THEY were regarded by some as “unpaid prostitutes” but the women who volunteered to deal with obscene callers to the Samaritan helpline have now been recognised in a new play.
The so-called “Brendas” were initially seen as an answer to those who abused the helpline, which was set up to help people in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide.
Rather than being told to hang up on obscene calls, many of the female volunteers were trained to respond to the mostly male callers with empathy and understanding.
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Each Brenda was given a training manual called “Telephone mast*****ors and the Brenda System For Befriending Them”, drawn up by Samaritans founder, the Rev Chad Varah. The manual divided the callers up into 16 categories with advice on how to speak to each of them.
“The volunteers were advised to hang up on only one category – the sadists,” explains Edinburgh playwright Harry Mould (below).
Today, it seems incredible that the Brenda Line ever existed, but Varah, who was an Anglican priest and also a sex therapist, founded the Samaritans with the idea that everyone should be given support if they needed it.
“However, pretty quickly after he started the Samaritans, the rude calls started coming through and he was faced with a conundrum,” says Mould. “On the one hand, he did not want the callers to be turned away but, on the other hand, he didn’t want the volunteers to have to listen to these calls without their consent and without the necessary training and support.”
Mould’s mother, Karen, was a Samaritan in the late 1970s and on her first nightshift was shocked to find she was working with a “Brenda”.
“It was a period of time in which sex was really not conversed about and not normalised in the same way as today so she was initially pretty mortified,” says Mould, whose play about the Brendas will premiere at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
“I wrote The Brenda Line because when my mam first told me about these amazing volunteers – women who were quietly, and without judgment, doing this complex, empathetic task – I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I couldn’t stop thinking about what an impact it must have had on them, and what this impossibly difficult service provided.”
The scheme lasted around 15 years but was ended in 1987 when the board – much against Varah’s wishes – decided that the Brenda Line cast a bad light on the charity and was using women as “unpaid prostitutes”.
“It is such a complicated thing because a lot of Varah’s manual is really forward-thinking as it talks about mental health and consent and the importance of making these men see women as more than objects,” says Mould.
“There was a real attempt in there to help but obviously it was deeply problematic.
“He had this hope that the men who were calling just needed a human connection but the flip side was that it was about men’s needs and not women’s. Do women need to be providing this service along with every other service they provide for men? Why is it that we are expected to solve their problems? It is a really interesting, difficult debate to have and one that remains relevant.”
Many of the former Brendas are convinced it was a good service while others are less sure. Mould has mixed feelings but believes their work deserves to be recognised.
“These women were all volunteers, many recruited out of the church, and many of the older women became Brendas so that other women would not have to take the calls,” she says.
“It was a whole broad spectrum of women who were setting their personal feelings to one side and receiving incredibly difficult calls with a real sense of empathy and humanity.
“They did this thing that was really powerful but have all but been forgotten. I think that is fairly deliberate on the part of the Samaritans, which I understand, but it is a shame that these women are not acknowledged.”
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Mould say they have no idea if what the Brendas were doing was “right”, but believe they should be remembered: “I think they were strong and fuelled by compassion and humanity, and this is my funny, happy, sad, hopeful little love letter to them all.”
Director Ben Occhipinti said: “I am so excited to be working on this brilliant, funny and important play.
“I cannot wait to bring the world premiere to the Pitlochry stage, and I know that audiences are in for a special night at the theatre.”
The Brenda Line is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from August 15 until September 18 and Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre from November 13-16
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