This is why you should buy the Bray People #2

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A note on language and women’s bodies from Tesco

What’s the story with the signs on the toiletries and cosmetic products isle in Tesco on the Vevay?

Earlier this week I couldn’t help but be shocked by what seems to be the continuation of a hidden age-old battle for the control of women’s bodies in public spaces by the (probably male) wordsmiths in the high corporate castle.

Let’s just put the two signs beside each other and ask what are they trying to tell us? What is their statement on how landed transnational corporations view Irish society?

For the opening salvo we have the the subjects of the clause. ‘Gent’, deriving from the French for gentlemen, denotes a well-educated man of distinction and of courteous conduct. It is an index of rank and value in society. Fair enough. Coupled with the word ‘toiletries’ we are left feeling that these words are abstract, refined and protected from judgement.

The connotations on the other hand, for ‘hygiene’ bring us back to purity, order, and a belief in self-discipline and purging unwanted germs. Add feminine, rather than lady or another value equivalent of gentlemen, and these words create a internally sanitised feminised self.  It makes sanitary citizens of women and objectifies their bodies in the process as spaces for purification.

Could the Catholic church have masterminded these signs into being as part of the post-church/state constitutional compromise? Cleanliness is, after all, next to Godliness.

I can’t say that I am very pleased by all of this.

Women of Bray: rally for universal vindication of desexualised toiletry products!

Longest arms in Bray

Snapped up in the Beach House by an always vigilant Bray People.Eamonn O’ Connor: longest arms in Bray.

But was there a Guinness Book of Records official on hand to register this feat and if not can we submit it electronically?