{"id":186,"date":"2011-03-30T15:03:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T13:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/?p=186"},"modified":"2011-03-30T15:03:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T13:03:25","slug":"whos-elizas-mystery-stylist-colonel-pickerings-queer-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/2011\/03\/30\/whos-elizas-mystery-stylist-colonel-pickerings-queer-role\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO\u2019S ELIZA\u2019S MYSTERY STYLIST? (COLONEL PICKERING\u2019S QUEER ROLE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tI show to my first year students the glamourous Ascot sequence of My Fair Lady<\/em> and the moment I write \u2018Cecil Beaton\u2019 on the blackboard, I wonder once more why Shaw neglects to explain in further detail Col. Pickering\u2019s role in Eliza\u2019s transformation. We do know he is the one paying for the whole experiment, as he bets with Higgins, precisely, the expenses. Yet, Shaw is so engrossed by Eliza\u2019s relationship with her impatient phonetics teacher (speech therapist, rather), that he forgets to explain her equally spectacular bodily transformation.<\/p>\n

\tWhoever is responsible for that works fast, as by Act III Eliza, a pretty girl literally covered in uglifying gutter grime until Act II, already looks like a lady (her dreadful small talk, though, betrays her origins). Perhaps Shaw was thus making the point that anyone can pick up the right classy clothes, but the more I read Pygmalion<\/em>, the more I think that that awful film, Pretty Woman<\/em>, got this aspect of female metamorphosis right on, with Julia Robert\u2019s famous shopping spree on Rodeo Drive. Now, whereas Cecil Beaton got all the credit he deserved for lovely Audrey Hepburn\u2019s marvellous look in My Fair Lady<\/em>, in the play Eliza-Cinderella\u2019s fairy godmother goes uncredited, though she must have one. Remember what she wears when she first knocks on Higgins\u2019 door… My students suggested Mrs. Pearce, but there\u2019s nothing to explain why Higgins\u2019 sober housekeeper should have such fine taste. Higgins himself dresses badly and knows nothing at all about women\u2019s clothes. His mother, the elegant Mrs. Higgins, meets Eliza once her outward transformation is accomplished. This leaves us with only one candidate to be Eliza\u2019s secret stylist: Colonel Pickering (um, one wonders what went on in the British military abroad…).<\/p>\n

\tI\u2019m not the first reader to notice that Pickering and Higgins form one of those happy, socially accepted, pre-gay bachelor couples (think of Holmes and Watson). See how romantic this sounds: Pickering has travelled all the way from India to London, just to meet Higgins, his hero phonetician. Once he sets the bet on Eliza in motion and the girl is admitted into Higgins\u2019 house \u2013not without Mrs. Pearce\u2019s misgivings, soon confirmed by blackmail from Eliza\u2019s father\u2013 Pickering quickly moves in. Mrs Higgins sees in this a perfect arrangement, worrying instead, like Mrs Pearce, about Eliza\u2019s (sexual) function in her son\u2019s household. Pickering himself seems also anxious to prevent Higgins from touching his pupil… I\u2019m aware that by suggesting that Pickering is Eliza\u2019s fairy godfather I\u2019m using a politically very incorrect word to out him. It is far from my intention to sound homophobic, which I\u2019m not at all. I do intend, rather, to bring Pickering into the ranks of the queer stylists who, like Beaton, give our sad heterosexual world the glamour it so badly needs (Is this homophobic? Cliched?). <\/p>\n

Shaw would surely give me a good show of his famous Irish irascibility if he could read this, but if his homophobia prevented him from making Pickering openly gay this is his fault not mine. Perhaps, only a homophobic, misogynistic man would insist on making the abusive Higgins the main focus of Eliza\u2019s transformation and not the gentle-man who enhances her good looks and, above all, her self-esteem. By treating Eliza with the respect any person deserves, Pickering accomplishes far more than Higgins, who clearly could take a few lessons from his good friend. It is in order to protect Higgins\u2019 masculinist allure, however, that Shaw pushes Pickering to the background, leaving him closeted. And Eliza all dressed up but not quite her own woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I show to my first year students the glamourous Ascot sequence of My Fair Lady and the moment I write \u2018Cecil Beaton\u2019 on the blackboard, I wonder once more why Shaw neglects to explain in further detail Col. Pickering\u2019s role in Eliza\u2019s transformation. We do know he is the one paying for the whole experiment, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theatre","tag-gender-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}