I am sure this lovely lady didn't mean it this way but, for those of us who have lived in poor places, the fetishising of handwashing comes off as obscene privilege.
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I am sure this lovely lady didn't mean it this way but, for those of us who have lived in poor places, the fetishising of handwashing comes off as obscene privilege.
There are women - yes, they're always women - all over the world who either don't have electricity or can't afford a washing machine. And they routinely spend a day a week handwashing a family's laundry.
I must say, I find poverty cosplay deeply disturbing
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dax_h52KmRj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
@Remittancegirl The overlap between the CottageCore aesthetic (that I love) and poverty cosplay is very disturbing. Thank you for calling it out.
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I am sure this lovely lady didn't mean it this way but, for those of us who have lived in poor places, the fetishising of handwashing comes off as obscene privilege.
There are women - yes, they're always women - all over the world who either don't have electricity or can't afford a washing machine. And they routinely spend a day a week handwashing a family's laundry.
I must say, I find poverty cosplay deeply disturbing
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dax_h52KmRj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
@Remittancegirl The production quality of the video makes the poverty cosplay aspect particularly wild. The whole thing feels extremely movie-like - which I'm sure is the point.
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@Remittancegirl I think a lot of the tradwife thing is poverty cosplay, the modern version of wearing a hair shirt I suppose. Glorification of suffering. I don't get it.
@Bumblefish I don't think she was attempting to glorify suffering. I don't think she's suffering at all. But she's romanticising a particular chore that has been the bane of women's existence from time immemorial.
And I'm sure she's found some meditative escape in it. But the decadent privilege implicit in it is... well, obscene to me.
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@Remittancegirl The production quality of the video makes the poverty cosplay aspect particularly wild. The whole thing feels extremely movie-like - which I'm sure is the point.
@hko Little house on the prairie stuff.
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@Bumblefish I don't think she was attempting to glorify suffering. I don't think she's suffering at all. But she's romanticising a particular chore that has been the bane of women's existence from time immemorial.
And I'm sure she's found some meditative escape in it. But the decadent privilege implicit in it is... well, obscene to me.
@Remittancegirl There is definitely something decadent in romanticizing "simplicity" - not relying on "modernity".
Which just brought the anti-vax aesthetic to my mind: Being far enough removed from things like polio that it seems cute to flirt with bringing them back.
Not exactly the same thing, but at least to my mind, there is some vague linkage.
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@Bumblefish I don't think she was attempting to glorify suffering. I don't think she's suffering at all. But she's romanticising a particular chore that has been the bane of women's existence from time immemorial.
And I'm sure she's found some meditative escape in it. But the decadent privilege implicit in it is... well, obscene to me.
@Remittancegirl @Bumblefish
And TradWife / CottageCore often seems to be associated, almost like a gateway drug, with a whole bunch of 'traditional' right wing anti-feminist values.FFS who would want to go back to hand-washing clothes
. I remember the mangle, washboard etc... at my Grandmothers.
So to any romantic CottageCore picture add a filter if winter cold; grey and wet. -
@Remittancegirl There is definitely something decadent in romanticizing "simplicity" - not relying on "modernity".
Which just brought the anti-vax aesthetic to my mind: Being far enough removed from things like polio that it seems cute to flirt with bringing them back.
Not exactly the same thing, but at least to my mind, there is some vague linkage.
@hko I agree. While it isn't the same thing, there is a kind of logical progression.
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@Remittancegirl The overlap between the CottageCore aesthetic (that I love) and poverty cosplay is very disturbing. Thank you for calling it out.
@juliette I absolutely get the CottageCore thing myself.
But wouldn't it be more creative to reinvent that aesthetic in a way that didn't glamourise grinding poverty?
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@Remittancegirl @Bumblefish
And TradWife / CottageCore often seems to be associated, almost like a gateway drug, with a whole bunch of 'traditional' right wing anti-feminist values.FFS who would want to go back to hand-washing clothes
. I remember the mangle, washboard etc... at my Grandmothers.
So to any romantic CottageCore picture add a filter if winter cold; grey and wet.@DaRC_Fantom @Remittancegirl @Bumblefish Those feckn washboards would skin yr knuckles. My Nan's hands, joints too swollen to get her wedding ring off...
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@Remittancegirl The production quality of the video makes the poverty cosplay aspect particularly wild. The whole thing feels extremely movie-like - which I'm sure is the point.
@hko @Remittancegirl
The faucet also breaks the context -
@Bumblefish I don't think she was attempting to glorify suffering. I don't think she's suffering at all. But she's romanticising a particular chore that has been the bane of women's existence from time immemorial.
And I'm sure she's found some meditative escape in it. But the decadent privilege implicit in it is... well, obscene to me.
@Remittancegirl @Bumblefish I'm wondering if it is in a way a display of wealth. "Look at me, I can afford to throw an entire day at a task most people spend an hour or so on"
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@Remittancegirl @Bumblefish I'm wondering if it is in a way a display of wealth. "Look at me, I can afford to throw an entire day at a task most people spend an hour or so on"
@http_error_418 Yes!!! You put your finger on something I was having trouble expressing. Also, I wonder how much she spends on the hand cream to stave off chapping? @Bumblefish
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I am sure this lovely lady didn't mean it this way but, for those of us who have lived in poor places, the fetishising of handwashing comes off as obscene privilege.
There are women - yes, they're always women - all over the world who either don't have electricity or can't afford a washing machine. And they routinely spend a day a week handwashing a family's laundry.
I must say, I find poverty cosplay deeply disturbing
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dax_h52KmRj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
@Remittancegirl lol that is why I found the book Yesteryear to be enjoyable.
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@hko @Remittancegirl
The faucet also breaks the context -
I am sure this lovely lady didn't mean it this way but, for those of us who have lived in poor places, the fetishising of handwashing comes off as obscene privilege.
There are women - yes, they're always women - all over the world who either don't have electricity or can't afford a washing machine. And they routinely spend a day a week handwashing a family's laundry.
I must say, I find poverty cosplay deeply disturbing
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dax_h52KmRj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
I remember my grandmother telling me how happy she was when she got a washing mashine...
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I remember my grandmother telling me how happy she was when she got a washing mashine...
@Mab_813 this, 1000 times. If there was any piece of tech in the last 200 years that genuinely improved women’s lives, it was the washing machine
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@Remittancegirl @realn2s @hko Also she should be mixing ashes from her fireplace with water to create alkali and use that instead of commercial detergent, which would then make her hands extremely dry and irritated!
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@Mab_813 this, 1000 times. If there was any piece of tech in the last 200 years that genuinely improved women’s lives, it was the washing machine
@Remittancegirl @Mab_813 Especially because early manual washing machines were also used to induce abortions, as I learned in the Viennese Museum of contraception and abortion.
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I am sure this lovely lady didn't mean it this way but, for those of us who have lived in poor places, the fetishising of handwashing comes off as obscene privilege.
There are women - yes, they're always women - all over the world who either don't have electricity or can't afford a washing machine. And they routinely spend a day a week handwashing a family's laundry.
I must say, I find poverty cosplay deeply disturbing
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dax_h52KmRj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
@Remittancegirl the one, single upside of hand washing I've heard of is from communities where washing is done down by the river/lake: the women can socialize away from the men, cause everyone knows it takes a day, so dudes won't bother them to serve.
When washing machines come into those communities the "freed up time" is quickly absorbed by new chores and less socializing.
So those communities need some equality delivered with the washing machines. -
@Bumblefish I don't think she was attempting to glorify suffering. I don't think she's suffering at all. But she's romanticising a particular chore that has been the bane of women's existence from time immemorial.
And I'm sure she's found some meditative escape in it. But the decadent privilege implicit in it is... well, obscene to me.
@Remittancegirl @Bumblefish They are preparing people to accept actual poverty. It started for me with the whole 'tiny house' craze, where living in cramped spaces was presented as fashionable and eco and whatnot, and now there's this.
They really want to turn back the clock at least 150 years, and keep all the spoils of all our work entirely for themselves.
