THINGS ARE DISMAL. IS POLLYANNA THE ANSWER?

In the past, the emphasis in these blogs has often been about searching for glimmers of ‘hope’ rather than relying on relentless optimism. We’ve been a bit sniffy about bouncy positivity, the ‘Hello clouds, hello sky’ way of seeing the world. Little Miss Sunshine does not go down well with gritty realists and to call someone a ‘Pollyanna’ can be a bit of an insult. We are women who roll up our sleeves and confront.

But frankly, at the moment, a bit of vacuous joyfulness might actually be quite nice. Because, well, everything is really pretty awful. It’s hard to escape from an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Whether you are trying to find a dentist, looking for a decent public toilet, or standing aghast at what’s happening on the world’s stage and wondering about any prospects for peace, justice and a decent environment, it’s the same feeling – that of your head banging fruitlessly against a wall. The original nightmare vision of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse isn’t quite so terrifying these days when we are faced with so many other purveyors of violence misery and despair.

Perhaps we need a little voice pointing out the daffodils in bloom or the early morning song-thrush, directing us to notice the tiny signs that there are parts of the world that are actually ok, and that the planet is still turning on its axis. A few words highlighting something beautiful, funny or poignant can make all the difference, even it’s just for a moment. It was quite cheering, recently, for example, when a Fawcett MK colleague pointed out the proposed new women-friendly names for the London Overground lines, which include the Suffragette Line (though a Fawcett Line would have been even better) and the Lioness Line. Of course, the new names have provoked howls of outrage about flagrant ‘wokery’, providing us with a few extra unintended moments of entertainment.

THE POLLYANNA PHENOMENON 

You may be one of those who thinks Pollyanna might be a bit over the top with her relentless cheerfulness (incidentally, has anyone actually read the book?). For example, when her stern aunt puts her in a bare and ugly attic room, Pollyanna is glad because she can then concentrate on the beautiful trees outside. Her relentless enthusiasm for ‘finding the glad’ in everything can also be a bit irritating for others. 

“I was growlin' one day 'cause I was so bent up and crooked; an'what do ye s'pose the little thing said? ... She said I could be glad, anyhow, that I didn't have ter stoop so far ter do my weedin' - 'cause I was already bent part way over.” (Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter).

When the book was first published in 1914, the world was on the brink of World War 1, so perhaps its sentiments offered some comfort. Interestingly, though, it has since been adapted and filmed several times. It was a smash hit for Mary Pickford in 1920; Hayley Mills starred in a 1960 Disney version and in 2018 a Brazilian version called ‘Poliana’ was released, so perhaps it does address an underlying human need for optimism in challenging times.

EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN 

At the end of December 2023 this blog looked back at some of the women who had inspired and astonished us with their skills, their forthrightness, their sheer chutzpah. Now, in February 2024, with unbearable darkness and grief permeating all our lives, we can only be awed by extraordinary women facing unspeakable situations with grace, strength and determination.  Esther Ghey lost her daughter in a dreadful murder but has found the resolve and resilience to campaign against the misuse of social media. Yulia Navalnaya’s husband Alexei Navalny has been killed in a brutal Russian prison camp, but she refuses to be cowed by Putin’s dictatorship and will continue speaking out against him. Just this week, Wendy Mitchell, who documented the progress of her early-onset dementia, died and a letter, in which she describes her decision to end her life, has been published. And Doreen Lawrence continues to call out the Metropolitan Police for institutional racism, 30 years after her son was killed.

These are just four named examples – women whose faces we have recently seen on our screens and in newspapers. But there are many others too – the campaigning postmistresses and the women affected by the blood contamination scandal for example. And their strength, which is replicated thousands of times throughout the world, by women whose names we don’t know and never will, is so remarkable that it’s impossible to find any adequate way in which to describe it.

COPING WITH CONTRADICTIONS 

If Pollyanna is too bland and too sentimental, and the real world is increasingly hard to deal with, how are we able to navigate the contradictions? Some of us ignore the news, turn our backs on it and concentrate on family, friends, pets, our hobbies, comforting and entertaining media, anything to keep out horrible reality. But most of us manage somehow to embrace the messiness of a complicated world where a beautiful spring morning juxtaposes with news of nightmarish war. It’s not really enough to go for the simple answer and to shut out those things which make us uncomfortable. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about intelligence as:

……..the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. (The Crack Up, Esquire, 1936)

We are getting here into the difficult realms of psychology and cognitive dissonance but remember too that Fitzgerald was a great writer and that the arts have remarkable power to touch and sustain us in so many ways.

TRUST IN THE ARTS

Art is powerful and accessible.  Music, drama, the written word and the visual arts, no matter whether they are labelled as ‘great’ or popular, can all help us to understand and work through the frightening complexities of twenty first century life. And as International Women’s Day approaches, we can seize the opportunity to reflect how women’s art helps that understanding.

For example, a popular visual image entitled ‘She Rose, She Fell, She Rose Again’ depicts a mermaid in a stormy sea, simultaneously showing vulnerability and strength. And it takes only moments to read a ferociously challenging poem like Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’ or a modestly meditative poem like Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Life’, with its interesting image of ‘elastic hope’. They may resonate with us more these days than Pollyanna does, but there’s probably a place and time for her too.