Stripping the shopping boom bare

It seemed such a shame, really. There they were, dressed in best bib and tucker, waving twizzle sticks and waiting for their big moment. It might have been something they would remember for the rest of their lives.

As it turned out the event proved to be, well, probably something they will remember for the rest of their lives.

After all it isn't every ten-year-old who can say he - or she for that matter - has seen a grown woman, and an attractive one at that, strip off all her clothes within touching distance.

But so it proved for the youngsters from two York primary schools at the opening of the Naburn Designer Outlet recently, when an eco warrior chose the impromptu striptease as a way of protesting against the desecration of our environment, and our sensibilities, with yet another out-of-town shopping development.

The children, as it turns out were quickly, and probably sensibly, hustled away from this disturbing scene.

Once the invited VIP guests had overcome their mixture of shock (and in some quarters delight) at the unexpected exhibition - a distinct improvement, it should be added, on the official ceremony - all kinds of thoughts crowded in.

Like maybe developers McArthurGlen should organise a similar show every weekend. It would certainly help pull in the crowds (even if schoolchildren have to be banned for their parents' own good).

Maybe the young eco warrior, despite her unorthodox means of pressing home the argument, actually had a point. "This is all so sad... shopping, shopping, shopping," she was shouting while disrobing.

Certainly there is a risk that we are rapidly becoming a nation of shoppers - with a huge number of people working in shops to earn money so they can go and spend it in shops.

In a week when British Steel announced yet another round of redundancies in the country's traditional manufacturing sector, it does make you think. (There is, of course, a counter argument. At least, with the wealth of vehicles needed to ferry people into the car parks of out-of-town shopping malls, our motor industry should be thriving for decades to come).

But we digress.

The point here is just what those children at Naburn made of their education being advanced so considerably by the sight of a naked woman dancing up the aisles just a twizzle stick away.

Will it prompt any of them to become the eco warriors of the future (with or without clothes)?

In our house, opinion was divided. Protecting the environment was naturally, so to speak, a good thing. Taking your clothes off in public was not such a good thing. The youngest one summed it all up succinctly: "I don't want anyone to see my bum."

This was re-assuringly sensible. But it also begged the question of just what you would think if you were a parent of our clothes-shedding eco-warrior.

Would you be proud as Punch or mortified? To those pondering that question, here's another. In an age when the nihilism of the drugs culture is threatening children as young as ten in a relatively affluent suburb like Haxby which would you prefer:

A child so committed and passionate they are prepared to shed their clothes in public protest for a cause they truly believe in...

Or one so bored by life the only entertainment they can find comes from the soiled hand of a heroin dealer?

Maybe sometime, somewhere down the line, when one of the children at Naburn is faced with the same choice they will remember the naked passion of an eco-warrior in a crowded shopping centre.

18/11/98

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.