frustrated non timelord

It might look something like this: Goodwife A is great at getting stains out of clothes and enjoys laundry as a task, so everyone takes their laundry to her. Goodwife B pays her in milk and butter from their cow, and Goodwife C shows up to keep her company and take care of EVERYONE'S mending and darning, and Spinster D runs her father's bakery so she pays in bread and muffins, and Alewife E pays with the best beer in the county, and nobody's kitchen gardens are as productive as Granny F's and Widow G's so they've got veggies and herbs galore to exchange.

We DO criminally underestimate the value and prevalence of women's labor in history, but we also underestimate how much more fluidly communities functioned than they do now. Every woman absolutely did learn how to sew from the time she was a tiny child -- but once you're an adult and you've learned that you Hate sewing more than anything, maybe you make a friend who loves it (or at least who doesn't mind it). Then, as long as you buy your own cloth, she's happy to sew clothes for both your family and hers in exchange for you doing all the cooking, or watching the kids and teaching them to read and do basic sums, or churning the butter from the milk of both families' cows.

An awareness of historical women's labor is crucial -- but without an awareness of women's businesses, we can sometimes end up playing into the conservative propaganda that people don't need each other, that it's possible to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, that women are incapable and unenterprising, and that therefore their place is In The Home, being worked to the bone doing every task (and if they don't do every task, then they're lazy and a failure of a wife).

I've always thought this was interesting. Women used the cotton flour sacks to make clothes, dish cloths, diapers etc out of clothes during the great depression. Flour companies heard about it, and started putting colorful patterns on the sacks, and including clothing patterns with them.

Ask yourself, how does this piece make you feel? (No wrong answers)

Look for an artist statement nearby. What does it say about the artist and their relationship to their work? What does the artist say that they are trying to convey with their art? What contextual clues can you pick up from what they say about their background, or what they omit?

Look at the title of the piece. What is the artist saying about their work by naming it that, either explicitly or implicitly?

Look at the medium. Is there anything about the piece that stands out to you, knowing what it's made of?

Look at the year it was made. What cultural events might have been happening around this time? Was this piece part of a particular art movement? What was the purpose of that art movement, and what was it trying to say?

[ Space Intentionally Left Blank ]

It's project old trauma on video game character o clock. This scene genuinely gave me like a three day existential crisis so here's some semi vent art semi projecting on Kris.

Some more personal thoughts and thoughts on this chapter below.

If you're a fascist, racist, sexist, homophobe, transphobe, or any other variety of asshole, then you are not welcome here.

currently obsessed w painting with wayy too many texture brushes

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

many people in real life spend years not thinking any thought of their friends in that way