MAKE SPACE FOR ME

For ‘Make a space for me’: Dreams of a post-war feminist city', I’ve wandered through archives – physical, digital, imaginary – in pursuit of the writer Joan Ure (1918 - 1978). Following routes well known to her, I’ve crossed the city by bus and travelled by train between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley seeking to uncover Ure’s words buried in special collections and the papers of other writers. On my journeys, I imagine how Ure experienced Glasgow, feeling –as she felt – that the city is both a place to hide and a place to become more fully yourself, unravelling thoughts and memories as you walk its streets.

In her radical texts, Ure centres women in a hostile cityscape, upturning traditions of gender, national identity, and cultural hierarchies in the process. Ure envisions an alternative to patriarchal, post-war Glasgow a place that she felt was dominated by ‘the Scottish Soldier, the Scottish policeman, the Scottish Jack Tar’. Despite being haunted by the fear that people would only see her work as ‘unbalanced’ feminist polemic, Ure continued to write poetry and plays that made space for women in public life. Her writing reveals a unique, little heard perspective on mid-century Glasgow’s violent masculine culture and its effects on the reality of women’s daily lives. Ure’s female protagonists navigate an often-threatening city - sometimes loudly protesting their right to freedom, sometimes simply seeking private moments of joy.

In the beginning of this hopeful day a woman is building for herself a cage set on the through road of the city that fronts the theatre. She wears a sandwich board that soberly statesALL I ASK IS FREEDOM TO BE HEARD

'women's bodies are still often seen as women still experience the city

the source or sign of urban problems.. through a set of barriers'

I HATE CITY

THIS

P l e a s e l o o k c l o s e l y a t r e a l c i t i e s . W h i l e y o u a r e l o o k i n g , y o u m i g h t a s w e l l a l s o l i s t e n , l i n g e r a n d t h i n k a b o u t w h a t y o u s e e .

4a(new journey forth)

Return Steps up front seat look the city unfolds

spires jostle high rises

competing visions for the skyline

Bad chest man I cannae shake it

acityisamillionthingscolliding Sanctuary?

Ack them? Part ownership?

Exoskeleton - building Lego blocks

One bedroom separate?

Aye that’s awright

Boiler’s bust but I make do.

exhale

bottles and bottles and bottles

bottles and bottles and bottles

stacks and stacks wholesale

mottled legs flaunting the boldness of youth in this weather

Desire line over wasteland, snaking towards railway arches. Feet yearning for new directions.

Makes me shiver just looking

JODJJT [JOLT]wheeldownpothole at her a gurgle a hshhhh a wraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

Did ye see the fella that won the American lottery, a billion Too much money man. Mind that binman that won the lotto? He’s gutting fish now

(yawn audible stale cigarettes undertone of lager) Standstill

SECONDHAND - WE BUY GOLD - WE LEND MONEY

Mccrispy Tongues

suck teeth. Tsssk. Sideyes. A mother’s flustered hsh hsh hsh. Heaves up Hope Street, wheezing. the undulating edges of the city. Turbine blades slice brooding bluegrey expanse enfolding wildness beyond the city’s lonely limits

Heaves up up up

If ye say something to someone when yer drunk yer tellin the truth, fact.

Seeyapalcatchyoulaterbigmanyerbyeby

Teenage whispers rising to a shriek bending Glaswegian accents into beautiful new shapes

There was tequila and there was dancing. Then I woke up this morning and I was sick

scuse me. shift seat. don’t think about the.no.don’t think about the body heat

flickscrollflickscroll flicdjsg zxxxxlvv

Still the centre? Yes No

Over the M8 motorway city cannibalises itselfhighrisessoartomeetskyline exhale dreaming of exhale better days

High rise and lurching like a drunkard

West now

Ingerasul meu

Dragostea meeeeeuuuu

Giggles and a man’s cough

Order. (eyes down)

Blue dot inches across white grid. Two to go and then dot dot dot dot. So much is missed —-------

A map. An intention. A desire. A destination. Look the Is that you?

Screen black

Isthis your Isthisyourstop stop stumbling i’m off i’m step step stumbling grip lose footing i step i leap watch your step I said watch your step

‘When considering a public transport system from a feminist perspective, it must also be reflective of the distinct ways in which women, when compared to men, travel around a city… Women often follow more complicated routes with multiple stops and connections, known as trip-chaining, due to persisting gender roles that place disproportionate responsibilities for care and unpaid domestic tasks on women.

In our survey, 67% of women and non-binary people indicated that they often felt unsafe or uncomfortable on buses in Glasgow. Respondents felt that their safety was being threatened by three main behaviours:

1 Unsolicited behaviour from men, both verbal and physical

2 Anti-social behaviour, whether being drunk or participating in fights on the bus, also often from men

3 Encroaching behaviour on a woman or non-binary person’s personal space from passengers'

Make Space for Me: Dreams of a Post-War Feminist City

Supported by Women Make Cities, an interdisciplinary research network based at the University of Edinburgh

To find out more, visit www.lottiewhalen.com/makespaceforme

References

p6 -7 Leslie Kern, Feminist City

p6 Joan Ure 'HEADLINE!

p8 Joan Ure 'Glasgow Easter 1968'

p10-14 Lottie Whalen, 4a (New Journey Forth) - a response to Joan Ure

p13 Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

p16 crae ritchie 'Changeling City'

p17 Young Women Lead Report

2021 (available via YWCA

Scotland's website)

For whom are cities made?