Needlework

[mrissa]

Oh, people. People, people, people, I am so tired of dislike of needlework being used as a stand-in for making a young female character actually interesting. I see this mostly in middle-grade fantasies, mostly. Not so much in YA, although I don’t know if that’s because I’m not seeing as much secondary world YA as I’d like. It sometimes goes

Comments

[wshaffer]

And, speaking as someone who has done a bit of simple hand sewing recently, I can say that as domestic drudgery goes, it's pretty pleasant. You get to sit comfortably, and you can converse with people sitting near you, or listen to someone playing music or reading aloud. Your fingers may get sore if you spend a lot of time pushing the needle through heavy fabric, and you might jab yourself with pins and needles if you're a bit clumsy, but if you compare it to the physical discomforts of doing the laundry or scrubbing the floors in a pre-industrial setting, it's a treat.

Of course, the girls in these books very seldom seem to be asked to do the laundry or scrub floors, or even cook dinner. Because, as you point out, the needlework in these books is not actually a meaningful part of the domestic economy, it's an easily spurned symbol of girlyness.

[diatryma]

Needlework in books is treated like practicing violin: you have to do it alone and you can't do anything else at the same time. Which makes no sense. "I hate needlework! I want to be the kind of princess who stabs things!" "Darling, you have to do it or you won't be able to spend time in the solar with all the ladies of the court. If you don't keep up on the gossip, how will you know who to stab?"

Plus, it's not something you practice, it's something you do. I'd love to see more intermediate needlework in books or at least a bit of learning curve.

[mrissa]

Oh, I think this actually brings up one of the things that frustrates me. It seems to be assumed that if you can't immediately do whatever-fancy-stitch, you can never do whatever-fancy-stitch. You are Just Not Good At This. Which is, in fact, one of the most common geek fallacies about being smart in general--but if it was applied to sword-fighting in a similar type of stories, the same people would never stand for it.

Also: If you don't keep up on the gossip, how will you know who to stab?

OH YES.

[rikibeth]

Well, there are always the ones who stab their fingers and bleed on the linen, spoiling it so they have to start again.

I once helped teach the Pages' School at Pennsic. I did teach some basic embroidery stitches, to boys and girls alike, because it was a skill I had and could share. They all were fascinated at the process of making French knots, and could get behind the concept of embroidering designs on their gear so they could tell whose it was

[robling_t]

If you don't keep up on the gossip, how will you know who to stab?

...Come to think of it, this describes more than one of my knitting groups. :)