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Route 7: Canada Water to Deptford Park
27 Jul 2009
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HAND HOLDERS:
Annie & Elly
Canada Water 4pm
hand hold passed from
Route 6, Anthony & Mark
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We left the relative safety of central London for the uncharted waters of South East London. What on earth was going to happen? Route 6 from London Bridge to Canada Water proved to be testing our comfort zone. The short trip on public transport from Bermondsey had given us a real dose of reality - what on earth did we think we were doing, bringing our 'lifestyles' into the South East? But of course this had nothing to do with objective observations and everything to do with the 'Automatic Response' of internalised homophobia that couples had described from the start. The noise of traffic zipping through central London left us behind and now we were heading into areas where we had no documented experience. Same-sex couples holding hands were not common sights along these streets. Thankfully Annie and Elly had the drive and tenacity to see this experiement through.
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Elly said, " I was extremely excited about carrying out the hand holding task, as I have always wanted to hold my girlfriends hand in the street. However, all my previous girlfriends have never felt comfortably doing this.
After being convinced that the problem was not me, I understood that the reluctance to hold hands in the street came from a fear of the negative reactions they may well receive from our lovely general public. All my partners have experienced abuse in the street and in bars. It seems to be a regular occurrence when you are seen to be a ‘butch’ lesbian.
So, I suppose I should not have been surprised when I asked around my friends as to who would like to join in this task that most of them said ‘No’
Luckily, I had Annie, a fellow activist to hold hands with which made the task all together fun."
Annie says "Public hand-holding is something that I have a lot of feelings about – it’s a strong personal issue for me and something that I have been forced to realise is a political one as well.
I am an affectionate person, I love holding hands with my date, it’s a part of enjoying my life. And I want to be out and about and a visible, happy, lesbian. I realise that not everybody is the same. Some same-sex couples don’t particularly want to hold hands in public, just as some straight people don’t want to. That said, there is a very high level of denial going on for lesbians, as well as straight people who insist that the streets of London are safe now – I cannot believe that the reason why we are still so invisible is because by some bizarre coincidence lesbians just don’t like holding hands as much as straight people. Denial is totally understandable. In my experience reality can be just too exhausting to deal with."
Elly added, "I went into the task with the excitement of thinking I would be heckled and was ready with my replies – however throughout our task we only had ‘curious looks’ to contend with. Surprisingly, yet somewhat comforting was that there was no reaction at all from the younger generation – two teenage boys, one in a football shirt and one in a hoodie did not bat an eyelid and passed us unnoticed. Maybe this is testament to the improved teaching of equalities in schools. As a teacher and a trainer in equalities this gave me great satisfaction!"
4.15pm, Evelyn Street, SE8
They can't even decide which hand to hold! <sigh>
"All people we passed who were under the age of approximately 20 showed no reaction. We were passed by black, asian and white teenagers driving cars and on foot – again there was no reaction. The whole experience was very enjoyable and I would do it all over
again both social experiment and the thrill. Thank you David for giving
me the opportunity to take part – loved it!"
A thought from Annie, "The
issue of harassment and threats to lesbians holding hands is often
perceived (especially by gay men) as less of a problem than that facing
gay men. I have yet to see real evidence for this – especially since
homophobic incident reporting is so shockingly low across the board,
even among people who are seemingly strongly empowered in other areas
of their lives. In my experience, negative attention towards lesbians holding hands is inseparable from gender-based violence."
4.20pm, Evelyn Street, SE8
" Maybe this is testament to the improved teaching of equalities in schools." - Elly
A final thought from Annie "There’s no way I’m going to stop holding hands whenever I can! I’d love to see more lesbians doing the same – it’s such a happy thing!"
Publics' Comments: 0
The only stares of either ‘confusion’ or ‘disapproval’ came from older women – I would take a guess that they were straight and were parents. Of the two women who stared disapprovingly one was white and in her 60’s and the other was mediterranean and in her 50’s.
END of relay
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