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

This can perhaps be understood by considering Lennard Davis‟ description of „the normal
ideal body‟:
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The normal ideal body is the one we see on the screen. It is the commodified body of
the eroticised male or female star. This body is not actually the norm, but it is the
fantasized, hypostasized body of commodified desire (Davis, 1995:154).
While Davis describes big screen representations, I suggest we can use „the normal ideal
body‟ to describe the bodies we see modelling the latest designs plastered on the walls of
high street clothes shops. While these are not the bodies of „real people‟ (hence the shopper‟s
feelings of inadequacy when measuring herself against them) but an idealised version, they
must be recognisable as close enough to the norm otherwise the illusion of attaining this
ideal would be revealed as a falsehood. The perpetual personal investment of consumers in
this illusion must be secured so that they keep on purchasing. The impaired body has no role
other than as something negative against which the normal body evaluates its own image.
After we left Marks and Spencer‟s, Hazel and I continued our search for slippers in British
Home Stores. Here Hazel found a pair that she liked and made her purchase. On our way out
of the shop, I made a note of what I saw:
a woman at the door shakes a bucket for Children in Need while, with her other
hand, she gives out flyers that say BHS an extra 20% off EVERYTHING
I am not sure I have ever seen such a literal entwining of the symbols of charity and
commerce. The bucket held by the one hand offered shoppers the opportunity to remind
themselves of their own blessedness. The flyers handed out by the other encouraged them to
invest further within a system which always fails to satisfy.
I do not know whether the woman was being paid or was doing this voluntarily. The fact that
she was handing out promotional flyers for British Home Stores makes me hope that she was
being remunerated. On the other hand, if she was a member of BHS staff the ploy of using
Children in Need to promote a sale indicates extreme cynicism. Either way, while she shook
her bucket on behalf of those she presumably considers less fortunate, her own position
appeared absurd.
Brian: 50 th Birthday Party
Head into Brighton