A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

Lola recalls that she was regarded by Tuppy as „like this little chicky, waiting to be plucked‟
(l.1:1377):
142
I suddenly was immersed into this… Tuppy would have this… “Oh, let‟s go on a
gang bang party in Luton…” ...she was not a safe person to be with, and I probably
escaped quite well… I was taken to all kinds of strange houses and… I had some
very nasty experiences in Outsiders… but I did have some good ones, I have to
say… and it did… in some way, even the bad ones, looking back, were… probably
weren‟t that out of the ordinary… but I… I… like… it was almost like I had them in
very concentrated form… erm… (l.1:1356ff./ l.1:1375ff.)
It is, I think, possible from the above to identify tensions experienced by Lola in regard to
sex and sexuality. In her statement I had some very nasty experiences in Outsiders… but I
did have some good ones, I have to say… there are echoes of Charles‟ I knew it was, kind of,
not a great organisation but… you know… Centrally the issue is to do with the possibly
dangerous positions into which Lola was prepared to put herself, having become involved
with Outsiders. The years she had spent in an isolated medical unit in the countryside had
had a devastating impact on opportunities for ordinary experimentation and development.
While staff within the unit may have been insistent in telling the girls there they would never
have sex (l.1.1331) this did not mean that the girls‟ sexual drives therefore became subdued.
The contrast between the role expectations held about her by the unit staff and the types she
met in Outsiders is nowhere better illustrated than in her comment that:
Closeness
There were issues with the Devotees… fetishists for disability… particularly
focussed on people who… on amputees… I think twenty odd years ago it was much
darker, because the whole thing… you know, fetishism was darker, anyway… and
you‟d get guys ringing you up and saying “Can I come over your scars?”… when
you‟ve come through this medical unit where they‟ve made you… then you think
that any man who says something sexual to you wants to marry you… well,
someone saying can I come over your scars is the freakiest thing in your life…
(l.1:1289ff; l.1:1321ff.)
To surmount the situation of oppression, men must first critically recognise its
causes, so that through transforming action they can create a new situation – one
which makes possible the pursuit of a fuller humanity (Friere, 1974:24).