The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0326  Thursday, 5 February 2004

[1]     From:   Joachim Martillo <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 07:20:01 EST
        Subj:   Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

[2]     From:   Thomas Larque <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 12:26:17 -0000
        Subj:   Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespear

[3]     From:   Peter Groves <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 23:40:02 +1100
        Subj:   RE: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

[4]     From:   Philip Eagle <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wed, 4 Feb 2004 11:58:07 -0500
        Subj:   Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

[5]     From:   Martin Steward <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 20:29:44 -0000
        Subj:   Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Joachim Martillo <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 07:20:01 EST
Subject:        Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

I would guess that the headteacher just meant that the students were not
particularly interested in ballet in the general case (not particularly
unusual in a working class neighborhood) and that the actual production
was either too erotic or too sexy.  Excessively heterosexual is a sort
of euphemism.

Joachim Martillo

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Thomas Larque <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 12:26:17 -0000
Subject:        Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

 >I hope this isn't too far off the Subject of this list, but I find
 >myself puzzled as to what the term "excessively heterosexual" means

I am almost sorry to have to disillusion Don Bloom from his
interpretation of "excessively heterosexual" as a cheerfully
pornographic production (a lovely idea).

The truth is, as I remember, that this was an amusing reversal of the
usual conservative hysteria against homosexuality since this was an
incident involving a lesbian teacher who considered "Romeo and Juliet"
(Shakespeare's play - and all adaptations of it) to be unacceptably
promoting heterosexuality, and who therefore refused to accept free
tickets to the ballet offered to her school.

Naturally the right wing tabloid rags frothed at the mouth and barked
hysterically, failing to notice that it was simply a direct mirror image
of the sort of censorship and prejudice that they themselves routinely
try to enforce upon society.  In my opinion both sides in the dispute
made themselves equally absurd.

Thomas Larque.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Peter Groves <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 23:40:02 +1100
Subject:        RE: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

Don Bloom asks:

 >I hope this isn't too far off the Subject of this list, but I find
 >myself puzzled as to what the term "excessively heterosexual" means.

As far as I recall, the headmistress in question (later an Inspector of
Schools) claimed that the play (or rather, I suppose, its plot)
"privileged heterosexuality".  I suspect that some people felt that
biology had pipped Shakespeare at the post on this one.

Peter Groves

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Philip Eagle <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wed, 4 Feb 2004 11:58:07 -0500
Subject:        Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

I believe that the implication was that it was no longer of interest in
the late twentieth century because of its failure to display any
alternative to heterosexuality.

Phil

[5]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Martin Steward <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 4 Feb 2004 20:29:44 -0000
Subject:        Re: 15.0308 Banned Shakespeare

 >I hope this isn't too far off the Subject of this list, but I find
 >myself puzzled as to what the term 'excessively heterosexual' means.

In R&J, heterosexual love and its cultural forms are elevated to such a
degree that even the suicides of two young people cannot knock them down
- indeed, it is suggested that heterosexual love offers a universal
panacea for all social ills and conflicts.

I can understand how that might be called "excessive".

m

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S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

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