From The Sunday Telegraph, October 12, 2014
Why do we bother listening to what artists have to say about the world? This week, Grayson Perry – the cross-dressing winner of the Turner Prize – wrote a long essay in the New Statesman, in which he railed against something called “Default man”. By this he meant “white, middle-class, heterosexual men, usually middle-aged”.
These people, Perry wrote, “with their colourful textile phalluses hanging round their necks” (also known as ties) have “othered” the rest of society. Quoting hackneyed feminist slogans, he argued that “male power nestles in our very language, exerting influence at the most fundamental level”. Come again? He concluded that Default Man “sits in a gender/class/age nexus marked ‘Unexploded Emotional Time Bomb’.”
What do you think?