Hail Emma...Blessed Among Women?

Every weekday morning, we at Ascot Life Church have a twenty-minute Zoom prayer meeting, starting at 8.30. This makes prayer life so much easier. Before the pandemic, I always avoided weekday morning gatherings. Such meetings would have included a five-mile slog on a bicycle to get there and then cover the same distance to return home. All that, just for a twenty-minute prayer meeting. Zoom is a positive spinoff from the lockdown brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic. Now, at last, and in addition to the morning prayer meetings on Zoom, we can meet in person each week for our main Sunday service, after sixteen months of virtual "worship" in front of a laptop. 

However, even when we meet each Sunday for our main weekly service, it would be much easier to find an oasis in the Sahara Desert than it would be to see somebody wearing a suit and tie. 

Stock image.

It had never used to be like this. Back in the 1990s, during my earlier years at what was then Ascot Baptist Church, there were always several men wearing ties at our Sunday services. And not merely confined to the older ones. There was at least one young man, quite likely on the Autistic Spectrum, who never showed up without wearing a tie. He disappeared around the year 2000, and he had never been seen since. I have wondered what happened to him and what had motivated him to leave.

Therefore, it took just one man, one of our elders, to appear on Zoom on Thursday morning, looking smartly dressed, when there was something akin to a gasp of surprise among the rest of us on screen. After the prayer meeting ended, a discussion arose on why this particular person appeared on Zoom wearing a jacket and tie. I was surprised that such a discussion arose, but I chipped in by suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that the tie is a status symbol, representing snobbery and Englishness. Their response was a quiet giggle which was quickly followed by one frame vanishing off the screen, followed by another before I clicked off my screen as the meeting ended.

It's this gasp of surprise, the need for a discussion, the out-of-place appearance of smartness among a group of casually dressed adults that has reminded me of an incident one morning at the YHA Backpacker's Hostel, located in the heart of Sydney, in 1977. There was only one assistant serving at the reception desk. Whilst the other two or three seats behind the counter were unoccupied, this staff member was busy serving a customer. I stood behind him in an orderly queue until it was my turn to be served.

Just after the fellow in front had left, I was about to approach when a smartly dressed man pushed in front of me. Immediately, I felt enraged as I saw the assistant turn to him as if in reverential respect. With no light words, I told him to get behind me and wait his turn. He too became angry and protested his case on why he was in a hurry. However, realising that I was in the right, the clerk turned to me, and I proceeded to ensure my bed reservation, as I was to spend the following night at a hostel in Katoomba, the base town for the Blue Mountains National Park.

Despite my anger against this man, his smart dress consisting of a business suit, shirt and tie, made him look well out of place in a hostel full of casually dressed backpackers and visitors. But worse than his dress mode was his rudeness, his wanting of special privileges, his right to be treated with priority over and above the rest of us. This has added credit to what a colleague said to me some twelve years earlier -  there is a change in the person's character as soon as he ties the fabric around his collar. And the change is not always for the better.

All of this does make me wonder: It wasn't that long ago when wearing a tie whilst outdoors was the proper norm for the male gender. I recall from my school years, watching the Beatles rising to fame and parading themselves to a mostly female screaming public. The Fab Four each showed off in their business suits and ties. Nothing odd back then! 

Could this connection between smart dress and snootiness be the reason for the decline of neckwear? For instance, news reporters no longer wear their ties except when reporting from the studio, scientists and researchers working in the laboratory haven't worn ties for years, so it seems, neither do many medical doctors. Neither do many office staff either. All I had to do was sit inside the large shopfront window at Costa Coffee and watch the world go by on a typical weekday. Seeing a man walking by, wearing a suit and tie, has become such a rarety, he would stick out like a sore thumb in the crowd, just as that smartly dressed fellow did at the backpacker's hostel. Fortunately for them, the coffee house is directly opposite an estate agency. Outside its doors, up to half a dozen suited men swarm like bees around a beehive during their lunch break.

I have grown up with the question of why a business suit generates greater respect from society. I remember a conversation with my father many years ago. He once said that if I was, for example, enquiring about renting an apartment whilst dressed in casuals, their response could quite well be, Sorry sir, but they're all taken. But walk in smartly dressed, even with just a tie, then their response would more likely be, Yes, how can we help you? 

Even I subconsciously feel a greater sense of confidence in doing business with a suited man than a casually dressed individual. As for visiting a GP, I need to be honest with myself here. Would I be able to trust someone with shoulder-length hair and dressed in a tee-shirt under an unbuttoned denim jacket? Or would I feel far more at ease sitting in front of a smartly dressed individual whose job is to correctly diagnose my ailment and then prescribe the appropriate medicine?

Both might have gone through vigorous training. Both might have flown successfully through their final, all-important exams. Both might be fully qualified as GPs. But one looks to be serious in his profession, while the other, as far as I know, might be on illegal drugs and whose home might be a tent in the midst of a group of hippies. How can I, therefore, trust his judgement if I were to present my ailment for proper diagnosis and treatment? Yet, he could still do a good job. But I still don't have the same level of trust or confidence as I would with the smartly dressed doctor.

A visit to the GP's surgery. Stock Image

However, there seem to be many younger doctors who have shed their ties. Yet I feel no less confident than I would if they had remained formal. Rather, by him not wearing a tie, I actually feel more relaxed in what otherwise would have been a more tense environment. Even if the GP is wearing an open-neck shirt without a tie, nowadays, I still have full confidence in getting my diagnosis correct and prescribed the right medicine. My experiences with doctors in smart-casual clothing and more of their relaxed state of mind have allowed me to ponder whether there's a connection between the necktie and the British stiff upper lip. Indeed, I would prefer to be consulted by someone warmly, without any compromise of his expertise, than to be with someone formal but cold and unfeeling.

I have to admit, my attitude towards the tie had never been positive. Not only does it seem to enhance snobbery, but my negative attitude was further enhanced after looking at newspaper and TV pictures of the racist gang who murdered Stephen Lawrence in 1993. They were smartly dressed and sneering at the cameras as they walked out of Court after their acquittal due to a lack of police evidence. Then, more recently, a group of professional footballers were snapped on camera as they urinated over a balcony for a laugh, and their picture of them was published in national newspapers. All of them wore suits and ties. 

Also, the Mafia, and many other criminal gangsters, went about their business in a suit and tie. Most noteworthy were the Kray twins, who terrorised East London during the sixties. In the street, they were always smartly dressed. And not to mention the long line of defendants appearing in court in a suit and tie over the years, in their hope to have their sentences reduced or minimised, or even to receive a Not Guilty verdict. Maybe it came as no surprise that I once read that Hollywood filmmakers love to star their villains in a British-style business suit.

Yet, this culture of regarding a smartly dressed man above one in casuals remains ongoing. But even this distinction is dwarfed by the adoration of the nation towards celebrities. As someone once said, the religion of the UK is not Christianity but celebrity worship. One eighteen-year-old female shot into prominence within the last few days, the British tennis player Emma Raducanu.

According to the Media, Raducanu is the first-ever British tennis player to have won all the matches in straight sets to succeed in reaching the final in New York, still to be played at the time of writing. However, the moment I read her surname for the first time, immediately I became aware of her non-English background. A quick check revealed that her father is Romanian, her mother is Chinese, she was born in Canada, and was brought into the UK with her parents while she was only two years old. Therefore, not a drop of English blood in her. Yet our Media screams with pride for Britain having such a talented player to represent the country.

I am wondering just how the general public feels about her. Unlike all those excited England supporters we came across while we were passing through Central London on the eve of the European Cup Final, everyone around just got on with their business. There were no group gatherings on her behalf, no English or Union Jack flags waving about, no singing, no mass chanting, as there were as we passed through the crowd of cheering football fans. Rather, just this morning, I was standing in the queue waiting to collect my wife's prescription from the in-store pharmacy. Everyone else in the queue just stood and waited, perhaps looking a little morose and giving every indication that our star tennis player was far from their minds. As I stood by the shelves, I saw a notice which read: Taking items from this shelf without paying makes you a thief.

Oh, what a revelation! Of all the years I have lived, how could I have not known that the taking of items that aren't mine and walking out without the intention of paying for them is stealing? Well, I never!

But if an average Sainsbury's superstore thinks that we're all absolutely thick, then what a fascinating contrast I am when compared with the likes of Emma Raducanu. On yesterday's morning news bulletin, she was the headline, and her educational background was mentioned, if not emphasised. We now know that she attended Newstead Grammar School in Orpington, Kent, and attained an A* in maths and an A in economics. And so the nation glorifies her, or at least, the media does.

And so, this young woman shoots to fame because of her talents and her sporting supremacy, along with her academic achievements. This also makes me wonder: What if the player was male, did badly at school and was from a working-class family? And he too won all the matches in straight sets which brought him to the throes of the grand slam final victory? Would the nation cheer more loudly? Or would he be deafened by the silence of apathy?

Ex-Grammar schoolboy Fred Perry was one example. His father was a cotton spinner turned Labour politician, so I read, and as such, as working-class one can be. After winning the men's singles final in 1936, it's said that the officials refused to present him with the trophy. Instead, he had to lift it himself. After this, he switched to representing America after feeling ostracised by the All England Lawn Tennis Club after he turned professional.

Scotsman Andy Murray fared better, himself coming from a middle-class background. But even after winning the grand slam at Wimbledon in 2013, and again in 2016, although he was hailed by the media, I couldn't help but feel a sense of silent apathy here in England. None of the street chanting that had hailed England in the 1966 World Cup victory against Germany. Could it be because he has Scottish blood?

As for Emma Raducanu, indeed, our media will glorify her, especially if she wins the Grand Final. She may even be deified. By the media, that is. Not by the public in general. In a way, the Press may regard her as a source of salvation for the nation, the raising of hope after confusions with Brexit, the pandemic, the political turmoil...the one to turn to for hope, for something wonderfully positive, uplifting, even a form of salvation.

Emma Raducanu

However, I very much doubt that this tennis player would ever be exalted to the Virgin Mary of Catholicism. The one to whom faithful Catholics pray:

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord be with you. Blessed art thou among women and blessed be the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

No, Raducanu will never reach such status for adoration. Neither would she intercede on our behalf. But one thing will be certain. If she wins the Women's Grand Final tonight in New York, then Joe Public will ignore the smartly dressed man in a suit and give all their praise and glory to the young tennis player.