The Fox in the FAQ

[Peter Byrne Manchester <PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu>]

       In all fear and trembling, I'm like to make a suggestion about the 
current `fox-in-the-FAQ' debate.  First off, it needs to be stipulated that 
Vickie's observation has *authority*:

vickie@pilot.njin.net  
> Why say *anything* about Kate's looks in the FAQ? There's no need to
> say "yes, she's a fox" or "yes, she is beautiful" or anything else.
> Those with eyes can see. It's as silly as saying "yes, she is a woman"
> or even "yes, she has two arms and two legs" because it's irrelevant
> to her *MUSIC*.
>
> Vickie
>
So far as the actual line in the current FAQ is concerned, I would say that 
the issue is settled:  cut it.

       But as to what's involved here in appreciating Kate Bush's work is 
concerned, I think some clarification is needed.  Most of those who make a 
point about her physical presentation are responding to a feature of her 
*actual work* that was particularly prominent in the Tour of Life and the 
early videos, when her *music* was not the only element of her creative 
effort.  Kate studied dance and mime, and to a degree that she has not really 
returned to recently, at the early stage of her career she was a `performance 
artist'.  Among the elements available to her was her capacity to mime a 
whole range of stunning, staggeringly compelling, catastophically beautiful 
presentations of a young woman at the peak of her power.

       It is impossible to watch "Kate Bush Live at Hammersmith Odeon"--all 
we have left of her work in those years, except for snatches of video--
without recognizing the craft, intelligence, irony, and knowingness with 
which she explored female physical presentation as an element of her art.  
The standpoint from which she explored those tools was *never* vanity or 
an attempt at titillation:  the leotard shot for "The Kick Inside" escaped 
from her artistic control, and to this day is trivialized as a kind of silly 
peekaboo--mainly because of the cropping, which is furtive and stupid.

       It has to be remembered that the context in which she first explored 
the craft and drama of the presentation of female beauty was collaboration 
with her oldest brother, John Carder Bush.  You have to connect the dots:  
Cathy in the attic with her boots and feathers, and Kate Bush on the cover of 
"The Whole Story," are a single thread.

       Do I think that there is a masculine idealization of female beauty 
that Kate is now working to transcend--the youthful nymph?  Yes, I do.  But 
the standpoint of the artist in this work is completely beyond the games of 
tantilizing and allure that girls play with boys--or that women entering into 
their majority play with the men they have decided to makes lives with.  Her 
song "A Deal With God" (released with a title forced upon her, "Running Up 
That Hill") makes clear that everything she has done with the resources given 
her by God as a woman has been in the service of simple *human* reciprocity 
and recognition.

       I say that Vickie rules:  purge the FAQ of the `fox' line, and don't 
adjust it with `beautiful' or anything else.  Those who have eyes to see will 
see.

............................................................................
                                                            Peter Manchester
       "Hear a woman singing"                  pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu
                                                    72020.366@compuserve.com