Parody of the Party

The other week I went to a parody of the party 'social' at uni; this meant that everyone had to dress as their political affiliation (it was a politics social...). I didn't have a clue what to go as, i mean.. i am conservative,  but what does that mean i go as? In the end i just dressed in blue and, as a joke, printed out a Maggie Thatcher mask. This seemed like the best thing to do because it would be obvious what i was - meaning i wouldn't have to give the awkward explanation of what i was meant to be and then just get given awkward looks, whereas if i just wore blue people could partially think i was just depressed...

So, i set off to the bar, dressed from head to toe in blue with my mask on - although it was the best mask for looking out of so i had to put it on the back of my head. I had told a few friends what i was going as and they had just laughed and said 'that's brave'. I had shaken this off as a joke, thinking nothing of it, however when i got to the social i realised that this was no joke... Quite the contrary as soon as i walked in i was already getting bizarre looks and evil stares.

Now, i know that i grew up in a sort of bubble, where i live there wasn't even an local election last year because no one stood against the conservatives. So i am just used to no one being that against Thatcher... Even people who are Labour and Liberal still seem to respect her. It probably isn't just because of where i live, but also because non of the people i know at home are as politically inclined. So really doing a politics degree at uni i should have seen the whole thatcher hatred coming...

One of the funniest things that happened in the course of the night was a conversation between me and two bartenders. I was talking to a group of people and suddenly heard laughter behind me, so turned around to see two of the bartenders looking at me and saying "you literally are a two-faced bitch! No offense.." (They soon reassured me that it was nothing to do with me being a bitch personally, purely because Thatcher was, to them, a bitch). So there it was, two complete strangers felt that because i was wearing a mask with Thatcher on it they were suddenly able to call me a two faced bitch! Of course i saw the funny side of it, but that didn't make it any more shocking at the time.

If i thought that the bartenders were bad i had no clue about what was coming for the rest of the night. At one point i found myself surrounded by a group of people who turned out to be Marxists - obviously not fans of Thatcher... They were so shocked that i was a supporter of Thatcher and actually seemed insulted that i was wearing her face on the back of my head. I quickly reassured them that i didn't particularly support Thatcher, that it was just an idea i had that i thought would be apt for the social. I quickly made my way out of that particular group i managed to stay away from them for the rest of then night.

What i was most shocked about was the fact that multiple people were dressed as Sarkozy and Palin, yet that was fine because they were obviously joking, whereas me with a Thatcher mask meant that i was obviously a keen Thatcherite and supported all of her policies and therefore hated the North (which seeing as i was surrounded by Northerners wasn't a good thing).

Now i know i'm making this evening sound worse than it was, the majority of people (after me explaining that it was a joke) did see the funny side, even if a few people obviously didn't find it funny... But it was just such a different reaction than i had imagined. What was amusing was that the next day when photos appeared from the event i found that there were more of the back of my head (with my mask) than with me. Random people that i hadn't even talked to had secretly posed with the back of my head!

So although I definitely don't regret wearing the mask, I was still shocked at the response and probably won't do it again in the future. It was a great starting point for conversations, but for certain people it meant it was a definite ending point. It surprisingly took me a year to work out that people doing a politics degree actually take offense when people support something that they hate.