Monday, June 24, 2019

Politics and Textiles



There has been a great deal of ruckus the past couple of days at the popular social platform Ravelry due to it's stance against white supremacy.  (8 million some users justifies the word popular, I think.)

Some people are furious that they should be 'censored' and can no longer post patterns or comments in support of Mr. Trump and white supremacist viewpoints.  They rail against the suppression of 'free' speech (without understanding what the term actually means, assuming that they get to say whatever they please without any push back.)

The comments from some of these people on the more 'liberal' groups has been rude and in some cases downright vile.  And yet we liberals are supposed to roll over and let them say such things without objection.  Because something something free speech.  On the other hand, they object to my using my free speech to tell them what they are espousing is not acceptable to me.

Another segment insists that politics and textiles should be kept entirely separate, that they knit for enjoyment not to be made uncomfortable by politics.

Thing is, textiles have been political pretty much from the beginning of human beings working with fibre.

In the very early stages of human development string or cordage was used for a variety of things, including string skirts depicted on the paleothitic goddess figurines.  Since string/cordage was very time consuming to make (still is, by hand) the fact that these skirts were made most likely had some sort of religious or political significance.

As human beings evolved, textiles continued to play increasingly political roles in culture, from the ceremonial robes worn by 'royalty' or religious leaders, to funeral uses such as mummy wrappings.

Textiles were used as trade goods as were chemicals for dyeing such as alum.  Nothing more political than trade goods between nations.  (Dorothy Dunnett wrote historical fiction and includes this in a couple of her books - the Niccolo Rising series stars 'Claes' as a dyer's apprentice in Bruges, who rises to become a wealthy merchant (Niccolo) in the 1400s, Francis of Lymond series has one book using cloth as a trade good with Russia during the 1500s.  Recently republished they are also now available as audio books.)

Textile workers were a large and important part of any work force of all the cultures.  Fibres had to be harvested, processed, spun, dyed, woven, turned into garments or for other uses.  This all meant enormous numbers of people to grow the crops, harvest them, break the fibre out of the flax or hemp or which ever crop was being used.  In colder climates, shepherds had to tend their flocks, shear the sheep, and then the fibre needed to be spun/dyed/woven.

As cultures evolved even further, restrictions were placed upon the populace about who could have access to certain textiles.  The royal purple dye, silk damasks, gold and silver threads, to list just a few.  You could tell at a glance what level of society a person was by the clothing they wore.  Look up sumptuary laws.

Again the most expensive textiles were reserved for royalty and religious/ceremonial use.

Come the 1700s and the development of the flying shuttle which immediately put half of the broad cloth weavers out of work.  Only one was needed to throw the shuttle once the fly shuttle was developed.

Luddites were sworn to destroy the latest textile equipment to preserve jobs in textile manufacture.


11 comments:

Peg Cherre said...

Another, more recent example (if 1911 can be considered recent) of textiles and politics that most people (of our age bracket at least) know about is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Those 145 people, mostly women, virtually all poor, most fairly recent immigrants, who had been locked in the building to sew and were subsequently killed in the fire were there due to politics - the link between politics and wealth accumulation. I choose not to think about what our current president would say if something similar happened today, as he clearly would view their lives as expendable.

Bluff City Tatter said...

You are absolutely right about the intermingling of textiles and politics. Look at the Nazi's forcing Jews to wear yellow Star of David badges. And using a system of triangle badges to identify prisoners in concentration camps, including the pink triangle to identify homosexuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge

Rachel Weir said...

I think what has bothered me the most since the last US election is how willing people are to call each other names. I am a conservative (didn't vote for Trump, though I may next election, haven't decided.) And you know what, I'm not a white supremacist. I am half Mexican, half Spanish, married to a white dude, with two beautiful mixed race daughters. My husband will tell you that we don't hold much deference to his maleness or whiteness.

The way I read the ravelry statement was if you like Trump, you are a racist. Well, ok. But I'm not. I am not a racist in the same way that not all Canadians are violent hockey fans. Grouping people like that only widens the divide. My policy really is a two drink minimum before politics are discussed. Yes ravelry has every right to "curate" the statements on their site, as I have every right to not go where I am not welcomed.


It's fine for me. Over the next couple of weeks I will download and save the few patterns I have purchased and I will close my account. And I will walk away (electronically) knowing that neither Ravelry nor some closed minded person with too much free time and access to a keyboard will be able to define me.

I apologize if this is the incorrect forum for my thoughts, of course you have every right to delete them. But this is on my mind as it is for many people right now. I do really wish though, that when discussing topics like race, racism, or inequality; we take a look at the people in the room. These topics are thoroughly confusing to my girls who don't understand why they should hate their father for his skin color. Or geez, if they should begin to hate parts of themselves.

Laura Fry said...

thank you for your thoughts.

Rachel Weir said...

Nope. Every leader has their zealots. I am sure you do not want to be lumped in with the Antifa crowd who promote violence on people they designate as against their ideology.
I do not tolerate white supremacy, the needless killing of children in the womb, or the promoting of violence against any human.
I guess the point is, I am an individual and find it galling that someone feels like they can tell me what I think. I believe in meeting people where they are one person at a time. I appreciate your well thought out opinions, I hope to do mine as well.

Jane said...

"The way I read the ravelry statement was if you like Trump, you are a racist."
Ravelry didn't say anything like that. They did not ban Trump supporters. They said that Trump and his administration were supporting white supremacists,and some of those people were harassing others on Ravelry. To protect thecrights of everyone who is on Ravelry, they were banning discussions about trump.

Donna said...

Thank you for this thoughtful post.

Jacquie said...

I don't use Ravelry much, and certainly not their Facebook (didn't even know they had one) and hadn't heard anything at all about all this furore until I read Laura's post but Jane's comment explains it to me in simple terms. Perhaps because I'm in the UK we have been shielded from all this to some extent and we have our own political difficulties at the moment!

As the USA has a secret ballot I couldn't understand how Ravelry would know who voted for Trump and who didn't, but now understand they are not banning you if you voted for Trump, just if you want to use a knitting forum for discussions about Trump.

This seems perfectly reasonable to me - I belong to an international lace maker's forum which is split into two areas, lace discussions and general chat; about 20 years ago it was decided that politics and religion are no go areas because of the potential for upsetting other people on those topics. If you really feel a need to discuss those surely there is somewhere more appropriate.

Unknown said...

One of Donald Trump's main strategies is name calling...He is the leader of his supporters. What are you saying?

Ettenna said...

At least this conversation is more thoughtful than some I have seen! I think what is so disturbing about this is the blanket assumption that if you support Trump it automatically assumes you are racist. My son married someone “nonwhite” & we don’t see color in our family. We see people. I was really disturbed by the comment by a knitting blogger that social conservatives & white supremacy are “so tangled they can never be separated ".
People who agree with Ravelry's stand are just assuming the lie perpetuated by the media that policies instited for a variety of reasons are all stemming from racism. You did the same in your comments- even though they were very thoughtful & for the most part fair. People are not given all the facts nor do they even want to listen to the reasons some of these decisions are made.
I listened to a man last night who declared at the beginning of the conversation that he was a strong liberal that would never vote conservative. However he has done strong research that Google will sway the votes of millions of voters in the next election by squashing all conservative news, And putting negative slants on all conservative decisions.
Of course this is one mans research but the thought that the media can do such a thing ought to remind people that it is exactly what Hitler did with the Jewish people- vilifying them in the media until many 'sane' people hated them. It is all very, very frightening to me.

Dee in NC said...

Thank you for addressing this issue in a sensitive way. I have followed the happenings on Ravelry, and was glad that they'd taken the steps to prevent such malicious attacks on their forum. Unfortunately, the Trump Talk ban has been misunderstood by many, and has led to further disturbing attacks by some who don't even understand the issue at hand. To clarify, if you know someone who is a racist and you support them in their endeavors, whether in an openly racist pursuit or not; you are, in fact, supporting racism. That doesn't make your beliefs racist, but it does further their ability to apply their racist agenda to matters under their purview. So, you are in fact, supporting racism if you support them. You can't separate their racism from their other agenda. Whether you agree with their other beliefs doesn't matter. By supporting someone who is racist, you are supporting racism.