Not long ago, the meaning of Melanie Bonajo‘s series of women encased in possessions was clear – here stand victims of white, middle-class, Western-world sex-role stereotypes. A few observers might have seen the series as a consumerist-glut trope, but most saw diary-of-a-mad-housewife feminism.
That was then.
From Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch:
First mournful voice: We never had a house. We lived in a corridor.
Second voice: Oh, we used to dream of a corridor. We lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road.
Hard to pity the self-pitying, especially if they are financially safe. The travails of those comfortable enough to purchase extra stuff tend to leave today’s audience dry-eyed.
On the other hand, Bonajo’s Monday Morning means more now. Even if the princess of the pea-under-her-mattress fame has lost her stock portfolio, she’s as thin-skinned as ever. Grudging respect goes to the resilient down-and-out who still have the confidence to be their fussy selves.
The princess needs multiple mattresses beneath her to soften the horror of contact with the world, with several more on top to muffle its sound. Criticize if you will. She gets the job done and is dead out.
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