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Bought a print I love, DH is worried it's racist

999 replies

NC4T · 31/05/2018 21:12

Saw it on IG and loved it. Purchased it for the laundry room corridor, but it's arrived and DH is a little worried it might be racist. I can't see how. To me, it's a mum finding a few minutes of calm in the chaos and I love her babies little sleeping face.

We are white Jewish, for cultural context.

What do you think?

OP posts:
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17
InionEile · 01/06/2018 06:17

For me, it's too redolent of offensive National Geographic clichés perpetuating ideas that women in sub-Saharan Africa live backward, desperate lives. So I wouldn't put it up in my house. You might not feel that way, however, so it's hard to say whether or not it's 'racist'.

Do you have any black friends? Think about what they would say / think if they came to your house. If you would feel cringey about it around them, then it's probably offensive and not worth putting up on your walls.

whatislionshare · 01/06/2018 06:22

Maybe the vibration of the washing machine is helping the baby to sleep ....

DustyMaiden · 01/06/2018 06:34

Racism is in the eye of the beholder. If she were white it would not be racist. For equality her colour signifies nothing.

BertrandRussell · 01/06/2018 06:39

It only makes sense in the context of the entire collection. On it’s own, it’s potentially problematic. Both the nakedness and the blackness.

VileyRose · 01/06/2018 06:44

Love it

Pengggwn · 01/06/2018 06:48

I find it very condescending.

Bellaposy · 01/06/2018 06:52

Having looked at the artist's website, I don't think it is rascist and seems to be in a series BUT that's with context. Without that context it's easy to assume that the artist is making a statement on race/the clash between cultures/women's role in the home etc. It would make me uncomfortable having it in my home but more for the misogyny (I.e. it wouldn't be a naked man leaning over a washing machine would it?). I have a toddler so certainly haven't forgotten the newborn days but I never stood naked over a washing machine (and I baby wore all the time).

Believeitornot · 01/06/2018 06:58

it counts for precisely nothing that a bunch of white women don't think there's anything wrong with it

😆 I’m mixed race, father is Nigerian. It doesn’t bother me as I said up thread.

MollyDaydream · 01/06/2018 07:03

At first look I just took it as - mum with small baby on her back standing near the washing machine for the white noise?

But maybe that is just because I relate both to the sling and the baby who needs white noise.

I think the nakedness is the bit that makes it 'problematic'. A clothed black mother wouldn't make people think poverty/African villagers/fetishization.

If naked mothers is the artist's thing, then I would buy 1 or 2 more prints so it could be seen as part of a series.

TroysMammy · 01/06/2018 07:04

She'll be kicking herself when she emptied the machine and finds one odd sock and realises it's partner didn't get washed.

Believeitornot · 01/06/2018 07:10

If naked mothers is the artist's thing, then I would buy 1 or 2 more prints so it could be seen as part of a series

^this

All the artist’s pictures are of naked women, black and white.

The fact that people leapt to a “poor African village woman” is in itself interesting. That says a lot about people’s internal unconscious biases.

HidingFromDD · 01/06/2018 07:10

I wonder if it's an age thing? I find I'm slightly uncomfortable about that picture in a way I'm not at all about the brushing the teeth one. But I was exposed to a lot of very blatantly racist images and advertising in my youth (60s and 70s) and there's something about the juxtaposition of the naked female, the sling carried baby and the washing basket that's far too reminiscent of the types of imagery common in those days.

Pengggwn · 01/06/2018 07:13

I have also been trying to put my finger on why I don't like the image. It's gratuitous, isn't it? It's taking advantage of the 'traditional' nakedness of the African in order to make a cheap point.

MollyDaydream · 01/06/2018 07:14

I think we are all putting much more thought into this picture than the artist did Grin

She just likes yoga, baby wearing and a bit of Scandinavian nudity, and has painted women of all different shapes, sizes and skin tones...

thatmustbenigelwiththebrie · 01/06/2018 07:16

I didn't think you were "allowed" to have pictures of black people unless you were black- cultural appropriation or whatever.

I think it's a really weird picture to be honest. Whatever the woman looks like, why would you want a photo of a washing machine?

BertrandRussell · 01/06/2018 07:22

The picture only makes sense if you look at all the other pictures on the website. Which means it’s a crap picture.

Also I honestly think we have had enough depictions of naked women to be getting on with.

Pengggwn · 01/06/2018 07:24

Also I honestly think we have had enough depictions of naked women to be getting on with

Agreed. I'm going to put some pictures of naked African men in my bathroom. Totally normal!

GinIsIn · 01/06/2018 07:29

@AjasLipstick the beauty of art is it’s subjective. I draw that from the picture because I’ve been that mother and that’s been my situation. I have an MA in literature but when you have a newborn, you don’t exactly feel like War and Peace. My inferring that from the picture is fine. The OP’s LA yoga mum is fine. Imposing a framework of profiling by race or adding overtones of colonialism, not so much.

8FencingWire · 01/06/2018 07:31

I love it. It’s gentle and has so many layers that resonate with me. It’s a lovely print, OP :)

Grandmaswagsbag · 01/06/2018 07:36

Imposing a framework of profiling by race or adding overtones of colonialism, not so much.

Almost impossible to view western art without those overtones though. You can’t erase hundreds of years of of history when it suits. That’s why art is so interesting, the image created will need to stand alone an be judged by the viewer as well as being judged within the canon of art history.

BertrandRussell · 01/06/2018 07:37

“The OP’s LA yoga mum is fine. Imposing a framework of profiling by race or adding overtones of colonialism, not so much.”

It is impossible to look at Western art without doing that.

GinIsIn · 01/06/2018 07:38

@Grandmaswagsbag I suppose what I am trying to say is that it’s about readership. My first reading of the painting is motherhood and domesticity - race is incidental. This is because it chimes with my current life. Many pps seem to be reading race as the primary purpose of the picture, and conjecturing stereotypes.

BertrandRussell · 01/06/2018 07:39

“the image created will need to stand alone an be judged by the viewer as well as being judged within the canon of art history.”

And this image can’t even stand alone without being judged within the canon of the artist’s website........

SouthWestmom · 01/06/2018 07:43

I don't like it, it's weird. A bit nothing - why are there no words in the book? Why is a patch of hair missing? The light is odd.

I don't think it's well drawn or executed and I don't like the image. It's in between a cartoon on motherhood (but not funny) and a meme.

Im a bit Hmm at it on its own, wouldn't own it myself.

Sittinonthefloor · 01/06/2018 07:45

I don't like it. It's a bit cartoony and just rather silly I only. Much prefer a deeply unfashionable Victorian watercolour landscape. I really don't want to see more washing machines than I need. I think the artist is trying to be clever, or make some sort of point. But no idea what the point is. All it needs is a twee caption... "a mother's work is never done" and it would be totally grim.