Do a Bit, Then.

" The most striking thing is that there appear to be a set of confusions centring around the issue of  'Power'. 

Every discussion so far has centred on a presumption that almost all relationships in The Workplace and elsewhere are centred around the Exercise of Power. 

Knowingly or otherwise these Women have all imbibed the Foucauldian world view in which Power is The Most Significant Prism for Understanding Human Relationships. 

What is striking is not just that everyone seems to have paid lip-service to this, but that these women are focused only on one sort of Power. 

This is a sort of Power which – it is presumed – has historically been held solely by mainly Old, mainly Rich, always White Men. 

It is why the joking and berating about the behaviour of ‘Alpha Males’ goes down so well. 

There is a presumption that if the Alpha and Maleness could be squashed out of These People, in some great majestic Social-Justice blending device, then the Power squeezed out of them might be drunk up by Women Like Those in The Room Today. 

That it will be used to nourish, and grow, Those Who Deserve The Power More. 

Here are Deep Waters. But I suggest in my contribution that our conversations are being limited by this misunderstanding. 

Even if we concede – which we should not – that Power (rather than, say, Love) is The Most Important Force Guiding Human Affairs, why are we focusing only on one type of Power? 

There certainly are types of Power – such as rape – which Men can sometimes hold over Women. 

And there is a type of Power which some Old, typically White, Males might be able to hold over less successful people, including less successful Women. 

But there are other types of Power in This World. 

Historical Old White Man Power is not the only such source. Are there not, after all, some Powers which only Women can wield. 

‘Like what?’ Someone asks. 

At which point, having waded in this far it only makes sense to wade further. 

Among other types of Power that Women wield almost exclusively, the most obvious is this. 

That Women – not all Women, but many Women – have an ability that Men do not. 

• This is the ability to drive members of the opposite sex MAD. 
• To derange Them. 
• Not only to destroy Them but to make Them destroy THEMSELVES. 

It is a Type of Power which allows a Young Woman in her late teens or twenties to take a Man with Everything in The World, at the height of his achievements, torment him, make him behave like a fool and wreck His Life utterly for just a few moments of almost-NOTHING. "

MAURICE: 

You won't be able to do it if you can't relax and let people look at you.

It's the human form, as it is, naked, 

in all of its weakness and beauty.

JESSIE: 
Oh, yeah?

MAURICE: 

What would your mother say?

JESSIE: 

She says if I weren't born, 
She'd be better off.

JESSIE: 

Is this it?

MAURICE: 

This is it.

There.

You see?

JESSIE: 

Is her name Venus?

MAURICE: 

No.

Venus is a Goddess.

Accompanied by Eros,

She creates Love and Desire in us mortals,

leading often to Foolishness and Despair.

The Usual Shit.

For most men, a woman's body is 

The Most Beautiful Thing They Will Ever See.

JESSIE: 

What's The Most Beautiful Thing

a Girl Sees?

Do you know?

MAURICE: 

Her First Child.

Are you all right?

JESSIE: 

I'm not doing any more

of that modeling, I can tell you that.

MAURICE: 

The model for Venus was a Real Woman, 

just like you, that's what caused all The Fuss.

JESSIE: 

Do a bit, then.

MAURICE: 

Now?

JESSIE: 

If you're so good at it.

MAURICE: 

"Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand?

Come, let me clutch thee:

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still."

Now, tell me, who wrote that?

JESSIE:

I don't know.

MAURICE: 

Really?

JESSIE:

All right then, smart-arse, what about this?

"I should be so lucky,

lucky, lucky, lucky.

I should be so lucky."

Well? Who wrote it?

MAURICE: 

Not a clue.

JESSIE: 
Well, there you are then.

Hey, it's like A Beach down there.

MAURICE:

I Iived by The Sea when I was a child.

It always calms me.

Shall we go to The Seaside, Venus?

JESSIE: 

I'd rather go to Topshop.

MAURICE: 

(CHUCKLING)

I'll take you to Lunch.

JESSIE: 

Take me somewhere posh.

MAURICE: 

Posh?

JESSIE: 

I want to meet someone really famous, not just you.

Who are these bastards?

MAURICE: 

Some of these arseholes were very well-known.

JESSIE:

For what?

MAURICE: 

You cheer me up, you know.

JESSIE: 

You have a laugh at me, don't you?

MAURICE: 

Just a little.

JESSIE: 

I'll get you back.

MAURICE: 

You will.

Don't you worry.