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

[NC4T]

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?

Fenella yes I don’t disagree that a persons particular interpretation of an artwork will definitely come from within, they take their viewpoints and prejudices with them to the work. However one step beyond that is viewing work within a cultural context too, especially if you’re displaying something in your home. I wouldn’t feel comfortable having a piece that is potentially challenging, whilst some people love to fill their homes with controversial art.

I don't like this image.

Because to me it's a depiction of the misogynist view that a woman's place is 'barefoot, prganant and in the kitchen'

OK - not word for word, because it's 'barefoot, baby-wearing, and in the hime'

But still too close to a slogan for subjugation.

For me, I don`t like it. It's probably my age, but it does remind me of those photos that were supposed to be educational but were just gratuitous nudity. I would not have it and I do have other nudes on the walls.

I am mixed race - I see it as a visual joke, a cartoon commentary on modern times.

The stereotype of the black woman naked with a child doing her laundry - but not on the riverbank, in a washing machine - leaving her hands free to read.

It's too commercial and carytoony for my tastes.

Reminds me a bit of that Beryl Cook stuff.

Also reminds me of a very negative cliched depiction of the black washerwoman in the US media in the 40s and 50s.

I'm not sure is racist but I don't like it.
But that's the nature of art, not everyone is gonna love it and people will interpret it differently.
If you like it keep it.

If you saw a black woman first (or rather an African woman) before taking in everything else, then you will have a problem with this picture. If you actually know any black women, ask them what they think. The truth is that many of those of you who wear your anti-racist credentials as a badge of honour, unwittingly tell us how you really see us. Different, not like you. That's your starting point. And then we must prove to you that we really are like you, or at least, more similar than different.

Oh and by the way, carrying a baby like that isn't restricted to African women living in Africa. Why would it be? If you went into the homes of African people you would know this! There are more practical and varied alternatives for when you are out and about, that is all.

"Funny that when white women carry babies on their backs with a sling or whatever it doesn't mean poverty. grin"

I've never seen that. They usually carry on their front. They are sometimes considered a bit 'hippy' I think. It's nowhere near as commonplace as seeing mothers and older children carry babies on their backs in Africa.

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.

So, as I say, it counts for nothing that white women don't think there's anything wrong with it.

This picture says to me, poor as in impoverished black woman, owning too few clothes to rotate, so she has to go naked while her meagre quantity of clothes are being washed in the nice modern white machine. And oh how quaint and charming and natural her nudity is, in a National Geographic way as a pp said. And even better, she has a baby in a colourful sling for added Earth Goddess/Mother appeal (again as a pp described).

Seriously, how many black woman lean over the wm in the buff while their only clothes are washing in it? How many women of any colour do that?

In a word, I don't like it, and I wouldn't have it anywhere in my home.

I quite like the image. I wouldn't put it on a wall though, somehow it should be a small image, so you catch a glimpse of it rather than it being in your face. I'd stick a postcard of it on the fridge with magnets.

To me the image just screams "MOTHERHOOD!". Endless washing, no clean clothes left because everything been puked/pooed on, unable to put a clingy newborn down.........and mum grabbing a few moments of peace while the baby sleeps to read a book

Reminds me of when DD was tiny

Gwen - honestly where do you live where no one carries babies on their backs? I live in a small, very monocultural town and even here there are 'sling meets'!

I wonder if the difference in interpretation is whether you look at the picture and see black/African as the woman's defining feature, or mother?

I am a pretty hippy dippy person with lots of hippy dippy friends. And only one of said hippy dippy friends carried her babies on her back. Sling meets and sling libraries are almost invariably front carriers.

Really? I have only known people front carry with really little babies up to 4-6 months, then pretty much everyone, whether buckles or wrap users, switch to back carries.

I wish people would stop saying African Village woman. This is NOT a village woman. What gives the idea of a person from the village in this pic? . She has no markers of a village woman at all.

It doesn't make sense to me. Why wouldn't she just sit down to read a book? Why lean awkwardly on the washing machine? The pose looks almost painful, her back must be killing her. I'm white so I'm not in the same position as a black person to comment on whether it is racist but it is definitely sexist. It screams servitude and women know your place.

Really? I have only known people front carry with really little babies up to 4-6 months, then pretty much everyone, whether buckles or wrap users, switch to back carries.

I carried my (averagely sized) DD on my front until she was 18 months.

I would agree that you hardly ever see people carrying babies on their back in the UK.

She’s a mother doing chores, baby in tow, and snatches a few pages of a really good book. It’s motherhood.

By British standards, wandering your own home naked is a no-no. By continental, northern standards, nudity is absolutely normal (that I can say from experience). I have no qualms stripping naked in my own house, I’m confortable both in my skin and my apartment. It’s got nothing to do with being too poor to afford a change of clothes. I’m also one of those people who would forget about everything the minute I start reading, I can be in the moddle of whatever, I just get absorbed and forget about the rest.

The colour of her skin has got nothing to do with anything.

The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is the nakedness, but I think that is just the artist's style - all her pictures are naked.

If you have a clingy baby/difficult sleeper then you end up doing a lot of cooking, washing, reading, mumsnetting, TV watching, eating while standing up and jiggling a baby

"This is NOT a village woman"

I know it's not - that's what makes it so absurd.

bobbly - that really would have destroyed my back! I don't think I've ever seen a toddler in a front carry.
I'm surprised it is unusual in some areas - I'm even on holiday now and have seen a couple of other babies/toddlers being back carried (by white European parents).

It's horrible

I really don't like it, mostly for reasons others have said. I think if I saw it in someone's house I wouldn't necessarily think 'racist'.

why wouldn't she just sit down to read a book? Why lean awkwardly on the washing machine? The pose looks almost painful, her back must be killing her

Evidently you've never had a Velcro baby. DD slept happily as long as I was standing up and moving about a bit, the standing-up-and-leaning-on-something pose looks very familiar to me.

I wonder if the difference in interpretation is whether you look at the picture and see black/African as the woman's defining feature, or mother?

^this, I think.

But the baby in the picture is not a toddler.