Slutsky and Bitchin' | Domestic work in 'Anne with an E' as feminine spaces with revolutionary potential
Slutsky: Have you been following the #SaveAnnewithanE protests? I was so moved when I saw fans had created and funded an electronic billboard that is now up in the Crossroads of the World in Times Square which will be up till tonight. Fans in Canada are also putting up billboards in Toronto to get a season 4 renewal.
Bitchin': Yup, it had me rewatching all three seasons once again because it is so rare to have a show that explores girlhood and a coming-of-age story that speaks to the concerns of young girls and women in a way that no show in the recent past has done. While rewatching it, I had an epiphany, to use a big word like the kind Anne loves.
Slutsky: About coming-of-age stories of girls?
Bitchin': Well, coming-of-age at a certain time period of the 1800s and seeing the girls doing "adult" chores. There is a whole plethora of domestic work depicted from needlepoint embroidery, to quilting, to making clothes to knowing home remedies for ailments, to making jams and preserves.
Slutsky: There isn't much to recommend when you are talking about women's unpaid domestic labor.
Bitchin': Yes, there is the economic part of it, of course. Domestic work was never acknowledged, or seen as important and instead, taken for granted and devalued. And that argument still stands. But it is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Why not give status to domestic work, which when you look at it, are essential life skills.
Slutsky: For both women and men.
Bitchin': Exactly. Domestic arts doesn't have to be gendered but rather seen as a rich knowledge base of creating things, of making useful things with immeasurable value and worth. Can you put a price on a quilt that weaves the histories of the women of a family together in a rich tapestry where every piece of cloth used has memories attached, for instance? Or heirlooms in a trousseau that one generation of women in the family gifted to the next -- stretching from mother to daughter -- adding things to it and replacing others. It was a form of record-keeping, that though intertwined with the institution of marriage, had its own intrinsic value as keepsakes passed from women to women.
Slutsky: That's an interesting point. In that period in history in the late 1800s, in which 'Anne with an E' is set, domestic arts were also spaces of feminine imagination, creativity and, yes, also of protest.
Bitchin': Yes, while the show does touch upon what domesticity takes away from women -- there is a beautiful story arc on Marilla having to bring up Mathew and take up the household chores of cooking and cleaning when her mother slips into depression. But at the same time, you have Anne herself becoming the "hero" using these very "domestic arts", like when she saves Minnie May's life when she gets croup. Or how the girls decorate their clubhouse in the woods -- that space typifies domestic femininity set free in the wild to shape its own weird, wondrous aesthetic. It is precisely this beauty that is distinctly not male, that attracts the violence that Billy unleashes on it because he knows it is a beauty that does not belong to him. That is why Cole asks Billy to introspect about why he wants to destroy something that doesn't belong to him.
Bitchin': I get what you are saying. It is like a whole women's sphere of activity that was "crafted" to reflect their rhythms and narratives. Sewing or knitting or church circles, like the ones shown on 'Anne with an E', were places where women gathered to share news, gossip, tips and solve problems, including ones like domestic violence or a household needing help during hard times. They were, in essence, women's support groups.
Slutsky: It isn't a coincidence that feminist art has incorporated and recontextualized domestic work. Miriam Schapiro is known for her fabric collages and recontextualizing items from the domestic sphere, which she calls “femmages.” Faith Ringgold's story quilts like 'Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima' had a connection to the quilts her slave great-great-grandmothers had made.
Bitchin': There is also the whole "craftivism" movement, which is a healing, gentle (but no less strong) approach to creating change and dialogue -- an alternative to more aggressive activism like marches, sloganeering or petitioning. It is also, like the 1800s, a way to connect with communities of women.
Slutsky: You've sold it. Where are my knitting needles?
‘Slutsky & Bitchin’ is a weekly Saturday column examining the highs and lows of pop culture and media from a feminist POV.
