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Pull Yourself Together

Bobby Baker

Photo © Hugo Glendinning
2000

“This ‘act’ was done as part of Mental Health Action Week sponsored by the Mental Health Foundation. Special banners were made to fit the sides and back of a large flat bed open truck.

The ones on the side spelled PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER in red letters and the one on the back spelled IN AID OF MENTAL HEALTH ACTION WEEK. A car seat was bolted onto the back of the truck and I belted myself into this, yelling at passersby to ‘Pull yourselves together’, ‘Get a grip’, ‘Buck up now’, ‘Cheer up, darling, put a smile on your face’, etc. It was delightful to bawl these insults – of which I’ve been at the receiving end so much of my life – at crowds of people with such irreverence.”

Text extract from Bobby Baker: Redeeming Features of Daily Life edited by MichËle Barrett and Bobby Baker (2007), Routledge.

Photo © Hugo Glendinning
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