What the Butler Saw

As a young filly, growing up and all that, I had a collection of French Postcards -also known as "What the Butler Saw". I thought that I was immensely sophisticated and that they were post modern, funny and wonderfully camp. I proudly displayed them on the walls of my first flat, along with the Klimt-reproductions. I had them all in a nook in the flat that I painted in burgundy and furnished with a naff red velvet sofa, turn of the century dark, English coffee table and a fully functioning Russian samovar, from which I would serve tea to any guests.

Yes, I am afraid I was like that for quite some time. But, je ne regrette rien, as people are wont to say. What would our old age be if we couldn't tell hilarious stories of how pretentious we used to be? I called the nook, "My Imperial Russian Bordello Corner" and was quite proud of it. I was not yet clever enough to realize why male callers always seemed to get the wrong idea ...

As I grew older, I started to see the cards in a different light. Many of the girls were obviously not very old. Many of them looked poorly fed. And then it struck me: yes, they were all dead now. Hopefully of old age. But at that moment, when they were frozen in time by silver nitrate, they were probably worried about where their next meal would come from, likely a bit humiliated and definitely paid a pittance for their trouble.

That epiphany made me think that there is more than one direction from where to approach a problem, a phenomenon or a riddle. I started turning things over in my head. I ask these questions every day: "Whom will it benefit?", "Whom will it hurt?", "Who will have to clean up afterwards?" and "Whose voice is missing from the choir?".

Young exploited women, are young exploited women whether they are born in Victorian times or Thatcherian times.

And don't give me Jordan and Jodie. For every Jordan and Jodie, there are tens of thousands of girls who are paid a pittance, who are humiliated by people telling them to lose weight or buy boobs or go blond and who wonder where their next meal will come from and if they will feel comfortable eating it.

I am generally a cowardly thing. I can't say I have made much difference. I do feel, however, that we owe it, whether we dare to act or not, to see all the people and not pretend that some never existed. I have been Whatthebutlersaw since 2001, I think it is a good name for a beholder.


































Dare to think: How old am I?