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?

Bluntness - that's an interesting point. Should art depict life as it is or as it should be? I'm a woman and I do child care and laundry so I felt I could relate to the image. Is it saying that's all I should do? Should the artist only depict men doing childcare to redress the balance?

Just looks like white people using images of black people to look cool.

Like the Kardashians superimposing their face over rap artists face on t-shirts. (Biggie, 2pac)

Really? So why is the image not of a naked man? To pretend that laundry and child rearing isn't seen as women's work by many in society is what's bollocks.

Exactly. Can't believe that needs explaining.

Yeah, Because that's what makes women happy. Having a baby strapped to their backs and grabbing a moment to read whilst doing the laundry. Lucky her getting a couple of minutes respite from all that drudgery, eh?

For many of us that is and has been our reality. Some even enjoy it. Art does not have to be right-on, politically correct and aspirational.

I don't think it's about the series as such that the artist does. It's about this print in isolation and what it says. If the op was displaying a series of prints of different genders and ethnicities it would be different.

She's not. She wishes to display, en route to her laundry room, the picture of a naked woman with a baby strapped to her back, grabbing a moment to read, whilst doing the laundry.

It's the displaying the print in isolation that is the issue. And what it says. This is woman's work. Particularly if you're naked with baby strapped to your back. But it's not meant to be the op, because she has a different skin colour.

I think the husbands use of the term racist isn't quite accurate, but he is articulating his concern with the image. Rightly so in my opinion. All art conveys a message and this message is one many of us don't like.

Well I suppose the laundry room corridor is the right place to put a woman who's doing a maid's job.....

Really? So why is the image not of a naked man? To pretend that laundry and child rearing isn't seen as women's work by many in society is what's bollocks

What a pile of shit. You can look at any picture and say "why isn't of something else" well its a picture of that. Pretending women don't do laundry and child rearing is idiotic. Society sees it that way as that is how it actually is, and vice versa.

The inanity and racism here is mind boggling.

I suppose the laundry room corridor is the right place to put a woman who's doing a maid's job....

The maids job? Fuck off.

Not sure I would even call this art, tbh.

Not racist at all. What intrigues me is what her washing machine is plumbed/plugged into!

and anyone else should care what you call art because....?

Bluntness - but if women do do housework and look after babies, and find the image relatable, is it still a problem to display it?

They don’t have to care about what I think. I don’t have to care about what they think. We can all post what we think, it’s the beauty of a message board.

So, yes, I think it’s racist and I would not consider this particular print to be art.

WOMEN MUST NEVER BE SHOWN IN ART DOING ANY FORM OF HOUSEHOLD TASKS OR CHILDCARE AS THIS IS UNFEMINIST

ok

Exactly! "Women, those of you that do laundry and look after babies (ie billions of you) are not to be represented in Art, ever! Fuck off back to your kitchens and look at pictures of Men instead"

Fuck that shit.

I'm just fed up of images of naked women, to be honest.

Nudity in art is hardly new.

It's funny how everyone sees it differently.

I see her as a busy / tired mum who does skin to skin and breastfeeds. All of her clothes have been puked on / covered in bm (I had major over supply ). She's only just finding time to put a wash load on and is reading a book while her baby sleeps happily.

I would suggest that the people that see her as poor or plonked into the western world have a look at their thought process

I can't see anything wrong with it. I probably wouldn't buy it but I don't see it as racist at all.

Especially the it's not porn; it's art, honest, type. yeah right

Haha it's porn now?

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.

Of course but that’s not how semiotics works.

It's the displaying the print in isolation that is the issue. And what it says. This is woman's work. Particularly if you're naked with baby strapped to your back. But it's not meant to be the op, because she has a different skin colour.

I think the husbands use of the term racist isn't quite accurate, but he is articulating his concern with the image. Rightly so in my opinion. All art conveys a message and this message is one many of us don't like.

Yes, perfectly put.

In all my parenting days I have never been so vomited on I had to take all my clothes including my pants off, but miraculously the sling remained unscathed. I think thhere is a lot of post hoc rationalisation going on here......

@BertrandRussell surely it's meant to be a bit jokey?