NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN TURKISTAN, 1873

Ned Hedley   6 January 2022

“These batchas are as much respected as the greatest singers and artistes are with us. Every movement they make is followed and applauded, and I have never seen such breathless interest as they excite, for the whole crowd seems to devour them with their eyes, while their hands beat time to every step.”

I sometimes wonder who exactly we’re protecting by carefully locking our boys away until they’re suitably blockish, agreeably hefty and hirsute. As adults we spend billions each year on trying to look and act young—mainly women, but men also are increasingly nipping, tucking, tautening. The result, these cackling hyenas of the henna rinses, these straining try-hards of the depilated hides and stapled chins—would they last ten seconds in a public square that allowed a single batcha freedom of expression?