Photography by Brett Dorron

Page 5

Wilson argues clearly that:

“The line was ideologically drawn more firmly and rigidly between the public and private spheres precisely because in practice the line was blurred. In theory – ‘in ideology’ . . . women were locked into the private sphere; in practice women passed through the city streets, massed through the working class districts and haunted the many intermediate zones created by the industrial city.
These intermediate zones blurred the lines between public and private in spatial terms. The department store (an important invention of the nineteenth century), the public library, the restaurant, the café, the hotel lobby and even the office were, theoretically, public. Yet in many cases they aimed to recreate private zones. The department store was like a private house . . . just as a café was like a salon, a ‘home for the homeless’ . . . . The relationship between boss and secretary was a pale replica of a marriage.” (p. 12)

These intermediate zones are abundantly apparent. Public spaces, that quote private. Restaurants like: Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and Lone Star, etc, are most obvious examples, but it spreads much further.