Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: September 2003

Dropping everything?

The ladies of Rylstone and District Women's Institute have finally made the big time. First their nude calendar took the UK by storm, then the film of the calendar and its story was glamorously previewed at the Cannes film festival, and now it is released in cinemas nation-wide. The Women's Institute, traditionally a bastion of British reserve and correctness, has spectacularly hit the world stage. As the posters for the film put it "they dropped everything for a good cause" - and now they are reaping their reward.

Apart from the frisson of the nudity itself, what is the appeal of this story? Surely there are two key elements. The first is the desire to do something in the face of a merciless killer like cancer. When the lead character's husband dies of the illness, his widow Annie is determined to do something for the cause, and comes up with the unusual idea of the calendar. We all feel impotent in the face of fate we cannot control, and have a sneaking admiration for those who march up and punch it on the nose, even if they have to do it naked!

The second appeal is to do with a growing acceptance for …revelation. British reserve is crumbling. Women, and men, who would never have dreamt of showing their emotions in public now feel free to do so. Tears shed in the street at Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 seem to have opened many floodgates. After the emotional exposure came the physical exposure - the ladies of Rylstone set a precedent for public nudity which was then taken up by some in the name of art and others in protest against the war in Iraq. Even the naked rambler making his way from Land's End to John O Groats is indulged as an eccentric rather than pilloried as a scandal.

We seem prepared to reveal our emotions…or even our bodies. Revealing our souls, however, is another matter. Every week thousands of Christians worship God in churches up and down the land with their deepest feelings more tightly buttoned than a starched WI blouse. Its not that they feel nothing…nor that they disapprove of emotional displays in public. No, its just that its not done. Then again, nor was jam- making in the buff before the calendar girls came up with the idea! Dropping everything for the cause? Not in church, surely! We could let our hair down just a little though, if the cause were good enough.