Maggie Thatcher’s Dance Party

I suppose this entry will be courting more controversy (though who knew the Royal Family’s income was so controversial? Certainly not I!), but never mind: I’m going to say something nice about Margaret Thatcher. Well, perhaps ‘nice’ isn’t the correct word. Rather, I want to raise a few questions about the way she and her policies are viewed.

I have been to a few lectures on trade unionism which inevitably come back to the Iron Lady and her systematic dismantling of trade unions in the UK. Since many of the people (including people my age) in these lectures have been or are currently involved in trade unions, there is obviously a lot of ire directed towards her. I also live in what was once the coal mining capital of the country, and there is a lot of nostalgia for the old coal mining glory days. But I have to wonder— many of these people are also doubtlessly environmental activists (I can think of at least two, who are amongst the most vocal in their dislike of Thatcher’s closure of the mines). Surely they must realize that the coal mining industry has a terribly destructive impact on the environment.

I won’t go so far as to say Thatcher closed coal mines in an attempt to be greener, because the concept barely existed during the early part of her tenure as Prime Minister and she doesn’t strike me as a ‘green’ politician, anyway. But still, if the coal mines were still open, would these anti-Thatcherites be so kindly-disposed towards them, or would they be campaigning to close them on environmental grounds rather than economic ones?

I don’t know.

I also didn’t know until very recently that she was one of the only Conservatives to support the bill to decriminalize male homosexuality or that she voted in favor of legalizing abortion, which are some pretty liberal moves given her image as the ultimate conservative. I find these things especially interesting and confusing, considering her government’s later support of the homophobic Clause 28 — though she herself called it ‘unnecessary’— and her intense focus on the nuclear family. (Remember ‘There is no such thing as society. There are only individual men and women, and there are families.’?) Her earlier pro-choice, pro-gay stances seem to clash almost irreconcilably with her later stances.

I certainly find her the most interesting of the modern UK Prime Ministers, if only because she’s so incredibly controversial. I will say that I disagree with the vast majority of things she did and stood for—her glowing admiration for Enoch Powell being just one example. But by the same token I think her time in office was far more complex than its often made out to be.

What does this have to do with new wave? Well, a lot, actually. New wave was less overtly politically motivated than punk rock but it was still embedded within the extremely turbulent social climate of the early Thatcher years (and the early Reagan years in the US). Most new wave artists didn’t take an explicitly political agenda in their music, but much of their music and image is a reaction to the political and social climate of the day, especially in terms of gender identity. Clause 28 in particular, which outlawed the ‘intentional promotion’ of homosexuality in schools, was symbolic of the climate of British politics at the time, and its passing into law (it wasn’t repealed until 2003) represented a sort of tacit condemnation of anyone who identified with anything beyond the narrow definition of normative sexual identity. Looking at it in this light, the pretty boys of Duran Duran or Depeche Mode with their gelled hair, eyeliner, earrings and occasional forays into homoeroticism (see ‘Wild Boys’ or ‘Never Let Me Down Again’) despite actually being heterosexual can be seen as committing a fairly subversive act: boldly identifying themselves as outside traditional definitions of gender identity at a time when it was not allowed—and these were working class boys! And not only that, they did it for an audience of millions. Obviously I don’t mean to say they invented this type of subversion. After all David Bowie had pranced around in spandex and glitter less than a decade before. It’s just that they made it marketable, they made it mainstream rather than extreme, and there’s something especially thrilling about that.

Of course, it also ties back into the class relations issue as well, since, as I said earlier, new wave artists often had a working class background—exactly the kind of people who were hit hardest by Thatcher’s economic policies and the rapidly increasing cost of living. So even though many of these artists rose to international fame and made millions of dollars, like Paul McCartney they were also still rooted in the working classes, with all the attendant loyalties.
And now I’m thinking of Morrissey here: “We won’t vote conservative, because we never have.” Ah. And on that note, I’d better sign off before I get a brick coming through my window.