Okay, its the night before the presentation, im a little nervous, but i'm sure it will go well. Since not everyone has bothered to email Emma back, shes got the final copy of the power point and i will have one too.
Instead of everyone switching and messing on the pc, Emma is going to be in control of it. Hope thats Ok. If its not tough, you should email back! lol.
Its not about our presentation, but i thought i would share some details on my history module Victorian Britain lecture, last week. Lecture topic was on Victorian Underworld, and of course heavily concentrated on Jack the Ripper. It was mostly discussed that the murders became a symbol of social, cultural and political anxiety. Strangely enough the respond to the murders during the time actually made more women vulnerable. Social purity groups and police response to prostitution in the area was to actually close 200 brothels in the East End in 1887. This had the opposite affect, instead of creating safe area for women, it made hundreds of them homeless and result in working on the street hence making them more venerable to attack! This was done by the police who should of had the attitude of safety and protecting, but all this really shows is the attitude of 'not in our area' and pushing them elsewhere. Mainly due to the fact the victims were seen responsible for their own fate!
What also interested me in the lecture, was the fact prostitutions of the time were considered a social evil and asylums were actually set up to deal with the problem. In 1880 there were 20,000 prostitutions in the city of London, and instead of them being seen as a somewhat Victim, to be so desperate to sell their bodies. It was their clients who were seen as the victim, as prostitutions were perceived as sexual contaminators. Sometimes Women were humiliated by being arrested and forced into an examination to see what 'diseases' they had. Whilst men was left scot free.
The Ripper murders articulated the fears pf the Victorians, concerning gender, class and ethnic relations. The Murders were often used to denied women access to public space and to reinforce the image of the 'angel of the house'
I thought the lecture was quite interesting, because it concentrated on the Ripper and the consequences at the time, not just in terms of the Ripper in popular culture we know and what a presentation is based on.
See you all bright and early tomorrow. I'm looking forward to our work being finally shown, and in a way to be over.
x
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
The night before and victorian britain.
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I think that this is a really interesting point especially how Charlene has pointed out about the amount of prostitution within the area at the time. As one of the very first lectures Mark gave points out that policing was in its early stages. Maybe it was easier to move the trouble elsewhere rather than address the situation and be accountable. I think this raises points as to whether the policing at the time was accurate and also whether if it was more accurate would the criminal have been caught?
In one of the books I used to research my presentation slides, i think it was the Gary Coville book on popular entertainment it raised the idea that there is a possibility that the Ripper may have just been a series of murders by more than one person. I found that quite interesting as I have always considered the Ripper as an individual. I think that possibly people at the time would easily finger point yet no actual criminal was found.
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