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Woman's Hour

Weekend Woman's Hour: Loneliness & health, Concepts of Renaissance beauty & Rock Follies musical

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

All this week on Woman’s Hour we’ve been discussing the topic of loneliness as women and young people are statistically more likely to experience it. We hear from the psychiatrist Dr Farhana Mann from UCL about the impact of loneliness on our health.

Jodie Ounsley is the world’s first ever deaf female rugby sevens international player, and she was part of the Woman’s Hour Power List of women in sport. She also uses TikTok to show others what it’s like to live with hearing loss. She talks about being a sportswoman, as well as one of the brand new TV Gladiators.

The children’s charity NSPCC says that its Helpline received over 1,000 contacts last year about children experiencing coercive and controlling behaviour, a form of domestic abuse. The school summer holidays can be a particularly difficult time for some of these children. If you are worried about someone, what should you do? We hear from Paddi Vint, Development Manager for the NSPCC and a woman we call Margaret, who experienced coercive control in a previous relationship.

Would you use fig and pine nut hand scrub? Or perhaps some tree gum anti-wrinkle cream? Just a few of the 16th century beauty recipes Professor Jill Burke has included in her new book, How to be a Renaissance Woman. Jill discusses 16th century women’s body anxieties and the men who wrote beauty tips for them.

Actor and writer Georgie Grier has shared a post on social media after her opening show at the Edinburgh Fringe had just one person in the audience. She’s had replies of support and encouragement from thousands of people, including comedian Jason Manford. She tells us what it was like to perform to one person, and how she feels about the reaction she’s getting.

Rock Follies was a 1970s TV series about an all-female rock band, The Little Ladies, trying to make their mark on a male-dominated music industry. A new musical adapted from the TV series is currently on in Chichester. We hear from Rula Lenska, who played Q in the original TV series, and Zizi Strallen, who has taken on the stage role.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and a very warm welcome to Weekend Woman's Hour with me, Anita Rani.

0:04.9

This is where we gather up the most interesting things on the programme from the week

0:08.6

and put them all in one place just for you. Call them the highlights if you like.

0:13.6

Coming up this afternoon, Renee Sons beauty standards, how do they compare to beauty standards today?

0:19.4

You weren't allowed to be too fat and you weren't allowed to be too thin.

0:23.0

So basically these pressures on women haven't changed. The specific kind of things that you

0:27.4

have to be might have changed, but there's been pressures at least since the 16th century.

0:31.2

I think the 16th century was particularly their flashpoint for a lot of these

0:35.5

searches on women to be beautiful coming together. Plus the professional rugby player,

0:39.6

Jodie Owensley, on what it's like to live life as a sportswoman with hearing loss.

0:44.3

At the minute, like I'm the only deaf female rugby player to represent England 7s, which,

0:50.6

yeah, that's amazing for me, but I don't want to be the first person. I'd love for other people,

0:55.0

so I feel like they can do the same. So I feel like we're still, I've got a long way to go,

0:59.0

but I think that's why I'm so passionate of trying to do my best to get it out there and just

1:03.4

raise that awareness along the way. As the Edinburgh fringe opened this week, we hear from actor and

1:08.8

writer Georgie Greer, who opened her one-woman play, Sunset's at the fringe, and only one person

1:15.6

came to watch. And we have music and chat from Rula Lenska and Zizi Strallon on playing the

1:20.5

character Q in the TV show and stage play Rock Follies. So grab yourself a drink and get comfy.

1:27.6

Now, loneliness is this something you feel? Have there been particular times in your life when

1:33.6

you felt lonely at the others? Well, what helped? We've been discussing loneliness all week.

1:39.3

On Monday, we heard from Rachel and Beth, two women in their 30s, who say they are lonely.

1:43.8

The stats tell us women and young people in particular are likely to say they're lonely.

...

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