Apron Unease
I was excited to see that the new Tie One On gallery is up. There are some amazing multi-media aprons there for your viewing pleasure.
While I enjoy making and wearing aprons, the recent obsession with vintage aprons and vintage apron patterns gave me a vague sense of discomfort. After mulling it over, I decided it wasn't the aprons themselves (I love anything vintage and patterns of all kinds) it is the illustrations on the pattern covers that make me uncomfortable. Idealized women with nonexistent waists in dresses and frilly aprons in their 1950's high heels do not represent my life, in fact, it is a life that so many women have worked so hard to escape that even the images from that era are painful for me.
Obviously, this has more to do with me than with an illustration of imaginary women on a pattern envelope. These images, more than most from the 1950's and 1960's, celebrate a view of women as domestic goddesses that was impossible for many even in that time to achieve, and the fascination with those images makes me wonder if there isn't also a fascination with the time when women had fewer choices; thus, "things were easier" for women.
I have heard some of my female friends wonder if Feminism has only made their lives harder because they feel they need a career and a family to be successful. Newsflash - you don't know difficult. Difficult is being a woman and mother in Africa or almost anywhere other than the North America and Europe. Yes, balancing a career with a family can be absolutely gut-wrenching, but I am so glad to have the choice. Rather than blaming Feminism, which should be credited with helping us escape the isolation and servitude that millions of women still face, we should focus on improving the opportunities for women to work and raise their children, concurrently or not, depending on what is right for them.
While I will continue to make serviceable aprons for my sons and friends, you won't see a apron pattern from that era in this woman's collection. Images, even more than words, have power and that's not an image I want in my home.
I hope I haven't offended any closet 50's apron pattern fans among my five readers. There's the comment box if you feel the need to add your bit.
While I enjoy making and wearing aprons, the recent obsession with vintage aprons and vintage apron patterns gave me a vague sense of discomfort. After mulling it over, I decided it wasn't the aprons themselves (I love anything vintage and patterns of all kinds) it is the illustrations on the pattern covers that make me uncomfortable. Idealized women with nonexistent waists in dresses and frilly aprons in their 1950's high heels do not represent my life, in fact, it is a life that so many women have worked so hard to escape that even the images from that era are painful for me.
Obviously, this has more to do with me than with an illustration of imaginary women on a pattern envelope. These images, more than most from the 1950's and 1960's, celebrate a view of women as domestic goddesses that was impossible for many even in that time to achieve, and the fascination with those images makes me wonder if there isn't also a fascination with the time when women had fewer choices; thus, "things were easier" for women.
I have heard some of my female friends wonder if Feminism has only made their lives harder because they feel they need a career and a family to be successful. Newsflash - you don't know difficult. Difficult is being a woman and mother in Africa or almost anywhere other than the North America and Europe. Yes, balancing a career with a family can be absolutely gut-wrenching, but I am so glad to have the choice. Rather than blaming Feminism, which should be credited with helping us escape the isolation and servitude that millions of women still face, we should focus on improving the opportunities for women to work and raise their children, concurrently or not, depending on what is right for them.
While I will continue to make serviceable aprons for my sons and friends, you won't see a apron pattern from that era in this woman's collection. Images, even more than words, have power and that's not an image I want in my home.
I hope I haven't offended any closet 50's apron pattern fans among my five readers. There's the comment box if you feel the need to add your bit.
posted by Carol at 9:09 AM
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