371 – Chapter 6 – Herland

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Heather

Mother, knitter, spinner, writer, wife, weaver, host...not necessarily in that order...

8 Responses

  1. MicheleStitches says:
    June 8, 2015 at 12:44 pm

    Re–“individuation” — It seems to me that the observation that individuation is inverse proportional to the number of kids would not be referring to the individuation of the children, as Heather seemed to indicate in her introductory comments; but rather be referring to the individuation of the mother. In other words, the more children a woman has, the less time she has to pursue interests outside of her mothering duties. Just listen again to the audio of Rochelle which was played at the beginning of this episode. She makes reference to her love of sewing, but lack of time to pursue her crafting interests due to the demands of mothering. This is perfect example of what I mean. And, in the early 1900’s when women did not have all the modern conveniences we are so fortunate to enjoy (electric cltohes washers and dryers, dishwashers, microwave ovens, takeout pizza, etc.) think how much MORE time consuming the maintenance of a household must have been. Golly, a mother of multitudes was probably too darn exhausted to even think of artistic or intellectual pursuits!

  2. ChristineAS says:
    May 30, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    Heather, was the temporary audio ever replaced? I started this episode in the iOS app, from iTunes, and here on the website. They all begin with the notice about temporary audio.

    I got used to hearing your dad’s voice reading “Herland”… It was a bit odd hearing a woman read Van’s part, especially part-way into the book.

    It’s not a big deal — I’m just curious. Thanks for everything that you do!

    • Heather says:
      May 30, 2015 at 3:36 pm

      Ooh–yes I did! I’ll go see what’s up!

      • MicheleStitches says:
        June 8, 2015 at 12:33 pm

        I too, just started listening to this episode and the download on itunes has a female reading, not the usual sultry voice of your dad. (((sigh)))

    • Heather says:
      July 7, 2015 at 10:29 pm

      It took Libsyn FOR. EVER. to get the file fixed. It’s there.
      And now I know who to talk to if this happens again.

  3. Gemma says:
    February 12, 2015 at 7:26 am

    Rant (and a rambling one) coming up…

    Pockets. It’s a bugbear of mine that women’s clothing so often lacks functional pockets (that, and the fact that women’s clothing just doesn’t seem to be as robust or easy to care for as men’s). Instead, we have The Handbag. Instead of clothing that we can put our belongings in, we have an Accessory/ball and chain. I think I read somewhere that a large proportion of luxury brands’ income stems from bags and fragrance, and it does seem that handbags are the aspect of high-end fashion that we’re supposed to lust after (ever heard the phrase, “a girl can never have too many bags”?).

    I feel a bit odd ranting on about this, because my handbag goes everywhere with me (and I’m tough on bags because I put large amounts of stuff in them). But I do wonder what it might be like to wander around with both hands free and not risking my spine (even though the handbag does reduce the chance of dropping your phone in the toilet).

    There is a mention of pockets in Snuff, the (fairly) recent Terry Pratchett novel (an apron with a pocket is considered a step forward becasue it implied that the wearer might have property to put in it).

  4. Juliana says:
    January 13, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    What about girls and pockets? Heather brought up pockets with a reference to Peter Pan. We commonly associate pockets with boys such as Tom Sawyer. Pockets encourage young scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs to collect specimens for study, parts for fiddling with or treasures for barter. I have no doubt that grown women who use pockets for work would see to it that girls have pockets for play as soon as possible!

    For further reading, I recently came across this book at the library, “From Rags to Riches–A History of Girls’ Clothing in America” by Leslie Sills, 2005.
    http://www.amazon.com/dp/0823417085/?tag=craf08-20

    It grabbed my attention because I had just listened to this TED talk–The decline of play–Peter Gray at TEDxNavesink.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-GEzM7iTk

    Through the centuries, the marked difference in clothing for boys and girls has denoted different expectations for and enforced different arenas of play. Thus, even while rights and social equality for grown women progressed, the trickle down to girls was hindered in part by clothing and license to play. In direct reference to this chapter, Dr. Gray mentions peer cooperation as one of the necessary skills learned in early play. It stands to reason that a culture that raises girls only to be married off ends up with a host of fiercely competitive debutantes of only skin-deep social graces.

  5. Susan says:
    January 12, 2015 at 10:49 am

    It’s always interesting when different parts of your life seem to sync up.
    I’ve been working through some old episodes of a great podcast that I discovered in the last couple months. It’s called The History Chicks and they focus each episode on a woman in history.
    Earlier this week, I listened to their episode on Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls convention. If I hadn’t had that recent knowledge, I would have been lost when Heather brought up the convention and the suffrage/abolitionist link.
    If anyone has an interest in history, or feel like their history classes were too light on feminine figures, check out The History Chicks podcast. The hosts are lovely, well-researched, and fun to listen to.