"Interesting enougth this film is about a teenage pregnant girl and her realationship with a young gay man.Thay love each other but in the end the pressures from the outside (mostly the girl's mum) forces them to separate. "
Mark Simpson has a very interesting theory in his book "Saint Morrissey" that Morrissey identified strongly with the main character of the play - the girl, Jo. From what I know about the play and the character, it seems quite probable: she has an overbearing mother, she is bored in school and generally unhappy, then, wishing some excitement in life, she has a one-night stand (with a black sailor who she would not see again) which leaves her pregnant. Then she finds real love as non-sexual love. Unhappy teenager, sick of school and family, trying to escape an overbearing parent, looking for love - sounds a lot like "Shakespeare's Sister" as well as "Sheila Take A Bow".
ISheila is probably a nod to Shelagh Delaney, and I totally agree that the girl Sheila is the imagined "female Morrissey" (kind of like the girl in the "Everyday Is Like Sunday" video, don't you think?) and that all he tells her can be said to him as well. He seems to be speaking to himself in several of his songs, adivising himself: Accept Yourself, Handsome Devil ("there's more to life than books you know", in Moz's words the song is aimed at a scholar who should get more physical instead of jsut reading), Sheila Take A Bow, you migh say Ask as well.
She might also be his ideal partner:
"Take my hand and off we stride/ You're a girl and I'm a boy"
/Take my hand and off we stride / I'm a girl and you're a boy " - the switching of gender roles back and forth (nicked by Massive Attack 10 years later in Protection LOL) is very much in tune with Morrissey's views, too. In Girl Afraid we see that traditional gender roles hinder understanding and contact between two people who like each other. Here we see that traditional gender roles should be disposed of,, in order for people to trully understand themselves and each other.
"Interesting enougth this film is about a teenage pregnant girl and her realationship with a young gay man.Thay love each other but in the end the pressures from the outside (mostly the girl's mum) forces them to separate. " Mark Simpson has a very interesting theory in his book "Saint Morrissey" that Morrissey identified strongly with the main character of the play - the girl, Jo. From what I know about the play and the character, it seems quite probable: she has an overbearing mother, she is bored in school and generally unhappy, then, wishing some excitement in life, she has a one-night stand (with a black sailor who she would not see again) which leaves her pregnant. Then she finds real love as non-sexual love. Unhappy teenager, sick of school and family, trying to escape an overbearing parent, looking for love - sounds a lot like "Shakespeare's Sister" as well as "Sheila Take A Bow".
ISheila is probably a nod to Shelagh Delaney, and I totally agree that the girl Sheila is the imagined "female Morrissey" (kind of like the girl in the "Everyday Is Like Sunday" video, don't you think?) and that all he tells her can be said to him as well. He seems to be speaking to himself in several of his songs, adivising himself: Accept Yourself, Handsome Devil ("there's more to life than books you know", in Moz's words the song is aimed at a scholar who should get more physical instead of jsut reading), Sheila Take A Bow, you migh say Ask as well.
She might also be his ideal partner: "Take my hand and off we stride/ You're a girl and I'm a boy" /Take my hand and off we stride / I'm a girl and you're a boy " - the switching of gender roles back and forth (nicked by Massive Attack 10 years later in Protection LOL) is very much in tune with Morrissey's views, too. In Girl Afraid we see that traditional gender roles hinder understanding and contact between two people who like each other. Here we see that traditional gender roles should be disposed of,, in order for people to trully understand themselves and each other.
@nightandday -- YES the on gender switching especially. I've always thought Morrissey is implying this too.
@nightandday -- YES the on gender switching especially. I've always thought Morrissey is implying this too.