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THE FOOL IN PRIMITIVE & MODERN SOCIETIES

Drawing on Tradition.

by

Ron Shuttleworth

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Having had little contact with female fools, I may be making of myself - not a fool, of course - but perhaps a pratt. I realise that I am treading on thin ice, but it is unavoidable if the subject is to be explored fully. I ask you to take no offence where non is intended, or at least not to throw things until I've finished.

There are obviously areas where the sex of the Fool makes no difference at all, including masked characters which totally conceal the person inside, and can be used by anyone. A lot of these are called beasts. Also the traditional Jester is somehow sexless - or outside sex - and could work as well for a woman as for a man.

There are other areas where sex does make a difference, and it is these that I want to look at in the light of what I have just been expounding.

A woman should be able exploit tabus denied to men, and vice-versa. and it seems to me that for a woman to merely copy the prototype smock-and-bladder Morris fool is hardly the best idea. I do not mean in any deep or sexist sense, but because there are so many wonderful alternatives.

A female could, of course, exploit her difference, and be a Fine Lady or a Tart or a Fishwife or a Ringmaster-type in topper and tails and fishnet tights; but the other area to consider is that of cross-dressing. The male cross-dresser is the 'Betsey' or 'Shemale' - do we have a term for his female equivalent? 'Hemale' or 'Hewoman' perhaps?

Female male-impersonators on the Variety stage were usually straight and did not attempt to vandalise tabus. This was probably because the theatres were run by men but there is no reason why female Fools should be so inhibited. For a female to be coarse as a woman might well be offensive to some, but she should be able to exploit, and get away with, actions which would be wrong were a man to try it.

She could ape extremely coarse male behaviour, which an audience would accept as fair comment, and funnier for it. This could include oblique references to genitalia which she patently does not possess. ['Let's get one thing straight, at least']

One difference for a female fool to use is that men will accept from a woman, mistreatments which women would object to coming from a man. She could also treat other women in ways which a man might imply or pretend-to, but which he would be lucky to get away with should he go further than that.

Consideration of these points might well effect the choice of character portrayed - the lecherous toff or village squire, the Dirty Old Man, the lager-lout, the 'jobsworth' type, the chinless wonder - a whole range of stereotypes that are there for the taking.

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