How we are shaped by the stories we tell

To challenge patriarchal norms you need a new narrative

Did you watch any classic movies over the festive season? I find it so interesting to watch films I haven’t seen since I was in my teens or twenties with my jaded, post-menopausal eyes. The fact is, a lot of these films had a massive, life-changing impact on me in my formative years and literally taught me everything I knew about love, morality, ambition, dreams, how to live. Now I see many of them as a bad influence. Yes, I am a massive feminist killjoy - that much has been long established.

Recently I caught most of Crocodile Dundee and remembered how, when I first watched it in my group of schoolgirl friends aged about twelve, it seemed not just feasible but desperately romantic - even more so when we discovered that Mick and Sue were lovers off-screen, too. Watching it now, though, I just think - how ridiculous. I mean, yes, Sue, by all means have your holiday romance with the bloke with the leather waistcoat, but decide you love him and make it some kind of forever thing? That’s never going to work, is it?

(Also I think in the real life romance he left his first wife and kids for Kozlowski who was twenty years his junior. A different story, but still, a tale as old as time.)