How are girls positioned as producers and consumers of text and products? Today, girls are actually commodified products for producers to produce more products. When young girls quilted, it was a reward. As one young girl mentioned her excitement when her mother asked her to quilt with her, “I always wanted to work with her and I ‘plain’ remember the day when asked to work with my mother.” As mentioned in the Intro of The Quilters, during this time period, “the best elements of teaching were often combined over the construction of a quilt; early and often loving instruction was given over quilting-tradition, discipline, learning how to finish a task, planning and moral reinforcement built character. “It was a virtue.”
One of the things that caught my attention in the third story, More, was the the verbal visual of girlhood created by the phrase, “I am eighty three and I have done a heap of quilts, [girl].” Juxtaposing 83 and girl together creates a powerful bond that I don’t see existing today. The community that bound girls to family was strong, then. It was also a matter of evolution and changes in advanced societies. So, how does a girl stay connected to family and community today? Interestingly, during the time of quilting, adolescence didn’t really exist either. Therefore, girlhood was a powerful thing. Yesterday it was a training ground for ‘her place’ not outside the home.
Nonetheless, I do agree that girls are in a more empowered position today. Numbers rule the advertising agencies and girlhood has become significant, thanks to Disney and media. The Spice Girls were completely consumed by girls, as were the Bratz dolls. With so much buying power, it led to girl power, even if it were the parents who were buying the items. Because of past breakthroughs through feminism, girls are making waves, large waves, in science and technology. Government grants go to girls who look to the sciences. The idea of girls being strong has broken a cultural code that said girls should be treated differently, more delicately. Such thoughts led to a wicked socialization process whereby even moms were the villains by underestimating their own daughters’ abilities. Acknowledging strength, and I do feel that the 3rd wave feminist ideology, opened this door, girls are powerful producers of the products they want, or that advertisers want to create for them. They are definitely producing new ideas and pushing the limits. It's a good thing. Now how do we create community?
A refurbished sofa that took many years by a friend. She just completed it and wants to give it away.
It seems to me that from the reading that quilting was a significant foundation of the community. I mean, quilting can be seen as a female thing, but the benefits were assimilated by both males and females.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with Yolanda. Quilting was a two-fold production: the actual artifact of the quilt and the creation of a community. I wonder though if quilting was sometimes exclusionary as the quilting circles were comprised of a select group of invited quilters.
ReplyDeleteLove the couch. Tell your friend that she is amazing!
Although women in general have more buying power today, I don't know if I see young girls as more empowered in media. Sometimes I think that they are more vulnerable because they are a hefty target of mass media. I see young girls and their consumption habits, and I worry. That social need of belonging has transformed young girls into mass consumers.
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Do the different fabrics on the sofa have any special significance? It's awesome, by the way.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem we all - girls and boys - have lost some connection with family. Perhaps it is the evolution of technologies that let us be in contact always, everywhere or the ways new jobs and travel have us recasting what family is. Is female production a way to hold on to the past and consumption is linked to the future (i.e. buy this and you will become ...)?
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