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Lesley Hawkes
School of EMSAH, University of Queensland
'“Please Stand Behind the Yellow Safety Line.” The Space of the Train in Women's Writing'
The railway and the system that surrounds it have long been represented as a male domain – books and magazines told us that men built the trains, ran the trains, and knew all the facts about the trains. Anthony Trollope makes this point clear as early as 1876 where he remarks on the hustle and bustle of train travel:
Not a minute passes without a train going here or there, some rushing by without notice. Tenway in the least, crashing through like flashes of substantial lightning, and others stopping, disgorging and taking up passengers by the hundreds. Men and women - especially the men, for the women knowing their ignorance are generally willing to trust to the pundits of the place – look doubtful, uneasy and bewildered. But they all do get properly placed and unplaced, so that the spectator at last acknowledges that over all this apparent chaos there is a great genius of order.
Women, if they put their trust in this ordered system will arrive safely at their destination. Some train companies have run extremely successful campaigns based on women's safety. The 'Phoebe Snow' campaign of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western line in America mixed safety with cleanliness to become a great success – the campaign showed Phoebe (always dressed spotlessly in white) being guided from the moment she enters the terminal, and told what to do every step of the way. She always arrives at her destination with her snowy white dress still immaculately clean. Phoebe Snow was a fictional character, yet she received marriage proposals and presents; the campaign was one of the longest running railway campaigns ever and lasted over sixty years.
Australian railways implied that they too were looking after female passengers – for example the female toilets were often placed directly adjacent to the ticket master's office, so that he could keep a watchful eye over the women. The male toilets were placed at the end of the platform. There were, however, strict guidelines to safe travelling and women were expected to follow this ordered system. Railway stations at night are represented as off limits to women, and women who travel at night should not expect protection. In reality women have always travelled by train, many times alone and late at night. While it is true that some stations and trains are unsafe (due mainly to poor planning), it is also true that many women have used the space of the train as a positive place – a place that is between the structured world it travels through.
This paper will look at the space of the train in women's writing. It will begin with a brief display of the manner in which advertising and railway companies have presented the designated space for women and then show how women writers have actually used the space.
Bio: Lesley Hawkes is currently doing a PhD in the School of EMSAH, University of Queensland. Topic is 'The use and representation of the train in Australian fiction.'
<hawkeslesley@hotmail.com>