let's hear it for the gril...

Being a gril involves having a different mindset from that of a girl. We all know what girls are and jolly nice they are too – I won’t have a word said against them because they do a damn good job and they’re fabberlus.

Grils are a special variant. My problematic prof at work is a gril, so are my two cats, Anne Widdicome, Shirley Williams (just), the sadly missed Mo Mowlam and Diane Abbot. Sleepy is definitely a gril and so, I suspect, is Schnee...

Being a gril involves large amounts of eccentric behaviour and a resolute refusal to toe the party line if it is truly against your principles and beliefs. Grils are often prepared to endure substantial ridicule – not only for their beliefs and stance but for aspects of their life such as their sexuality, their weight, their personal appearance and their personality. Grils are often involved in breaking new ground; taking on jobs in traditionally masculine occupations or in very macho cultures. In this sense they often break glass ceilings and can, if they so wish and have big enough hearts, encourage other women to follow them.

One emergent gril in a hugely male dominated profession is American orchestral conductor, Marin Alsop. Her occupation is one of the last bastions of hegemonic masculinity – you think of all the conductors you can name and I will lay a wager that they are all male. This does not mean that good women conductors do not exist, far from it. But for whatever reason (and this is not my field) they do not necessarily either emerge or go the distance as their male equivalents of similar capability might.

I was lucky enough to see Ms Alsop conduct the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra two weeks ago. A friend of mine who is a Mahler fan (they did the first symphony) was clearly moved by the performance, stating that it was probably the best or certainly up there with the best he had ever experienced. I don’t have the same musical knowledge to make an informed judgement but I thought it was wonderful too.

So let’s hear it for the gril, a woman who clearly doesn’t wear heels (ever), walks a bit like a navvy but exudes huge personal warmth and conducts like a beast. She had her own website and you can download her doing Mahler’s 5th live with the LSO and cheer, ‘more grils, please, more grils’!