In February, I signed with Urbane Publications to bring out the book of Bound Feet Blues: The Stories behind the Story. Here is the historic moment – I am with Matthew Smith of Urbane, signing the contract on the 5th floor balcony of the Royal Festival Hall.

 

One of my female friends asked me, “Who is that handsome man you are with?”

Hmm. Regular readers of this blog will know that I grapple with the issue of women being objectified for their beauty and in particular, in ancient China for their tiny bound feet. So as a feminist and a humanist, I am in a quandary. Does that comment objectify Matthew?

Another female friend commented on Facebook about me in this photo: “looking f***ing hot”. Was she objectifying me?

I would say that neither comment is an objectification. I am all for appreciating someone’s looks, whether they are male or female – so long as that is not the only aspect of who they are that we define them by. It would be a dull world indeed if we could not remark on how fabulous someone looks! I cheated a little in this blog post. I did not include the other remarks that my two friends made. Both my friends in their wider comments beyond those two above that I’ve taken out of context were in fact celebrating the nascent creative partnership of an author and a publisher.