‘Shape up, they said’ by Emily Demetriou

Reflection of Gender, class and nation: (Re)shaping Identity in British colonial Cyprus

We give you the opportunity of a prosperous life, they said

Be hard working

Remove your working class character

You can have Sundays off 

But you have to go to church, we'll check on you, they said

In the ways of virtue, we'll educate you

Mold you

Mold this 

Mold that

Be clean, they said

Don't carry disease

Prosper

Poverty is disease 

Disease spreading like flu

Don't let it spread all over society

Social reform, they said

Top down? No, they said

Love and sacrifice for the fatherland

We'll collect the taxes, they said

Disproportionate burden on the poorest? 

Precarious system? No they said

You have options

Find your local money lender, they said 

Failure of crops? 

Sell your land

Sell your livelihood 

Pay your debt

Advance the nation

Transform the fatherland

Be young 

Be male

Be urban

Be intellectual 

Be patriotic

Look outside the confines of the island 

Not to the east! 

To the west, to the west!!, they said 

Remember your past, they said

Shape up

Reconnect to the Hellenic nation

Forget your past

Forget your class

Forget your gender

Forget your culture 

Forget your passed down knowledge 

There are no internal differences

We are all one, they said

One national identity 

A monolithic entity

Let's do sport together, they said

Shape up

Forget the collective games

Gymnastics, they said

Not the dangerous and pointless exercises of the acrobat

But gymnastics, those who grant man health

Strength and beauty

Gymnastics, those which help him understand the meaning of order 

And discipline 

Gymnastics, they said

Those which give birth in his soul to military sentiment and will

Turn him into a brave

And willing

And proud child of the fatherland

Do gymnastics 

Come be sanitised with us, they said

Shape up

Don't go to coffee shops

Don't go to bars 

Don't dance at weddings

Don't be dangerous 

Don't be disorderly

Don't be illiterate 

Don't be superstitious 

Don't be lazy

Don't live the life of vice

Don't be disease 

You are responsible for your fate, they said

Top down? No! They said

OK, yes, we have family and personal links to the political and religious establishment 

OK, yes, we are the elite of the island

We are the affluent strata

This is why the optimism

This is why the self confidence 

This is why we know better

This is why you should follow, they said

We are offering a prosperous life 

A life of comfort and morality

There is no difficult choices 

No need for crime

No need for begging

No need for gambling 

There is no crisis they said 

Let's do gymnastics together 

Keep them close, forge links they thought 

Let's do gymnastics together

To embody our Greek Cypriot masculinity 

To be strong

To be muscular

To be the national symbol 

To be venerated

Women should follow, too

Be αντρεία, they said

Be wise

Be pure

Be masculine 

Be brave

Be graceful 

Be upright

Irreproachable in stature

In will

In purity and patriotism

Only these women, they said

Don't sell sex

Don't be a garish of femininity

Don't be comical

Don't be driven by self interest 

Have sexual self restraint 

You are masquerading yourself 

Choose the men you sell sex to

Distinguish between the lower and higher strata, they said

Choose not to? They asked

Then you are a threat

You don't know your place, they said

You will be feared

Controlled and regulated 

You will be surveilled 

Despised 

Isolated

Confined into clearly defined areas

Invisible, they said

Nothing

More than nothing

Don't be nothing, they said 

They said it more than 100 years ago

It sounds weirdly familiar, I said. 

Even though I've never learned about that period 

I guess it's what Loizos said

It's the period before the important period, others said

The important period; when distinct national identities where fully formed 

When 'we' fought for freedom

Fought against colonialism

Fought for union with the motherland

When we had national heroes

When we fought against each other

Hold on, I might be entering the painful period. 

Back to the period before the important period. 

Isn't that more important? 

Isn't that what brought the important period to be? 

Isn't that the period of shaping

Shaping narrative

Shaping concept

Shaping masculinity 

Shaping identity

Shaping Greek Cypriotness

Solidifying Greek Cypriotness

Solidifying distinction

Separation 

Isn't that the beginning of the domino trail

And then followed the common painful fairytale? 

How vague

Is what we get taught

It feels like a veil is slowly coming off. 

References:

* This poem uses the words of Loizos Kapsalis from his talk on reshaping gender, class and nation webinar 2 of Pilot Season.

* It is inspired by the poem ‘Be a lady they said’ by Camille Rainville.

Written by Emily Demetriou