all the things
I've spent the weekend binding and finishing my two quilts for the Sydney Quilt Show in 2 weeks' time. I still have a hanging sleeve to affix, but they're nearly done!
I'll put pics up here after I've had a chance to photograph them at the show. :)
And I think I got a little sunburned at the hockey games on the weekend. Even in winter, our UV levels are pretty high. My face feels like it's radiating a gentle heat right now. I really need to remember the sunscreen.
So, Not Prime Time.
I still have three days to get 1000 words of story in, and the timespan is not the problem. The problem is finding a story that I want to write that will still satisfy my recip. I have at least two options that I can write, but none of the characters or scenarios my recip outlined really appeal.
--
Next up: sexism in quilting.
So, quilting is generally a woman's craft. "Women's work" and therefore beneath the notice of men. Unless men are doing it. Which a handful of men are doing. And are gaining notice, credit, and publicity for it.
Including television spots on national shows.
An Australian quilter "Molli Sparkles" has been featured on the Australian morning show 'Today' (as in just this morning), and the caption beneath him reads "why quilting is here to stay".
I don't need to explain the inference to you, do I?
Molli is a talented quilter, and - from what I've observed - a lovely guy. He does great designs and lovely modern work. But there are other Australian patchworkers and quilters - many of them modern and clever and innovative - who deserved that limelight more. But he gets it because he's a guy in quilting. A man doing "women's work". And men doing "women's work" are admirable and praiseworthy, while women doing "men's work" are out of place.
I should know. I've been a woman in the programming world for the last twenty years.
There've been a few grumps by guys in the quilting world lately - most notably one by a guy who complained he couldn't go on a quilting retreat because it was "women only". Yeah, well, let me give your complaint rather less importance than the complaint of dozens of female execs who don't want to go on the business trip "evening entertainment" because the group is going to a strip joints.
The privilege of these guys is breathtaking. And goes completely unnoticed by 90% of the quilting world. Because we're in that system, too, and few of us have been taught to see beyond the goggles of "women are inherently inferior to guys". Even those of us who know those goggles exist generally prefer to keep wearing them, because, well, it's easier not to acknowledge that the system you're in is flawed and that you're contributing to oppression (Oh hai thar, Nick Fury).
So, yep, I'm kind of steamed about this. And this morning, a quilting friend and I have been discussing starting an anonymous quilting blog with a feminist slant. The goal will be to promote female bloggers/quilters, and female-friendly sites, products, etc. And possibly bring people to the place where they can realise feminism isn't "all about hating men and pink things" and not "women are and always have been seen as inherently inferior to men, in all aspects of life and creativity and imagination, and this is not right; we are seeking to address and, where possible, redress that imbalance".
--
Pacific Rim 2 announcement has me hopeful. Cautiously hopeful - particularly in light of the news that GdT is back on the project and writing the script.
I only have three wishes:
1. the story is more clearly about Mako and her achieving her goals post-Pitfall.
2. the story includes her relationship with Raleigh to debunk the "a woman can be strong and well-crafted or she can be in a romantic relationship with a man" stupidity that's making the rounds after that idiot article the other week.
3. there are more non-white non-male characters - as in, all the new characters are non-white and/or female to balance out the four white males who survived to the end of the first movie.
I'll put pics up here after I've had a chance to photograph them at the show. :)
And I think I got a little sunburned at the hockey games on the weekend. Even in winter, our UV levels are pretty high. My face feels like it's radiating a gentle heat right now. I really need to remember the sunscreen.
So, Not Prime Time.
I still have three days to get 1000 words of story in, and the timespan is not the problem. The problem is finding a story that I want to write that will still satisfy my recip. I have at least two options that I can write, but none of the characters or scenarios my recip outlined really appeal.
--
Next up: sexism in quilting.
So, quilting is generally a woman's craft. "Women's work" and therefore beneath the notice of men. Unless men are doing it. Which a handful of men are doing. And are gaining notice, credit, and publicity for it.
Including television spots on national shows.
An Australian quilter "Molli Sparkles" has been featured on the Australian morning show 'Today' (as in just this morning), and the caption beneath him reads "why quilting is here to stay".
I don't need to explain the inference to you, do I?
Molli is a talented quilter, and - from what I've observed - a lovely guy. He does great designs and lovely modern work. But there are other Australian patchworkers and quilters - many of them modern and clever and innovative - who deserved that limelight more. But he gets it because he's a guy in quilting. A man doing "women's work". And men doing "women's work" are admirable and praiseworthy, while women doing "men's work" are out of place.
I should know. I've been a woman in the programming world for the last twenty years.
There've been a few grumps by guys in the quilting world lately - most notably one by a guy who complained he couldn't go on a quilting retreat because it was "women only". Yeah, well, let me give your complaint rather less importance than the complaint of dozens of female execs who don't want to go on the business trip "evening entertainment" because the group is going to a strip joints.
The privilege of these guys is breathtaking. And goes completely unnoticed by 90% of the quilting world. Because we're in that system, too, and few of us have been taught to see beyond the goggles of "women are inherently inferior to guys". Even those of us who know those goggles exist generally prefer to keep wearing them, because, well, it's easier not to acknowledge that the system you're in is flawed and that you're contributing to oppression (Oh hai thar, Nick Fury).
So, yep, I'm kind of steamed about this. And this morning, a quilting friend and I have been discussing starting an anonymous quilting blog with a feminist slant. The goal will be to promote female bloggers/quilters, and female-friendly sites, products, etc. And possibly bring people to the place where they can realise feminism isn't "all about hating men and pink things" and not "women are and always have been seen as inherently inferior to men, in all aspects of life and creativity and imagination, and this is not right; we are seeking to address and, where possible, redress that imbalance".
--
Pacific Rim 2 announcement has me hopeful. Cautiously hopeful - particularly in light of the news that GdT is back on the project and writing the script.
I only have three wishes:
1. the story is more clearly about Mako and her achieving her goals post-Pitfall.
2. the story includes her relationship with Raleigh to debunk the "a woman can be strong and well-crafted or she can be in a romantic relationship with a man" stupidity that's making the rounds after that idiot article the other week.
3. there are more non-white non-male characters - as in, all the new characters are non-white and/or female to balance out the four white males who survived to the end of the first movie.