Published in The List 3 November 2023
If the culture wars were an actual thing rather than the delusions of some Tory sociopaths, where would pantomime be in the battle? By rights, this curious British tradition should be a godsend for the illiberal and a nightmare for the wokerati. ‘Pantomime does NOT need to be politically correct, says Christopher Biggins,’ trumpeted the Daily Express a few years ago with evident glee. And it would be easy to side with the newspaper’s implication that panto is the most conservative of artforms.
When Cinderella marries into money, does she not reinforce the patriarchal view of women as powerless damsels and men as figures of authority? Isn’t the cross-dressing dame a sexist assault on femininity, a grotesque parody designed to put women in their place? Doesn’t every pretty young girl who kisses a beast, transforming him into a handsome prince, make it so much worse for those who reject conventional ideas of beauty and ugliness? [READ MORE]