Innes

One of the dancers/hostesses at the Orlando’s is Shardene Innes. As well as dancing she encourages patrons to buy expensive drinks and flirts with them. D’Angelo becomes intrigued by her while socialising in the club. He is impressed when he sees pacifying a dissatisfied customer who claims to have been ripped off (similar to the way that D’Angelo has to pacify drug addicts in the pit). She initially resists his request to go out, hesitant about getting involved with someone from the Barksdale organisation and dating a patron of the club. This indicates Shardene is trying to avoid drifting into prostitution. However they start going out and things appear to be going well. Part of the attraction of Shardene for D’Angelo is that she is not as demanding as someone like Donette. D’Angelo also senses that Shardene feels as trapped in their world as he does.

Another dancer at the club Keisha dies as a result of a drugs overdose at a party thrown by the Braksdale organisation and is dumped in the streets by Wee-Bey. Freamon and Kima decide to show Shardene Keisha’s body in order to persuade her to become an informant. They had sensed when looking at records of the dancers at Orlando’s that Shardene was a ‘civilian’ i.e. not interested in illegal activities i.e. not a prostitute. Shardene, horrified by the circumstances of Keesha’s death agrees to spy at Orlando’s. As part of persuading her to become an informant Freamon offers Shardene a piece of his miniature furniture – a baby’s crib (a symbol of maternal respectability and domesticity). This turns out to be more than a symbolic offer of domesticity as Freamon also offers to let Shardene stay at his apartment while she rebuilds her life.

This turns into a relationship and in series two Kima goes to interview Shardene in order to make links to some of her ex-colleagues. We see that Shardene is training to be a nurse and is blissfully happy. Shardene’s new hair style and clothes testify to her more respectable position in society. We meet Shardene again briefly at the end of series five, when she attends Freamon’s ‘wake’ with him. Although it is never stated Freamon prominently wears a wedding ring in series five indicating that he has married Shardene. We last see Shardene in the closing sequence of the series, when she looks adoringly at Freamon while he makes miniature furniture. The implication is that while Freamon may not have achieved high rank in the Baltimore Police Department or received the decorations he deserved as an outstanding police man, he is given his just reward in a beautiful adoring young wife.

In many ways Shardene starts out as a female equivalent to D’Angelo. While D’Angelo challenges the audiences’ assumptions about young men who deal drugs so Shardene challenges assumptions about women who work in the sex industry. Shardene conducts herself with dignity and courage. When Shardene is allowed an escape from her seedy profession, she takes it and becomes a ‘useful member of society’. However it is disappointing we do not see any domestic scenes between Shardene and Freamon to give more substance to their relationship or see any scenes of Shardene working as a nurse. Shardene’s story plays out like a piece of male wish fulfilment.

Keisha Michaels

Keisha Michaels was a dancer at Orlando’s who also worked as a prostitute. She overdosed on drugs at Stikum’s promotion party and rather than listen to her pleas for help, Wee-Bey has sex with her. When she dies Wee-Bey leaves her naked body in a dumpster. Freamon and Kima show her dead body to Shardene in order to persuade her to spy on Avon and the Barksdale crew. Wee-Bey and other members of the Barksdale crew use crude misogynistic language about Keisha, even after her death. Kima informs Shardene about this, to impress upon her that the Barksdale crew see women like her as ‘trash’. This is the one moment in the entire series where a female police officer uses a sense of female solidarity to impress upon another woman the need for action against drug gangs. Keisha is the second young woman in series one to die at the hands of Wee-Bey and again she is naked when she dies. The sexual abuse of her unconscious body echoes a line used by Poot earlier in the episode about having sex in ‘all three holes’. Again a young woman is condemned to death by the misogynistic code of the drug economy.

The ‘Jane Does’

Series two has at its centre an investigation into the deaths of fourteen women who died while being trafficked into the US to work in the sex trade. The deaths occur when one woman gets killed when she objects to working as a prostitute. Her body is thrown overboard and discovered floating in Baltimore port. The ‘shepherd’ who was responsible for bringing the women to the USA then panicked and killed the remaining women by cutting off the air to the container they were being transported in.

The trafficked women are from Eastern Europe and far east and probably unaware what they were being transported to the USA for. There proves to be no way of identifying them as individuals (thus they are called Jane Does) and in a final indignity, their bodies are eventually passed to the anatomy board for medical research. They remain ‘Jane Does’ even after their murders are solved.

It is McNulty who works out that the trafficked women were murdered, but he does this not out of a sense of justice for the women but to get revenge on Rawls for demoting him to the marine unit. He knows that both the number of dead women and difficulty of the case will cause problems for Rawls. Freamon and Bunk make McNulty drink fourteen shots of whisky in honour of his achievement and joke at the expense of their superiors and Cole who has been assigned the case. When Landsman transfers the case to Freamon and Bunk (in revenge for their friendship with McNulty) they in turn are made to drink fourteen shots of whisky.

Interestingly it is a female police officer Beattie Russell who was first on the scene of the thirteen dead bodies. She gets involved with the case, motivated by the horror of what she has seen.

Freamon, Bunk and Beattie discover from their discussions with the FBI that each trafficked woman can earn her handlers at least half a million dollars over two years (showing the amount of money that is to be made out of women’s bodies). Beattie asks if the trafficked women know that they are going to be used as prostitutes once they get to the USA. They also discover that there could be between 40,000-50,000 trafficked women in the USA. This prompts the remark from Bunk ‘they need a whole new agency just to police them!’ This in turn prompts the remark from Beattie that ‘What they need is a union!’ So while Bunk and Freamon are concerned with human trafficking as a law enforcement issue, Beattie (the one woman in the room) shows concern for the trafficked women as human beings trapped in an appalling situation.

McNulty decides that he is going to discover the identity of his ‘floater’ in order that he can at least inform her family and get her a proper burial. Bunk pours scorn on his intentions, questioning his motivations. McNulty discovers through a letter on her body that her name is ‘Nadya’ but is unable to trace her family so has to allow her body to go to the anatomy board. He tells Bunk feels he owes her as it was investigating her death that allowed him to feel like proper police again. He does not add that another reason is that he exploited her murder for revenge.

When Frank Sobotka confronts Vondas about the dead women he does not say that the dock workers will not handle any containers which have trafficked women in them, merely that he needs to be informed. He is obviously shocked about what he has gotten involved with and attempts to put some distance between himself and ‘The Greek’ but in the end has become too dependent on his money for helping run the Union’s campaign to improve the port and support the port workers.

Kima is the other woman who gets involved with investigating the deaths of the Jane Does. When Kima, Cheryl and Prez visit Shardene’s friend, who still works as a stripper, she explains that many of the local sex workers have been made redundant by the clubs as a result of the trafficked women’s arrival. This fits in with the series’ exploration of the effects of globalisation on Baltimore. She tells them the trafficked women are kept in conditions little better than slavery, being accompanied by heavies everywhere they go (one woman had a stun gun used on her when she merely went to get some food). However the seriousness of the information is undercut by the bleak humour of the scene both of Prez’s discomfort at visiting a strip club with women and the domestic tensions between Kima and Cheryl, who does not approve of Kima being around strippers as she thinks she will misbehave. Cheryl states that most of the women who work in strip clubs are lesbian during her row with Kima about the assignment. This is borne out by the remark that the stripper makes at the end of the interview when she asks Cheryl if she is Kima’s girl and says that she was right to accompany her ‘ I wouldn’t let mine come in here without me either- the bxxxes in here are no joke’(i.e. one of the strippers would have tried and seduce Kima). These couple of scenes, while played for laughs make an interesting point that while sex workers may ostensibly be making themselves sexually available for men, their true desires lie with women. This disconnection may make their work easier.

The unit manages to discover an address and contact for the brothel the women are trafficked into through arresting a ‘John’. The ‘Johns’ who use the trafficked women are portrayed as prosperous middle class white men, usually from out of town (thus exonerating the good citizens of Baltimore!)

The police eventually hold a raid on the brothel. Bunk’s word before the raid urging caution “ It ain't like they're going to flush a half dozen whores down the toilet!" both acts as a reminder that it is human beings they are dealing but also reduces the women to an illegal commodity. As part of the raid McNulty goes undercover as a ‘John’, and ‘accidentally’ has sex with two prostitutes in the process. I share Jones’ disquiet that the incident is treated as a joke. We have seen the conditions that these women are trafficked in and how they are treated by their handlers.

The Unit discover that the Shephard responsible for the deaths of the ‘Jane Does’ was murdered by The Greeks people in Philadelphia. So while they have been avenged, it was not out of any sense of compassion but as lost commodities.

McNulty as part of his attempt to discover ‘Nadya’s’ identity interviews some trafficked women who are about to be deported. Their faces are numb and emotionally blank testifying to the appalling experiences they must have gone through. However none of these women get to tell their story, as the ‘Jane Does’ do not get to tell their stories.

We see another presumably eastern European woman working as a prostitute in series four. Colvin has to intervene after an argument between a prostitute and a john in the hotel he works as head of security at. He can see that the young woman has sustained a bad beating and is highly traumatized and is touched by her plight. He listens to her story that the john would not pay her.

In the closing sequence of series two we see some more women being brought into the USA with their handlers ensuring they are kept under control. As with the drug trade, it is business as usual.

Prostitution in Hamsterdam

In series three, Howard ‘Bunny’ Colvin, commander of the Western District of the Baltimore police department is due to retire. Appalled at the effect that both the drug trade and the ‘war on drugs’ has had on West Baltimore he attempts a bold experiment. He sets up three ‘free zones’ where drug dealing is decriminalised, hoping that this will remove the drug trade from residential areas and lower the violence associated with the drug trade. These areas soon become known as ‘Hamsterdam’. While Colvin’s motives are undoubtedly well meaning, other consequences of the drug trade follow the drug dealers, namely drug addicts and prostitution. We witness this in Bubbles’ hellish night time walk though ‘Hamsterdam’.

When Colvin asks the Deacon (whose support as a respected community worker will help give credence to the experiment) his opinion of the free zones, the Deacon chides him for not taking these factors into account when he established them. Colvin promptly has public health services established Hamsterdam to work with the drug addicts and prostitutes who have congregated there. These health workers provide HIV testing, free condoms and health advice to the women who work as prostitutes. When ‘Hamsterdam’ is finally made public, this health work is one of the major points marshalled in its defence. While there has been much discussion around Colvin’s tactic legalisation of the drug trade, there has been little discussion of the corresponding tactic decriminalization of prostitution.

There is one last character I want to consider. Dee Dee (Genevieve Hudson-Price) is first seen in series three buying an eightball of cocaine with in Hamsterdam. She contemptuously refuses to engage in conversation with the drug dealers. In series four we see she is working as a prostitute and looking the worse for wear when she goes into Old face Andres’ shop with her pimp to buy cigarettes. Finally in series five we see her at Bubble’s Narcotics Anonymous meeting telling how she ended up as a prostitute due to her addiction. Her story, although brief, is a moving example of the grim realities of prostitution.

The series, while showing some compassion for the various sex workers portrayed in the series ultimately does not explore the issues about the circumstances of women in the sex industry in any great depth, presumably as it would be a distraction from the series’ main concern with the drug industry.

In my next entry I will be exploring the portrayal of women who work in the legislative (local government), executive (police)and judicial (justice system) side of Baltimore’s ‘war on drugs’ in the series

54: You like me too much....Pattie Boyd and Olivia Arias -the two Mrs. Harrisons (Sexism and Misogyny and the Beatles wives part 2)

I make no apologies for writing my first post on the two Mrs. Harrisons Pattie Boyd and Olivia Arias! As a George fan I have monitored his media coverage the closest, and therefore had a chance to observe how Pattie and Olivia have been treated more than I have any of the other Beatle wives.
Pattie Boyd- the Muse speaks out

The circumstances of the beginning and especially the end of Pattie’s relationship are very well known. Pattie met George on the set on ‘A hard day’s night’ in 1964 when she played a school girl on the train taking the Beatles to London. Pattie has written in her autobiography (more of which anon!) how she was immediately smitten with George, as he was with her. They married in January 1966 and were seemingly a well matched happy couple. George’s most famous song ‘Something’ was widely assumed be inspired by Pattie (this was in no small part due to the promotional film for the song which showed all the Beatles with their then wives). But in 1974 Pattie famously left George for one of his closest friends Eric Clapton, who she had been having a relationship with for some years. He had written ‘Layla’ about their relationship and would also go on to write ‘Wonderful tonight about her. In this paragraph you see the two main issues with the way Pattie has been portrayed. Firstly she is portrayed as the muse of two famous men. Secondly she is portrayed as being fought over by these two famous men. Why are both of these problematic?

A muse is a long standing trope of a person (usually female) who inspires great art in a great artist (usually male). They are in many cases in a relationship. The artist at best appropriates the muses’ voice and personality, and in most cases completely strips them of both. They project their own version of who the muse is upon them. The muse is perceived as how they are portrayed by the artist and valued only for the art they inspire in the artist rather than for anything they may achieve themselves. The relationship is always unequal and often exploitative. Therefore when you consider that the artist/muse relationship is usually that of male artist/female muse you begin ‘the muse’ trope is so problematic for women. There have been successful female ‘muses’ who have gone on to create their own highly respected art like Lee Miller or Camille Claudel. Even then their treatment at the hands of the male art establishment (and men generally) are hardly edifying.
Pattie Boyd had this to say about being ‘a muse’ in a piece for the Observer in 2008 ‘I think I was a romantic inspiration to Eric and George because I gave as much as I could to them both, to the detriment of myself. I was always there for them. Which I think is really what a muse is. You are living your life for somebody else.’ I don’t think I could sum up the whole problem of ‘the muse’ for feminists, and what the experience of being a famous muse actually was better than Pattie herself.
Pattie was also famously the third corner in rock music’s most famous love triangle, the other two corners being George and Eric Clapton. There is a possibly apocryphal story of George and Eric indulging in a guitar duel for Pattie’s hand. This harkens back to old chivalric notions of courtship, but reduces Pattie to an object which two powerful men fought over. Eric even compares the story of the love triangle to the Lancelot/Arthur/Guinevere love triange in the 'living in the material world' documentary. Her own feelings about what she would want do not seem to factor in the whole coverage of the story. Interesting Pattie repeats this story in her autobiography (John Hurt also repeats the story in an article about George in the November 2011 edition of Mojo). Eric Clapton however has denied it.
Pattie Boyd became one of the archetypical ‘dolly bird’s of the 1960’s era along with models such as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy and singers such as Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw and Cilla Black. Young women in the UK and USA had seen the confined lives their mothers lived and were keen not to live such lives. To this end they adopted their own style, rejecting the prematurely middle ages styles of the 1950’s for a more playful and sexy style. This was epitomized by the mini dress, designed by another UK female style icon of the 1960’s Mary Quant. The look of the ‘dolly bird’ quite deliberately looked back to that of the ‘flapper’, a style that grew out of the greater opportunities women had after the first word war. While ‘Dolly bird’ can be seen as a pejorative term, it illustrates how young women in the 1960’s were entering the work force in greater numbers and had disposable income to spend on fashion and music. They looked for style icons such as Pattie for guidance as to what to wear, and wanted music sung by young women that reflected their experiences of relationships. It must also not be forgotten that the contraceptive pill had become available at the beginning of the 1960’s and abortion legalized in the UK in 1967. Young women were afforded greater opportunities to control their fertility and there were beginning to be more liberal attitudes to sex (but this had limits as I will discuss later!)
Pattie and George’s story begins promisingly enough. Pattie came from a middle class background, and George credited her in his interview with Maureen Cleave in 1966 with introducing him to things (such as avocados!) that he had not previously been exposed to. Hunter Davies reflected in the ‘George’ section in his official biography that of all the Beatles marriages George and Patties seemed the most modern and equal. Certainly Pattie shared George’s interest in Indian religion and would accompany him on his fateful trip to India in 1966 when he met Ravi Shankar.

Pattie would eventually get an opportunity to tell her story. In 2007 her autobiography ‘Wonderful today’ was published. This gave a full and frank account of both her marriages. In it she relates tales of George’s infidelities, most notoriously his relationship with Ringo’s wife Maureen in 1974 which played a significant role in ending both George and Pattie’s and Ringo and Maureen’s marriages. However, as Pattie recounts, it was not so much adultery which undermined their marriage (although it played a part) so much as George’s growing emotional distance from Pattie. This was due in part to his growing interest in Indian religion (ironic how given this had been earlier such a bond between the couple), depression and guilt around his enormous fame, heavy workload and drug use. Pattie recounts how this helped push her into the arms of George’s friend Eric Clapton. Both Pattie and Eric admit he was emotionally demanding. Therefore the eventual outcome of Pattie leaving George for Eric was more or less assured. Pattie gives a moving account if how she told George she was leaving him for Eric after Eric issued her with an ultimatum in July 1974. Pattie recounts that George and herself remained on friendly terms and were regularly in contact until his death. She writes that she was always grateful for the way he dealt with the end of their marriage- graciously accepting her decision and leaving the door open if she chose to return. However when in later years Pattie asked George if he regretted they had not reconciled he said it was for the best for them both. Pattie also writes frankly about Eric Clapton’s alcoholism and infidelities, particularly the pain she discovered he had fathered two children by two different women during their marriage. Pattie writes about her infertility and failed IVF attempts during her marriage to Eric. As an infertile woman myself I find this moving and very open and it is sad to read that both Pattie’s marriages suffered because of her infertility.

Wonderful today’ was serialized in the Daily Mail in 2007. The Daily Mail is known for beginning primarily read by women and having a politically and socially conservative agenda. There are several reasons why Pattie Boyd’s story would appeal to the Daily Mail and its’ readers. Firstly it concerns a Beatle and another famous UK musician. Secondly Pattie’s memoirs had some highly amusing/titillating tales of rock star misbehavior. The Daily Mail may have had mixed feelings about George’s involvement in Indian culture and philosophy but he was still a Beatle and therefore a part of one of the UK’s most significant cultural exports of the twentieth century. Similarly while the Daily Mail disapproves of the permissiveness of the 1960’s, it recognizes that the period was one in which British culture was a world leader. Stories of rock star misbehavior from this period allow the Daily Mail to enjoy being titillating by the period while affirming a conservative social agenda. Therefore readers can enjoy Pattie’s story of rock star misbehavior while getting a message that sexual liberation was an excuse for exploiting women (therefore a ‘bad thing’ for them) and that liberal attitudes towards drugs and alcohol lead to addiction. This is illustrated by a piece by Roy Connolly http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-489273/The-Eric-George-Pattie-triangle.html which reflected on the publications of Pattie and Eric’s autobiographies. This piece while extending sympathy for Pattie condemns her naïve view of 60’s excess. Thirdly it allowed the Daily Mail to publish a story by a woman which testified to how 1960’s permissiveness was an excuse for men to treat her badly so it can be seen as paying lip service to feminism. In particular the interview that Pattie gave to Liz Jones in which Liz was highly critical of George and Eric (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-476091/Pattie-Boyd-Life-George-Harrison-Eric-Clapton.html) shows who the Daily Mail allows some ‘Men are useless’ stories in order to keep its women readers on side and pay lip service to feminism.

Second wave feminists such as Shelia Jeffreys argued from the beginning that the sexual revolution of the 1960’s was an excuse for men to use women and that it brought a new set of issues for women. Pattie’s autobiography also movingly discusses her struggle to find a sense of self worth and of her own identity after her two marriages. While the Daily Mail coverage of Pattie Boyd’s story pays lip service to this, there is actually rather a nasty sting in the tale. The final extract from Pattie’s autobiography was published under the title ‘I burst into tears when George died. Was I right to leave him?’ This final extract concludes with Pattie saying ‘I regret allowing myself to be seduced by Eric and wish I had been stronger. I believed marriage was for ever, and when things were going wrong between George and me I should have gritted my teeth and worked through them’. So in spite of all the many issues Pattie had to deal with in her marriage to George the ultimate message that the Daily Mail wants the reader is that even if your husband is emotionally distant and unfaithful, stay with him as you may end up with an even more unfaithful alcoholic. The interview with Pattie that appeared in the Guardian that I referred makes considerably moreclear Pattie’s conclusion that she should not have been so dominated by her two husbands and the effect this had on her self-worth. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/nov/30/women-pattie-boyd-relationships?INTCMP=SRCH
The Daily Mail ran last year under the title ‘Revealed: the ‘love’ note that shows George Harrison had forgiven Patti Boyd after she left him or Eric Clapton (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1370462/Love-note-shows-George-Harrison-forgave-Patti-Boyd-left-Eric-Clapton.html when she affirms again that George was the love of her life and that she wishes she had been reconciled with George. This story however has a number of critical comments on the web version. These take three forms. 1: If Pattie so regrets leaving George she should not have left him in the first place. 2: Pattie should not be declaring her love for George and her wish they had been reconciled as George was happily remarried to Olivia Arias 3: Pattie should not make public intimate love notes like the one from Eric that was reproduced in the article (however Eric had given permission!)
Pattie’s autobiography was published at the same time as Eric Clapton’s (interesting aside- Pattie was apparently paid a third of what Eric was for her autobiography). The media rubbed its hands with anticipation at this situation, enjoying the ‘battle of the books’ between the ex-spouses. Just whose autobiography would sell more and indeed be believed more? ‘Wonderful today’ debuted at no. 1 on the New York Times best seller list. The book was successful enough that it was re-launched last year as an e-book with additional material. In the end her story was more convincing and gripping for the public.
Pattie recounts that herself and George remained on friendly terms and were regularly in contact until his death. She compares this with difficulties in her post marriage relationship with Eric Clapton. However George remained even closer to Eric Clapton showing the primacy of the male bond in the rock world. She has successfully made a home for herself in Sussex and managed to establish herself a photographer of some note. It is good to see that Pattie has finally established herself as a figure of note in her own right.
Olivia Arias: the saving angel

Olivia Arias was working as a secretary at A & M records in 1974 when George signed to the label. They met shortly after the collapse of George’s marriage to Pattie Boyd and were very soon inseparable. She accompanied him on the ill fated ‘Dark Hoarse’ tour of North America that year (getting to go to the White House with him). George would acknowledge several times over the years that Olivia helped him get his life back on track. When they met his personal life and career were all at their lowest ebb. Olivia would help George find stability and calmest in his life. She would help look after him when he fell seriously ill with Hepatitis at the beginning of 1975. When in an 2004 interview Olivia was asked about George saying that she calmed him down she responded in typically self-effacing matter ‘If he said I calmed him down, then I probably did calm him down’ They would marry in 1978, the same year as the birth of their son Dhani. Goerge would write several songs for Olivia, the most noted of which is ‘Dark sweet lady’. Olivia would keep a low profile along with George, only really emerging to do interviews in 1990 when she became active in performing philanthropic work with orphanages in Romania. I will save discussing Olivia’ later press coverage as I want to focus on the specific issues around the press coverage of the 1999 attack on Olivia and George and her own brave role in deflecting that attack until later….

As with my initial paragraph about Pattie, several issues jump up about the way Olivia has been portrayed that are problematic to a feminist. Firstly there is the way that the media portray Olivia and George’s early relationship. The story of how a humble record company secretary came to the notice of one of the biggest rock stars in the world and got on to marry him would seem to be like something out of a fairy tale. Witness Katie Couric’s interview with Olivia in 2002. This fits nicely into a ‘Fairy tale’ trope where the beautiful, virtuous and above humble heroine eventually wins the hand of the handsome prince through her virtue and beauty. He rescues her from her humble circumstances. One of George’s quotes rather buys into this! "I fell for her immediately. I told her that I didn't want her doing all that typing" This particular trope has been fed to young girls over the years, telling them that all they need do is be selfless and humble and Prince charming will whisk them away to a comfortable life. Little attention is given to the fact that Olivia is a highly intelligent woman with a university degree who was making a career for herself when she met George. It also does not take account of George and Olivia’s mutual interest in Indian religion.
The second trope which the media had chosen to fit Olivia’s story into is that of the ‘Saving angel’. This is where a woman manages to ‘rescue’ her male partner from the woes that surround him and indeed saves him from himself. This trope takes positive qualities associated with women- being nurturing, self sacrificing, pacifying and places them at the disposal of their men folk.
Olivia obviously had to deal with the ongoing fascination with Pattie Boyd and the story of the Boyd-Harrison-Clapton love triangle. There is a slightly racist aspect to this. Olivia remains a strikingly attractive woman in her 60’s. She is clearly Latina, being petite, with dark hair and eyes and olive skin. Pattie Boyd’s beauty conforms to a more Eurocentric view of female beauty, with height, long blond hair and blue eyes. Pattie conforms more clearly in her looks and profession (model) to what a rock wife should be like for the media. However Olivia has her share of Hispanic fans who appreciate that a Mexican woman now plays an important role in the world’s biggest band affairs http://mexicanbeatle.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/normal-0-21-false-false-false.html

Olivia came from a close knit working class Mexican family that had emigrated to Los Angeles when she was young. Her background was quite similar to George who came from a close knit working class Irish-Liverpudlian family. George was very fond of Olivia’s parents who spent a lot of time at Friar Park and the only guests at Olivia and George’s wedding. Olivia was educated at Hawthorne High School (the same school as the Wilson brothers and Al Jardine of the Beach Boys!) and in a 1995 interview with the Daily Telegraph she said she was not exactly cheerleader material (indicating the racism she faced as a Mexican-American).
Olivia kept a very low profile during the 1970’s-1980’s, in keeping with George’s own desire to maintain a low profile himself. The majority of pictures I can find of her in this period are of George, Olivia and later Dhani going through customs at various airports, taken by press photographers. Olivia’s own reticence about appearing in the public eye was  probably one of the main reasons for the long term success of the Harrison’s marriage. Olivia was also raising her and George’s son Dhani. Note how the Daily Mail approves of this in this article about the various Beatles children! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1290891/The-Beatles-dynasty-Their-surnames-famous-born--curse-blessing.html. (I would also cite the Sun’s piece about Olivia in the Sun’s obituary feature about George reproduced here http://darksweetlady.tripod.com/mexican.html) In the many comments on various press articles about George and videos on Youtube of George and his spouses, Olivia’s role as Dhani’s mother is frequently cited. So while Pattie may be more glamorous, Olivia fulfilled her role as a wife by ‘giving’ George a son and remaining by his side until his death. As an aside I remember a couple of articles that appeared in the Daily Mail in the early 1990’s under the title ‘The Beatles Dads that got it wrong’ and ‘The Beatles dads that got it right ‘with John and Ringo (products of single parent homes who divorced the mothers of their children) appeared in the former category with Paul and George (products of two parent homes who remained married to the mothers of their children) appeared in the later, the message being that two parent families were better and products of these families will be better parents themselves. Part of Olivia’s reticence of being a public figure may be due to the negative treatment Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman McCartney received at the hands of the press for daring to share their husbands limelight.
In 1990 Olivia entered the public arena when she founded the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation to help in the many orphanages that were left in post communist Romania as a legacy of Ceausescu’s anti-abortion laws. Olivia and George did several interviews and photo shoots together to publicize the appeal and Olivia spend a considerable amount of time in Romania helping to get the foundation active in the orphanages. This foundation is still active and now performing work in HIV treatment and prevention and reproductive health. Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono and Barbara Bach were also active in this foundation. Olivia began to show that she was a formidable woman in her own right. She wrote a strongly worded letter to The Guardian in 1992 condemning one of George’s unofficial biographers Geoffrey Giuliano after her made comments about George in an interview.
George and Olivia lived quietly in the late 1990’s. No doubt part of this was due to George being diagnosed with throat cancerin 1997. Olivia had spotted the cancerous lump in George’s throat while he was gardening.

Here we must enviably come to the darkest part of Olivia’s story. On the night of December 30th 1999, a mentally disturbed young man Michael Abram broke into Friar Park (the Harrison’s main home) with the aim of killing George. George was stabbed several times in the chest, only narrowly avoiding death. Olivia managed to subdue Abram by hitting him with a lamp. In the police statement that was issued shortly after the news became public the police singled out Olivia for particular praise and commended her courage.

It would only be at Abram’s trial the following year that fuller details of the attack would become public. The public learnt that George had initially tried to disorientate Abram by saying the Hare Krishna chant and that Olivia would come to his aid first with a poker and later the aforementioned lamp. The press took great glee in publishing pictures that had been released of the wounds Abram had sustained in the attack under titles such as ‘What Mrs. Harrison did to the intruder’. One paper even juxtaposed a picture of Abram and his wounds with a picture of Olivia arriving at the trial. The attraction of the picture was many fold. Firstly the press knew that the public would be delighted that someone who had dared to harm a Beatle had been dealt with so thoroughly. Secondly there is an ongoing debate in the UK about the right to defend yourself and your property from attack in the press and the pictures of Abram appealed greatly to the right wing element of the press that want greater rights to defend property by force. Thirdly, there was the astonishing fact that these wounds had been inflicted on a young physically fit man by a petite middle aged woman (thus the ‘What Mrs. Harrison did... headlines and photos). While the press thoroughly approved of Olivia and her actions, I feel that there was a couple of slightly worrying elements of sexism to their coverage, quite apart from the glee that the press took in printing these pictures.

Firstly, the media still has issues around portraying women who use physical force, particularly in the defence of men. Women in the UK, US and some other western countries may have entered the armed forces and seen combat (whatever the dubious morality of that combat) We now have a slew of ‘kickass’ heroines such as Lara Croft, Buffy the vampire slayer, Ellen Ridley from the Alien films, Lizabeth Salander , ‘The Bride’ and Sarah Connors. However women acting in an aggressive manner to defend others is still seen as something exceptional. The press was astonished that a petite, elegant middle aged woman possibly subdue a man half her age and twice her weight. Some looked to Olivia’s working class Mexican roots, to wit Tom Petty’s telegram to George when he heard news of the attack- ‘Aren’t you glad you married a Mexican girl?’ This article comparing the Harrison’s home life to a typical Hispanic family and praising Olivia’s Latina spirit was written by an Hispanic writer http://latinola.com/story.php?story=43. While these comments are obviously commending Olivia they reveal an underlying assumption that working class Latina women are more likely to resort to violence to sort problems than women of European origins.

Secondly, there was an element of condemnation of George for the way he dealt with Abram. The press were obviously sympathetic but surprised that when faced with a homicidal maniac his course of action was to chant ‘Hare Krishna’. This fits in with decades of George facing public pillorying for his religious beliefs. More seriously to the press he had failed in his role as defender of the hearth, leaving it to his wife to take on the male role of fighting a violent intruder. This piece by Deborah Orr both attacks George’s initial actions and the Harrison’s religious beliefs is a good illustration of this
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/deborah-orr/an-unedifying-tale-for-all-concerned-702305.html
Olivia is clearly aware of this criticism and has addressed it in several interviews recently. She points out that George coached her through the attack and that he came to her aid when Abram started to attack her in spite of the fact that he was seriously wounded. Olivia uses a very interesting choice of words during her account of her final subduing of Abram in the Living in the Material World documentary ‘Don’t throw like a girl!’

I find it interesting that most press coverage of Olivia’s actions focus on her use of a lamp (a symbol of the female hearth) and down play her initial use of a poker (a more masculine object)
Olivia would be shown in a more conventional wifely role within months of the trial.
In July 2001 the UK press found out that George was terminally ill with a brain tumour. A picture of a gravely ill and short haired George being cradled by Olivia, dressed in angelic white appeared on the cover of several newspapers. The Press also reported that Olivia was by George’s side as he was recovering from his treatment for the brain tumour. In a reversal of the tradition of wives taking their husband’s surname, the press reported George had assumed Olivia’s surname Arias while receiving treatment. George died on 29 November 2001.
While there was an enormous amount of sympathy for Olivia, she managed to become involved in a minor controversy over the exact location of George’s death. She would also show herself to be formidable by successful taking out law suits against her sisters’ ex-husband Carl Roles, who had stolen some of Georges personal possessions and Dr. Lederman, who had treated George in the final stages of his cancer.

Upon George’s death Olivia inherited several unenviable roles (along with a considerable fortune it must be noted!), as Yoko Ono had done in 1980. However, Olivia at least had an adult son to help her with these roles. She inherited George’s vote in The Beatles’ business affairs. She became George’s representative at events when he was honoured such as his receiving a star on the Hollywood walk of fame and induction into the Rock and Roll hall of fame. She inherited the bulk of George’s estate along with their son Dhani. She also became keeper of Georges’ memory and reputation. Olivia was finally persuaded to allow Martin Scorsese permission to make a documentary about George’s life and allow him access to George’s archives of photos, home movies and letters. This documentary received considerable critical acclaim and several awards. The intensely private Olivia has admitted she found it a challenge to open up these archives and discuss her life with George.
When the documentary was released, there was a large amount of press coverage of comments Olivia made in the documentary about ‘challenges’ in her marriage to George ,. She admitted “he did like women, and women liked him”, and that there had been a number of ‘hiccups’ during their marriage. However she rounded these comments off with saying that “There is a reward at the end of it, There is this incredible reward because you have lived through more and you have let go of something." She won a lot of respect for allowing a rounded complex portrait of George and of their marriage and the dignified way she dealt with and discussed the issues in her marriage to George.  Rather than coming across as another story of rock star excess which is how the press portrayed Olivia's comments, they strike me as a description of a marraige that like any other had it's challenges as well as it's joys.
The documentary also allowed Olivia to put on record her account of what happened on the night of December 30 1999. She also admitted in this interview with the New York Times that the documentary was a way of closing a chapter in her life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/arts/television/george-harrison-living-in-the-material-world-on-hbo.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Olivia also wrote a very moving piece for the Huffington Post on the process of dealing with George’s terminal illness, death and her deep grief for him and her life administering George’s estate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-harrison/material-world-george-harrison_b_988989.html
Note the positive comments from readers.
Olivia has received overwhelmingly positive press coverage, no doubt in large part to the dignified way she has conducted herself over the years and for her role in saving George’s life during the 1999 attack. She does have a reputation for being formidable as the Lederman affair shows. About the most negative press Olivia has received was over a security fence around Friar Park which her neighbour the actor Rodney Bewes objected to. Bewes claimed the wire fencing around Friar Park had seriously injured his cat Maurice. As this Daily Telegraph article notes Olivia kept her counsel until after the affair was settled.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/7883188/George-Harrisons-terrified-widow-hits-back-at-actor.html

There is one significant point that I would wish to reflect on from Olivia’s press coverage. Despite the ongoing enormous media interest in George, Olivia and George managed to make a happy life and home together and managed to make as near to a normal life as possible under the extraordinary circumstances of Georges fame and wealth.